'Canes stumble in opener

Carolina came out a little sloppy Wednesday night, and ended up losing 5-2.
I think the memory in my DVR is full, so the game was not available to me when I got home. I have to go on what I've read and heard about the game.
Martin Gerber started out in net, but wasn't effective. After two frames, we were down 4-2. One of those goals came on a fluky bounce, and another (their first) came in a situation when he was hopeless. The defense had failed and Vaclav Prospal was all alone 11 feet in front. Thus began the scoring.

Gerber said he hurt his hamstring, so he was pulled for Cam Ward, who played well, allowing one goal on 11 third period shots. If Gerber indeed has a hurt hammy, we'll see Wardo in net for our home opener on Friday.

Carolina's two goals came on Tampa turnovers. Here is something we can take from this loss. We took advantage of those two turnovers. We can also be happy that we won 17 of 29 faceoffs and that we limited Martin St. Louis to one shot in 19:22 of ice time.

Mikey Commodore had three takeaways and a blocked shot. I liked the way he played in the pre-season, and the statsheet shows that he played well last night, too.

By all accounts, Eric Staal was a real force on the ice. He had an unassisted goal in the second, and he created some scoring chances that didn't bear fruit.

Our other goal (our first) was a Radim Vrbata unassisted tally following a sloppy Tampa turnover in their own zone. A lot of people are getting tired of waiting for Vrbata to break out. He won't win the Rocket Richard, but he may have career high numbers thanks to the new NHL.

There are a lot of Negative Nellies over on the 'Canes message board saying things about "the way this season is shaping up" or "the way this team looks". Good grief!! It's been ONE GAME!!!! We came out a little flat-footed, but we were, after all, playing the defending Stanley Cup champs in their building.
Now that we've got the opening night jitters out of the way, we can move on. 81 games to go.

Both Carolina goals were unassisted. No points for Hutch.