Canes to host Kings

On Tuesday night, the Hurricanes will play host to the cellar-dwelling Kings in their fourth of five games against Pacific Division teams. Carolina will complete the cycle on March 24 against the Sharks.

Please note that it is a matter of pure objective fact that Los Angeles is a last-place team. It is by no means a personal value judgement. To hear some folks tell it, we Canes fans wouldn't know how to formulate a subjective opinion anyway.

Speaking of last-place teams, the abysmal Flyers put a hurtin' on the Red Wings tonight, blasting them 6-1. Despite the fact that Philadelphia is a really horrible team this season, the Red Wings failed to end their decade-long losing streak. It has now been more than 10 years since the Red Wings have won a game in the City of Brotherly Love. Their last triumph there was January 25, 1997 when the Wings won 4-1. For the record, two of the goal scorers that night (Tomas Holmstrom and Kris Draper) are still with the wings. Rod Brind'Amour scored the lone Flyers goal that night.

Because of the new "unbalanced" NHL schedule, the last time the Kings were in the
RBC Center was November 8, 2003, and the next time will be 2008-09 at the very earliest. For the record, Carolina won that game in overtime on Eric Staal's third career goal. I was there and got a few decent pictures, including this one, showing a motley crew of former Canes. In addition to the four pictured, there were others like Jeff O'Neill, Bob Boughner, Daniil Markov. There for the Kings that night were Tim Gleason and Eric Belanger.

In a year that not much went right for me personally and very little went right for the Canes, that night was one of the good ones.

According to the Mirtle Model, which suggests that you need 95 standings points to qualify for the playoffs, the Kings aren't out. Yet. They'll need to win every single one of their remaining 24 games. That, and get a lot of help.

Carolina can't take this too lightly, though. They are barely grasping onto the eighth spot (from a points standpoint). After adjusting for teams that have games in hand, the Canes are actually on the outside looking in. They need to start winning with regularity. They need to win games like this, plus a few that they shouldn't. They'll also need to throttle up when they head down the division game-laden homestretch in late March/April.

Sadly, I won't be in attendance Tuesday night. My 63 sweater will make it's first reappearance on Thursday.