Carolina's affiliates doing well in post-season

After winning the Stanley Cup last summer, the Hurricanes failed to qualify for the playoffs this season, joining an ignominious group of teams who have gone from Champs to chumps.
Down on the farm, the Albany River Rats of the AHL made the playoffs, but were eliminated in the first round. Nothing to cheer about there.
Further down the organizational ladder, things look much better.

Tonight, Carolina's ECHL squad, the Florida Everblades square off against the Dayton Bombers in game seven of the American Conference Finals of the Kelly Cup playoffs. The winner will face the Idaho Steelheads for the ECHL Championship.

Even further down, things are looking up. The Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League are in the Finals of that League. Tonight marks the beginning of a four team round robin for the MasterCard Memorial Cup. The other three teams are the Vancouver Giants, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Lewiston MAINEiacs

I'm not sure how many of the Everblades players are even property of the Hurricanes, but netminder Craig Kowalski had a "cup of coffee" in Raleigh while Cam Ward was hurt.

The affiliation Carolina has with Plymouth is pretty loose. The team is part of the Compuware Hockey group, which is owned by Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos. Chad "Sharpie" LaRose played in Plymouth and was undrafted in the NHL. The Hurricanes, knowing the player, signed him as a free agent two summers ago. Many of the players there aren't old enough to be NHL draft eligible and may take several years to develop.

Meanwhile, in the NHL, Anaheim won game four last night to even their series with Detroit at two games apiece. Even without Chrissy Pronger.