Canes re-acquire Babchuk, trade away Cole

On the first day of free agency, Carolina has done two things so far that are not at all surprising.
First, they reacquired defenseman Anton "Yentl" Babchuk. He's been signed to a one year deal for one million dollars.

Second, they traded winger Erik Cole to the Edmonton Oilers for the rights to RFA defenseman Yoni Pitkanen. Carolina desperately needed to make this kind of trade, and it's been rumored to have been in the works since at least December.

Erik Cole will be missed around here. This is one of the first times that a key player has been traded from the Hurricanes. Other teams know how to deal with these things, but Hurricanes fans, and especially the Johnny-come-lately ones, will have a very hard time dealing with it.

What Carolina will miss will be Cole's speed and creativity. His questionable health and his reputation as a diver will be going with him as well. He will do well for Edmonton, and the fans will enjoy having him. He has one more year on his contract, and will make $4M.

Carolina will be getting a puck-moving young defenseman that they need. He's just 24 years old, and is a pretty big guy at 6'3" 210lbs. He had a bit of a letdown last season, totaling 26 (8/18) points in 63 games. Prior to that, he was a consistent 40-point producer on the Flyers back end.

Pitkanen made $2.4M last season, and is technically a RFA. Other teams are free to make offers on him. Based on that salary, the Hurricanes would be entitled to a second round draft pick if some other team steals him away. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't have made this trade unless they were 100% positive that they could get him signed right away.

I'm sad to see Cole go, but I'm excited to have a younger, bigger, puck-moving guy joining the blue line. I'm not crazy about Babchuk (and I think that's an overpayment), but at the very least, Carolina has finally shored up the defense. Assuming Pitkanen gets signed for less than $3M, they'll have saved money.

Of course this leaves a hole in the forward lines. A big hole. Now they have just nine forwards under contract. I assume that Chad LaRose will re-sign at some point. I also assume that Brandon Sutter will make the big team. Will Carolina re-sign Trevor Letowski, or will they look elsewhere?

My guess is that Carolina isn't going to take part in the free agent frenzy. If they do, it'll be for some third line winger.

More details on Pitkanen later.

Babchuk pitches fit; Samsonov clears waivers

Two pieces of follow-up news today. Both concerning soon-to-be unemployed NHL players.

On Wednesday, after the Canes assigned Anton Babchuk to Albany, he refused to go. As I pointed out, he's the only defenseman with a two-way contract, making him the only blueliner who can be moved. The Canes playoff position is still too unclear to make any trades of large proportion, and Jim Rutherford is unwilling to make any shotgun trades. The ONLY other option was to demote winger Andrew Ladd. That isn't going to happen, so the Canes did the only thing they could.

According to an article in the N&O, Babchuk refused to go, saying he needed to "think about it". This didn't sit well with Rutherford, who quipped:

"In his words, he wants to think about it. In our words, Albany has a game in Norfolk tonight and he should be there playing. ... We want him playing, not sitting at home thinking."

Ouch. This is diplomatic speak for "Who the eff does he think he is?!?!"

As their riposte, the Canes have suspended Babchuk indefinitely. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him on the waiver wire before the week is out. Rutherford doesn't like whiny bitches. The rest of the league will probably take note of his petulance and allow him to clear waivers. Third pairing defensemen are roughly a dime a dozen, and in fairness, he's only a third pairing guy on a good day. I have a feeling this is Do svidaniya, Anton!

In other news, Sergei Samsanov, who has been a huge bust this season (and last, for that matter) was placed on, and cleared, waivers yesterday. No team in their right mind would pick up the tab on his $3.525M salary for next season and the remainder of the same salary this season. The tiny winger has attended the Alexei Yashin School of inefficient salary/goal ratio and won't be touched with a 47 1/2 foot pole at that price. Since his trade demand was made public yesterday, he's lightened his stance a little. Now he says he wants to remain a part of the Habs big picture. Guy Carbonneau's vague show of support isn't very promising. From a TSN article:

"I never had problems with Sergei Samsonov as a man," Carbonneau added. "He's been professional. He always works hard. He never moans or comes to my office asking for ice time. His play wasn't up to par and that's why he missed some games, but he's a good person."(emphasis mine)

Something about that screams "This dude is so out of here, it isn't even funny". When a guy is being commended on his qualities as a person, it doesn't look good. It's like "No hard feelings, but this is a business, after all." Remember Kevyn Adams? Top notch guy. When he was traded, JR said:

"Kevyn has been a real role model for our franchise and somebody we all really like," Rutherford said. "That was the most difficult part of this decision. But we almost got pushed into making a decision instead of making it under normal circumstances. His role had changed a little bit."

It's almost a mirror image quote.

Babchuk will probably be back in the Ukraine by this time next week, and Samsonov might be back to Russia.

I'm just sayin'

Canes hand Flyers record-setting loss

On Tuesday night, the Hurricanes picked up their second win in a row and handed the Flyers their seventh loss in a row 2-1. The losing skid sets a new benchmark in futility for the Orange and Black. It might not end any time soon, as their next game is in Montréal on Thursday night.

Elsewhere, the Caps lost, which allowed the Canes to leapfrog them into second place in the Southeast Division. Division leader Atlanta won their game in a shootout, maintaining a six point cushion over the Canes. Yeah. It's wicked early to think about the playoffs already.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Rod Brind'Amour was back in the lineup tonight, and no worse for the wear. He logged more than 25 minutes of ice time and took 31 of the team's 61 faceoffs. He was, actually, a little below his normal 60% winning per centage, but we'll gladly take his 54%. Since he was able to play, there was no need to recall Dave Gove or Ryan Bayda.

The story of the night, though, was Carolina's defensemen. They were sharp. In particular, Anton Babchuk had a great game. Defensively, he had two blocked shots and a number of timely poke-checks. Offensively, he did a great job of joining the rush, and ended up with the game-winning goal.

Carolina was buzzing around the net all game long, and if not for a heroic effort by Antero Nittymaki, it might have been 8-1. Erik Cole had a number of good chances, and poor Ray Whitney hit the post twice, and was robbed a couple of times. He picked up an assist on Caroina's first goal, but had nothing else to show for his great effort.

At 12:41 of the first, Viva was on the right side of the net to tip in a point blast from Andrew Hutchinson. The "shot" was well off net, but Viva was in the perfect place to lift it up and over Nittymaki. Ray Whitney picked up the secondary assist. Viva now has a five game point streak, and is on pace for a 77 point (35/42) season. Last season, his 76 points landed him in 36th place in the League in scoring. Somehow, he's still a player that nobody knows.

Early in the second period, Carolina decided to make it FIVE GAMES IN A ROW with one of those delaying the game (puck in crowd) penalties. This time Mike Commodore was the culprit. Scott Cason hates this rule, and one of these days, we'll get a discussion going over at SESO about this. I don't hate the rule in principle. I hate the way it's adjudicated. I think this is where Cason has issue: I think there out to be some discretionary wiggle room for the refs. They have a lot of wiggle room with the enforcement of goaltender interference, or with the awarding of penalty shots. I wish they had the same for this. Actually, I've got a whole different proposal, but that's for another post. The thing is that the players know that the rule is there and that the refs have to enforce it. There's no point in trying those cute bank passes off the glass if you're a defenseman with marginal puckhandling skills.

The penalty ended up being no harm because the Flyers couldn't stay out of the box in the second period, and they were only able to enjoy one minute of the resultant power play before they made it four-on-four hockey. During this segment, Anton Babchuk showed flashes of offensive brilliance in beating Nittymaki. From the right point, Babs faked a slap shot, forced Nittymaki to come way out, and beat him badly high on the glove side. Erik Cole got the only assist.

At 14:05 of the third, Simon Gagne ended Cam Ward's shuotout bid by re-directing a left circle blast from Randy Jones. Joni Pitkanen got the second assist.

Philly was unable to knot it up, nor was Carolina able to pot an empty net goal after Nittymaki was lifted.

The "official" three stars went to Anton Babchuk (third), Antero Nittymaki (second) and Viva(first). I don't quite see it that way. The RBH three stars:
Third Star Ray Whitney, CAR. 1 assist
Second Star Antero Nittymaki, PHI. 40 saves
First Star Anton Babchuk, CAR. game winning goal

Carolina is off until Friday, when the Islanders come to town.

Canes defeat Blueshirts, take 6 of 8 points on homestand.

On Wednesday night, the Hurricanes closed out their four game home stand with a 2-1 win over the Rangers. The boys took six of a possible eight standings points during the home stand and have closed Atlanta's lead in the Southeast to four points. After getting off to a very rocky start, and taking some time to find itself, the team was told by coach Laviolette that they needed to win all four games. Unfortunately, the Sabres had other plans on Monday night. "Three out of four," said Laviolette, is "okay".

There was a lot of talk about how the Canes needed to come out with at least six points, and that certain players were already on the proverbial trading block, and that certain players who wear an "A" on their chest would have a chance to keep their job. All of this talk, of course, was coming from message boards, bloggers, and Bucky Gleason, who is the Buffalo News' answer to Ned the Head.

In an article in the News on Tuesday, Gleason pointed to one game of insignificant ice time for Kevyn Adams and suggested that it was a trend spelling the end for him. I could go into detail about how Gleason is missing the boat on this, but I doubt that Gleason actually watched the game in question, or even referred to the shift chart, or is even aware of the fact that K-Ads is a fourth line center.

There's all sorts of crazy rumors flying around, though. I've heard so many different trade scenarios. Every one of them involves David Tanabe and either John Grahame, Kevyn Adams, or a pick. One completely insane nonsensical rumor I heard was David Tanabe and Kevyn Adams for Daniel Alfredsson. You see how crazy that is?

One really interesting rumor (really just an idea, I suppose) was David Tanabe and parts to the Flyers for Freddy Meyer. I like that idea.

All the trade talk aside, the Canes knew that they had to win on Wednesday. Although it wasn't pretty, they did it.

We thought we were being given a break from Holly Wilver when they announced that Miss North Carolina was singing the National Anthem. I actually thought that Miss NC did a pretty lousy job. She tried too hard to opera it up. I don't know what ever happened to just singing the damn song straight up without being all showy.
The guys from 850:The Blog were there, and in their liveblog of the game, they pretty much hit it on the head:

she ain’t winning the big crown unless the plans on singing while twirling flaming batons and riding a unicycle.

Due to the fact that the Rangers had played the night previous, Henny Lundqvist got the night off and we got to see our old pal "Shady 80" in the pipes. It became a sort of homecoming party, as there were five former Canes and two more former Whalers on the Rangers squad. Matt Cullen and Aaron Ward both played last season in Carolina. Kevin Weekes played between 2002 and 2004. Defenseman Marek Malik played here for almost five seasons, and defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh played a season and a half.

Craig Adams got the Canes on the board early, and it looked like we would be off to the races. He picked up a short rebound of an Anton Babchuk shot and sent it past Kevin Weekes at the 2:51 mark. Babs with the first assist and Chad "Sharpie" LaRose with the secondary.

I think this officiating crew was in a hurry to get back to the hotel to watch a Seinfeld rerun or something. They missed a bunch of calls on both sides in the first period, and they only called a total of seven penalties. Only three against the Canes. Carolina has been terribly undisciplined lately, and although I believe they were cleaner and more focused, they weren't that clean. There was a lot of clutching, grabbing, punching and tackling by BOTH teams that went unpenalized. Whereas last season the officials did a great job with being consistant, they're not so much this season. One night, they call ticky tacky stuff, and the next night, there's more clutching and grabbing than a high school prom.

Midway through the first, Cam Ward showed why he won the Conn Smythe and why he's the clear #1 goalie in Carolina. He was staring at one of the most feared things in all of hockey: Jaromir Jagr was barreling down the center of the ice on a breakaway, no Canes in sight. Cam was patient and calm, forcing Jagr to make his move first. Jagr waited too long and ended up putting it right in Wards pads. Cam was as steady as could be, where a lot of other goalies would've panicked and overcommitted.

Late in the first, a tiny little skirmish developed in the southeast corner. It wasn't that big of a deal. No punches, no penalties. The only reason I bring it up is that nine players jumped in. The one player who didn't jump in to defend his teammates: David Tanabe. It's little stuff like that, and getting in Brindy's way the other night. Then there's the big stuff. The lazy penalties, the missed assignments, the times that he screens Ward out causing goals against. I'll get to that later.

Nothing at all happened in the rest of the first. The first penalty of the game wasn't called until the 20th minute, and it was when Malik flat-out tackled Erik Cole in neutral ice.

At 3:40 of the second, the refs had no choice but to blow their whistles when Anton Babchuk shot the puck over the glass for delay of game. The next 10 minutes, nothing happened. The teams each took one obvious hooking penalty. One more blatant hook by the Canes, and we finally got some action.

At 16:02 of the second, Jaromir Jagr scored his 599th career goal on a pretty one-timer from the left face off dot. Brendan Shanahan and Martin Straka got the assists on the power play goal. On the play, David Tanabe was terrible. Jagr was all by himself at the top of the left face off circle, and Avi positioned himself at just the right spot to make it impossible for Cam Ward to see the shot.

Right on the third period face off, we saw the game's sixth penalty. It was a double-minor to Eric Staal for high sticking Matt Cullen. Inadvertent, but still careless, and a no-brainer of a call. There was only one more penalty in the game, and it was a marginal trip called on Jagr.

At 13:55 of the third, after the Canes had hit four posts earlier in the game, Rod Brind'Amour hit another post, but the puck bounced in that time. Off a draw that Brind'Amour lost down in the Rags end, Viva got control of the puck behind Weekes. Instead of attempting a wrap-around, Williams spotted Brindy alone in the high slot, and Brindy beat Weekes high on the stick side from there. That was the only assist, and the goal turned out to be the game winner.

Once again, Erik Cole was hitting everything in sight. This time, however, he did it all within the rules of the game. Sometimes it actually scares me, but there was nothing dangerous in this game.

With our continuing injuries to the blue line, and the shaky play of David Tanabe, Anton Babchuk has seen a huge jump in ice time. He's been really good, too. Much more than just a "fill-in", he's seen increased responsibilities and is doing just fine as a #3 or #4 defenseman. He's very seldomly in the wrong place, is very positionally sound, and is showing to have a ton of offensive upside. On the CrAdams goal, he made it happen by joining the rush and getting the initial shot on Weekes.

The "official" three stars went to Cam Ward (third), Chad LaRose (second) and Rod Brind'Amour (first). I didn't quite see it that way, and it was really hard to pick, but mine are more like:

Third Star Anton Babchuk, CAR. 20:10 TOI, +2, 3 blocked shots, 1 assist.
Second Star Jaromir Jagr, NYR. 24:49 TOI, 5 SOG, 1 goal, 599 career goals.
First Star Cam Ward, CAR. 23 saves, Win.