Canes crush Caps, widen lead

On Saturday afternoon, the Hurricanes handily defeated the visiting Capitals in what had been dubbed their "biggest game of the season". The "four point swing" game, coupled with a loss by Atlanta means that Carolina has some breathing room at the top of the Southeast division.

Earlier in the day, I wrote about how Alex Ovechkin has been quiet for the last three games. He wasn't quiet today. He notched three points, all assists, bringing his season total to 81 (48/33) points. Against the Canes, he has nine (5/4) in six games.

If a time traveler had told me that #8 would have a huge game tonight, I would naturally have assumed that he meant Alex Ovechkin. Without a doubt, Ovie had a big game. However, he wasn't the #8 who really shone tonight.

Matt Cullen notched two goals and an assist for the Hurricanes to bring his season total t0 43 (11/32) in 49 games played. His heroics earned him the first star of the game.

For the first ten minutes of the first period, Carolina looked flat. Washington came out jumping, and the shot totals were 11-1 in the opening minutes. The puck stayed in Carolina's end for almost the entire time. Thankfully, the Hurricanes snapped to it and got their "A" game going.

Mike Green got the visitors on the board at 6:06 of the first after Bret Hedican made a horrible defensive play in his own end, leading to a 2-on-1. Ovechkin had the only assist.

At 13:30, Carolina scored their first of four (!) power play goals. Matt Cullen fired a shot from the high slot, beating Kolzig. During the power play sequence, one of the Caps defensemen broke his stick and also blocked a shot with his ankle. It was virtually a five-on-three. Ray Whitney and big Joe Corvo got the helpers.

Alex Semin gave the Caps their second lead of the night at 16:13 on a power play, firing one top shelf from the high slot. Ovechkin, who had been knocked off his pegs by Eric Staal, and Tomas Fleischmann assisted.

3:43 into the second period, the Hurricanes tied it again on another power play goal. Joe Corvo's shot from the left circle was blockered down by Kolzig, but the rebound was too juicy. Cullen jumped on it at the left inside hash marks for his second marker of the game. Corvo and Ray WhitneyErik Cole and Corvo got the assists.

Carolina notched yet another power play goal at 5:56 to take the lead. Briefly. Ray Whitney's shot from the top of the left circle was blocked, but the big rebound was hacked at by Staal, then Cole. Staal and Whitney got the assists, but Matt Cullen deserves a tertiary assist. Seconds before the Whitney shot, Cullen made a sprawling move to prevent a Caps clearing attempt. He kept it in the zone, rotated it over to Corvo, then the Whitney shot.

At 8:47, the Caps knotted the score again when Brooks Laich beat Cam Ward with a wrister from the high slot. Ovechkin and Green assisted on the power play goal.

Eric Staal put the Canes back in front at 16:39. He jumped on a loose puck at the bottom of the left circle and shoved it in for what turned out to be the game winner. Tim Conboy and Andrew Ladd Sergei Samsonov and Tim Conboy got the assists on the even-strength goal. That goal gives Staal 30 for the season.

Andrew Ladd cleaned up some loose change at 3:50 of the third for his ninth goal of the season. Tim Conboy's shot from above the right circle was stopped by Kolzig, but Ladd was parked by the right post to shove in the rebound from point blank range. Conboy and Samsonov got the helpers.

Finally, Joe Corvo scored a power play goal at 7:44 of the final frame. It came on the front end of a high-sticking double minor. Corvo came out of nowhere to pounce on the rebound of Eric Staal's left circle shot. It was Corvo's third point of the night and his first goal in a Hurricanes sweater. He now has 32 (7/25) points on the season. Of those, five (1/4) have come in the six games he's played with Carolina.

Originally, Ray Whitney was credited for three assists, but later the scoring was changed so that he had two. Also, Andrew Ladd lost two assists in the shuffle. He went from a three (1/2) point night and being an "also ran", to having a one goal night.

I had named Whitney as one of my stars, but the scoring changes sort of rained on that. Tim Gleason didn't have any scoring points and ended up as a -1, but he should be given some love for his outstanding play in his own end. Five blocked shots!

On any other day, I would have no problem giving the third star to Alex Ovechkin. Three assists is a very good night. However, three Hurricanes players had three points apiece, and since they won the game, they got the official and the RBH stars.

THIRD STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- GWG, 2 assists, 3 hits
SECOND STAR Joe Corvo, CAR --- 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 takeaways, 2 blocked shots
FIRST STAR Matt Cullen, CAR --- 2 goals, 1 assist, 11/12 (92%) faceoff wins

Carolina has three games left on this homestand and 10 of their remaining 17 games are in the friendly confines. They have been a very dangerous team at home, going 6-0-1 in their last seven. They will be seriously tested on Tuesday when Martin Brodeur and the Devils come to town.

Patrick Eaves was rumored to have been slated for insertion in the lineup for this game. He did not play. He didn't practice on Friday and isn't ready yet. In post-game interviews, coach Peter Laviolette denied ever having said that Eaves would be ready. There is still no word on when he'll play.

Glen Wesley was injured in the first period and didn't return. There's no word on the type or severity of the injury. Just that he didn't feel right.

In other division news, Atlanta lost to Toronto. As if it wasn't already certain enough, I'd say that the loss will push Don Waddell's hand to deal Maid Marian Hossa to a contender.

There should be some exciting moves in and out of the SE division. There's still a chance that Carolina is a buyer, especially in light of Rod Brind'Amour's injury. The biggest moves, though, will be Marian Hossa out of Atlanta and Vaclav Prospal out of Tampa. The clock is ticking.

Canes-Caps have late afternoon date

Today at a really awkward time of the weekend day, Carolina and Washington will square off at the RBC Center. Heading into the game, Carolina has a four point cushion over the Caps, but the Capitals have three games in hand.

Carolina leads the season series 3-2 and has won the last two games between the teams.

In the five games between the teams, Alexander Ovechkin has been simply en fuego. He has six (5/1) points, including two two-goal performances. The last time the teams met, he was kept off the scorecard. That has been happening a lot lately. Ovechkin hasn't tallied a point, and is a -5 in the last three games. JP over at Japers' Rink thinks that this has nothing to do with the arrival of Ovie's new girlfriend, who he met over the internet. There's a correlation between her arrival in town on February 7, and his virtual disappearance from the scoresheet. Correlation, not causation. Who knows whether she's wearing him out in the sack, or if he's daydreaming about her during the game, but he's gone ice cold. He may have snapped a scoring slump with the ladies, but the Capitals aren't paying him for that kind of scoring.

Carolina can only hope that hockey's answer to Jessica Simpson shows up at the RBC Center sporting one of these:



Carolina will be without their captain for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs. Rod Brind'Amour suffered a knee injury in the first minute of play on February 14 against the Penguins. Including that game, the Hurricanes are 3-1-1 without their Captain. In that time, Eric Staal has recorded seven (2/5) points. We'd really like it if Staal stepped up the same way Evgeni Malkin did when Crosby went down, but we Canes fans are pretty happy with what he's done.

This is a huge game for both teams. If Carolina can win this game outright, they can widen their lead over the Caps to six points, which takes the games in hand out of play.

Olaf Kolzig is calling this "the biggest game of the year." Mike from DC One-Timer is calling it "the most important game the Caps have played in the last 2 1/2 years." I'm guessing the Caps will have their game faces on. Will Carolina have theirs? One of the problems Carolina has had this season is consistency. They'll play an amazing game, a full 60 minutes of hockey one night, then come out flat the next game.

Eric Staal knows that this is his team now. He does all that "this is a team sport; it's not about one guy" stuff with the press, but he knows, and we all do, that it's on him now. He's capable of making it happen, and the rest of the guys are capable of stepping up their game in the face of adversity. Now is the time.

Carolina is 5-0-1 in their last six home games. Washington is 3-2-1 in their last six road games. The Caps will be playing on the front end of a back-to-back, while Carolina will be off until Tuesday.

We'd like to welcome DC One-Timer to the fray. As always, check out the excellent coverage around the Caps blogosphere from Off Wing Opinion, Japers' Rink, A View From The Cheap Seats, and from the owner himself, Ted's Take.

Canes reclaim first place with road win in DC

On Friday night, the Hurricanes climbed back into first place with a 2-1 victory over the Capitals. With 25 games to play, Carolina has a narrow one point lead in the Southeast division. The good news for the Hurricanes is that 15 of those games are at home and they have a lot of space between games. In the first half of the season, Carolina played most of their games on the road, and they had a bunch of "three games in four days" scenarios.

The game was deemed (by me, anyway) as a "must-win". A loss would have put Carolina three points back of the Caps and in fourth place in the SE.

Coming out of the all-star break, Coach Peter Laviolette told the boys to play as if the next seven games were a playoff series. Five games into this "series", the Canes are 3-2 with road games tonight at New Jersey and Tuesday at Boston. After that, they will have eight out of nine at home.

In the first period of action on Friday, there was a lot of intensity. Two fights, lots of hitting, and some scoring for the good guys.

Erik Cole scored an eye-popping goal to remind us who that #26 guy is. At 3:56, he finished a play that can only be compared to that shootout goal that Peter Forsberg scored in the 1994 Olympics. He was sprung with a pass off the right wing wall, turned on the jets, avoided some backchecking, dragged the puck from his backhand to the forehand. Brent Johnson, who got the mystery start in place of Olli the Goalie, bit on that move, sliding all the way to his right. Cole pulled it back to his backhand and one-handed it in the empty net. I've seen Rick Nash do that in a shootout. We saw Jussi Jokinen do it twice in shootouts. I've never seen a player make that shot in live action. The goal made the #1 play of the night on NHL Network. Enjoy the highlight:



Officially, it was Cole from Cory Stillman and Frantisek Kaberle at 3:56. Milan Jurcina was the defenseman Cole blew past, and he made a last-ditch effort to poke the puck away, but he lost his stick in the process. Although no referee was indicating penalty, if Cole hadn't scored, he might have been awarded a penalty shot. As he finished the play, Jurcina's stick slid across the ice. Whether it was thrown or just got loose, I don't know, but it doesn't matter anyway.

Cole was more than a goal scorer in the first period. He laid the wood to Alex Ovechkin a couple of times. At the end of it all, he had four hits.

At 14:47 of the first, Carolina's 2004 first round pick Andrew Ladd potted his sixth goal of the year to make it 2-1. Sergei Samsonov led the way with the Canes on a 3-on-2 break. Rod Brind'Amour was with him on the right wing and Ladd was coming down the middle. From the right circle, Samsonov just put a hard shot on net. The juicy rebound went right to Ladd in the low slot where he basically just put his stick on the ice to get the goal. This would prove to be the game winner.

The second period was pretty much a wash after Carolina dominated the flow of the first period.

Cam Ward lost his shutout bid at 9:44 when Alex Semin finished a hard-working play to cut the lead in half. The Caps were dictating the flow of the third, and they had some great sustained pressure deep in the Carolina zone. After working hard behind the net, Semin went out to the right circle. There was a ton of traffic in front. Semin shot, then followed his own shot with a stuff in from near the right post. The goal was unassisted.

There were some nervous moments coming down the stretch, but Carolina held on for the regulation win.

For only the eleventh time all season, Alex Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet completely.

The "official" three stars went to Cole (third), Semin (second) and Cam Ward (first).
I have it differently. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Andrew Ladd, CAR -- GWG
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR -- win, 33 saves
FIRST STAR Erik Cole, CAR -- goal, 4 hits, 2 blocked shots

Carolina will be in the Devils' new building tonight, playing the fourth of five straight road games.

Canes outlast Caps; Sabres on deck

On Friday night, the Hurricanes defeated the visiting Capitals 4-3, gained two valuable standings points and expanded their SE division lead to six points. Tonight, the Hurricanes will be in the HSBC Arena to play the Sabres.

I had a ticket to Friday's game, but I had a flat tire to deal with, and I decided to skip it. I'll exchange that unused ticket for another game later.

Alex Ovechkin got the visitors on the board at 2:35 of the first. Scott Walker went to the box for hooking, where he was supposed to be by himself for two minutes, feeling shame. It didn't take that long. The Caps used a set play to score just two seconds into the power play. Michael Nylander won the faceoff cleanly to Ovechkin, who was parked in the high slot. He rifled it in from there for his 18th goal of the season. Nylander had the only assist, and Walker was free to go.

At 9:50, Cory Stillman tied the score with his 13th goal of the season. Eric Staal attempted a right-to-left wrap-around, then was unable to stuff in the juicy rebound from the left side. The next juicy rebound went out to Cory Stillman, just off the right post. Staal and Walker had the helpers.

The rest of the first period featured a disallowed goal by Ovechkin and an unsuccessful penalty shot by Chad "Sharpie" LaRose.

Matt Cullen, who I called the Hurricanes "hot seat" player, put the Canes in the lead at 5:46 of the second. On a play where Scott Walker worked really hard, he has nothing to show for helping create this goal. He was aggressive with forechecking, which helped give Whitney and Cully time and space right at the right post. After a good hard check by Walker, taking Brian Pothier out of the play, Ray Whitney was allowed to work the puck behind the net. Cullen was streaking in undetected towards the right post. From right on the goal line, he fired one off Kolzig's stick. It took a funny hop, and eventually barely crossed the line. It was Cullen's sixth goal to go with 19 assists. It was just his second even strength goal. Officially, Cullen from Whitney and Glen Wesley at 5:46 of the second.

At 14:01 of the second, Rod Brind'Amour potted a strange goal. Tim Gleason sent a hard, high shot from the blue line, which was slightly tipped by Brindy in the slot area. After reviewing the play to see if it was hit with a high stick, the goal was allowed to stand and Carolina had a 3-1 lead. Gleason and Andrew "Trade Bait" Ladd got the assists.

No more scoring in the second, but this game had its THIRD call to Toronto at the expiration of the period. As the period ended, the Caps were feverishly trying to score on the power play. Mike Green thought he had one at the buzzer, but the red light never came on. The on-ice officials weren't sure. The red light never came on because the green light did. Once that green light, which is automatically triggered by the clock hitting all zeros comes on, the red light gets locked out. The red light, though, is manually triggered. There's another important distinction, which is that the puck has to cross the line before the clock hits zeros for it to count. Unlike basketball, where the ball can be in the air when the buzzer sounds and the light goes on, the puck has to be across the line. Since there is obviously a slight delay with the human-operated red (goal) light, they went to review. The official video review has a burn-in of the clock on screen, and they were able to see that the clock had indeed hit all zeros before the puck crossed the line. It was a good break for the Canes.

AO got his second goal of the game just 32 seconds into the third frame, while the Caps were enjoying a power play on a fresh sheet of ice. There was a failed clearing attempt by the Canes followed by a magnificent individual effort by the flamboyant Russian. He weaved his way through traffic and fired a shot from the inside hash marks on the left circle. There was nothing Cam Ward could do. Alexander Semin got the only assist. Curiously, the Caps teevee announcer proclaimed that "hats are coming down on the ice for Ovechkin". No hats were coming down because it was just his second (not third) goal of the night. The Caps usually have a pretty decent contingency in the RBC Center, but they usually sit at the top of section 111. Even if it had been AO's third goal, there's no way you can get your hat on the ice from the top of 111, which is behind the north goal (visitors shoot twice). You have distance and the netting to deal with. As much grief as he gave the other guy for referring to the green light as "the white light", I'm surprised the other guy didn't call him out for not knowing how to count to three, or for making up the "hats are hitting the ice".

Anyway, after the goal, Ovechkin put on a rather showy display, which earned him a lot of derision from the RBC faithful. Despite being phenomenal players, neither Ovechkin nor Ilya Kovalchuk have any fans here. They're a little too aggressive with their post-goal celebrations.

Ovechkin's second made the score 3-2 in favor of the good guys. This was the score that I predicted at work earlier that morning.

Brind'Amour added another goal at 3:47 of the third. It would turn out to be the game-winner. It was another fluky goal, but they all look like beautiful one-timers in the box score. Brindy was behind the net and noticed that Kolzig was high in the crease and away from the right post. He was doing this all night, and it was this positioning that helped Cullen score his goal earlier. Brindy fired one hard at Kolzig's gear, and it caromed in off his blocker. Green and AO were there in front of the net, but neither could do anything to bail out their goaltender. Brindy's 13th goal of the season was unassisted.

Michael Nylander, who I called the Caps "hot seat" player, made things really interesting at 15:53. He was all alone in the low slot, and Viktor Kozlov found him there. LaRose tried to bail out the invisible defensemen there, but he couldn't make it over in time and Nylander had no trouble putting it in. Ovechkin got the secondary assist.

The Caps pulled Kolzig early, and they had six attackers on for about 1:45. They were helped out when Justin Viva Williams cleared the puck over the defensive zone glass for a penalty. Cam Ward had to be sharp, and he was down the stretch.

The "official" three stars went to Ovechkin (third), Cullen (second) and Brind'Amour (first). I'm close to that, but a little different. It doesn't show in the stat sheet, but Scott Walker deserves some props. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Scott Walker, CAR --- 1 assist, +2, 3 hits
SECOND STAR Alexander Ovechkin, WAS --- 2 goals, 1 assist.
FIRST STAR Rod Brind'Amour, CAR --- 2 goals, GWG

Carolina was outshot 34-19, and they were unable to convert their power plays or kill penalties. They won the game, which is great and all, but they'll have to start getting the special teams in order, and they'll have to start getting more quality shots on net.

With his goal, Cory Stillman extended a scoring streak to six games.

Carolina will be in Buffalo tonight. The Sabres were idle last night and haven't played since a 4-3 loss to the Blues. Puck drop is at 7.

Caps 2 - Canes 0

On Saturday night, the Hurricanes failed to show even 1/5 the intensity they had on Friday night. Coupled with some solid play by the home team Capitals, it resulted in a 2-0 loss.
This is just "one of those games". Crackers did everything he could, but the fellas in front of him weren't helping out. In fact, in the first period, the Hurricanes only managed to register two shots on goal.
Alexander Ovechkin got the Caps on the board at 14:24 of the first with a wrister from the slot. Viktor Kozlov and John Erskine assisted. As Kozlov came in on the right wing, it was pretty clear what was going to happen next, and AO made no mistake beating Grahame high on the blocker side. Sadly, it would turn out to be the game winner.

At 5:00 of the second, Milan Jurcina scored a power play goal which was assisted by Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom.

The Hurricanes got nine shots in the second, but few of them were worth noting. Actually, only one. Trevor Letowski had a fantastic shorthanded breakaway chance, but he softly shot a wrist shot into Kolzig's chest. It doesn't count as a shot on goal, but Chad LaRose had a shot bang off the right post.

In the third, there was no scoring. Carolina got 12 shots to finish with an unimpressive 23. Meanwhile, Washington was limited to 4 shots in the final frame, totaling 33 for the game.

Crackers made some very nice saves, especially a couple of robberies against Ovechkin. Without his good play, the Caps might have won 12-0. Unfortunately, he was left to dry. As a goaltender, you can't win any games when your team doesn't give you any run support. As a team you can't win games if you don't take any shots on goal.

This is one of those games that you hope they just put behind them immediately. Forget about it and move on to the next game Tuesday in Toronto.

The Canes just started their annual two-and-a-half week road swing while the North Carolina State Fair is in town. The fairgrounds are adjacent to the RBC Center, and they learned the hard way not to schedule home games during the fair.

Next home game is Monday October 22, when Roberto Luongo, Markus Naslund, the Sedinbots and the rest of the Canucks come to town for the first time since 2003-04.

Tonight's "official" three stars went to Viktor Kozlov (third), Alexander Ovechkin (second) and Olaf Kolzig (first). I don't really agree with this. I don't think Grahame's hard work should go unnoticed, I don't think Kolzig had to work that hard to earn the shutout, and I don't think Ovechkin's overall effort was given enough credit. I see it a little differently. The RBH three stars:

THIRD STAR: John Grahame, CAR --- 31 saves
SECOND STAR: Olaf Kolzig, WAS --- 23 saves, win, shutout
FIRST STAR: Alexander Ovechkin, WAS --- GWG, 6 SOG, 4 hits, 3 takeaways, 3 blocked shots

Eric Staal on cover of EA's NHL '08

This week, EA Sports announced that Carolina Hurricanes center Eric Staal will be on the cover of NHL 2008, which will be released in September. People quickly started talking about the "EA Curse". I see no reason to be alarmed. It doesn't work with hockey games. This applies mainly to the Madden football games. The cover star of that game almost always goes on to have a horrible season or suffer a terrible injury that season. Or go to jail.
Mike Chen once wrote something about the EA Hockey curse, but I'm not buying it. Neither is "Stormbringer". In her words:

My personal take on a good chunk of the above is that a lot of it is *really* a stretch. To me, a "curse" would be solidified by the bad things happening to the cover boys in the season that their respective EA game is supposed to represent, NOT a few seasons later.

A few years ago, on the other blog, I wrote this piece to debunk the Sports Illustrated Superbowl Jinx. You can read about that here and also here.

For now, I'll just go over the EA NHL games since 1997, which was the first year that they used a "cover boy"

1997 -- John Vanbiesbrouck
After helping the Panthers reach the Stanley Cup Final in 1996, goalie John Vanbiesbrouck had a slightly better season while he was featured on the game box.
His record went from 26-20-7 in '96 to 27-19-10 in '97. His GAA went from 2.68 to 2.29 and his save % went from .904 to .919. He had a few more decent seasons after.

1998 -- Peter Forsberg
Foppa's game was also slightly better while he was the cover boy. In 1997, he had 86 points (28/58) in 65 games. While he was on the game box, he had 91 points (25/66) in 72 games. The points per game production was down by a hair, but he was healthier, and being on the box wasn't anything like a "curse" that season.

1999 -- Eric Lindros
Big E's numbers went up pretty significantly after being on the box. In 1998, he had 71 (30/41) points in 63 games. After starring on the box, he had 93 (40/53) points in 71 games. It would be his last "great" season


2000 -- Chrissy Pronger
The former Whaler had his career best season while he was on the game box. He had 62 points on 14 goals and 48 assists. All of these were -- and still are -- career high marks. He also won the Bud Light Plus/Minus award for the second time that year, finishing the season with an amazing +52 rating. Also a career best.

2001 -- Owen Nolan
This guy had a bad season while on the box. He had a career best (playing over ability) 84 point (44/40) season the previous year, but was riddled with injuries and only mustered 49 (24/25) points in 57 games for the Sharks in 2001. Although his points were down, they were back on the "normal" level after the extraordinary season in 2000. Not so much a "curse" as a return to normalcy.

2002 -- SuperMario
Mario Lemieux played half a season in 2001, but still managed to put up awesome numbers with 76 (35/41) points in just 43 games. He beat cancer and came back with a great half-season, and it was an obvious thing to put him on the box. He suffered injuries in 2002, and was limited to 24 games. However, he tallied 31 points (6/25), which would be equal to having 106 points over 82 games. Not bad at all. He rebounded the following year some outstanding numbers, but his health caused him to be a shadow of the player he once was.

2003 -- Jarome Iginla
Iggy had a bit of a letdown after winning the Rocket Richard trophy in 2002. He went from 96 (52/44) points in '02 to a paltry 67 (35/32) points in '03. Like Owen Nolan, though, his big season was a flash in the pan, and the "letdown" was really just a return to normalcy. He did, however reach the 90 point plateau again this past season.

2004 (a) -- Dany Heatley
We don't need to discuss what happened there. Actually, he put up pretty decent numbers after returning from the massive injury, and while he was battling inner demons the whole time.
2004 (b) -- Joe Sakic
Sakic had a big season for the Avs, maintaining his career average of slightly better than a point a night. He totaled 87 (33/54) points in 81 games.

2005 -- Markus Naslund
There was no season, due to the lockout, so we can't really comment there.

2006 -- Vincent LaCavalier
Before the lockout, the Horseman had a "fair" 66 (32/34) point season, but led his team to the Stanley Cup Championship. In '06, he put up 75 (35/40) points, but his best was yet to come. In '07, he tallied 108 (52/56) points and won the Rocket Richard.

2007 -- Alexander Ovechkin

AO's career has been too short to talk about things like "career averages" and things of that nature, so we'll just say that there was a slight decline in points production during his sophomore season. He put up 106 (52/54) points in his rookie campaign, then "dropped" to "just" 92 (46/46) points last year. Not enough of a drop to be worthy of note, and not enough data to make any other judgement.




2008 -- Eric Staal
Staalsy blew up in his sophomore season, hitting the 100 point (45/55) mark, but fell considerably to just 70 (30/40)points last season. We're looking forward to a return to the 100 point club next year.

No reason to sweat it. There's no curse.