Canes-Sabres tonight

The Hurricanes and Sabres will be meeting for the second time this season, and the first in Buffalo. The injured but well rested Sabres have been idle and at home since Wednesday, while the healthy but tired Canes are on the back end of a back-to-back.

Buffalo completely dominated the Hurricanes last season. Carolina was 0-3-1 versus the Sabres last season and they were outscored 19-11. Earlier this season, Carolina used a third period explosion to win 6-2 at home.

Carolina, who played very well in October, ran into some problems in November. Erik Cole was out for several games. Scott Walker was out for several games. Andrew "Trade Bait" Ladd was out for a few games. Defenseman Nic Wallin was out for a few games. Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg missed a few games with some immigration problems. The whole team forgot how to pass and shoot and skate. November was ugly, and they're glad it's over. Although still in the top two in the league in goals scored, Carolina hit a very dry spell in late November. As I detailed the other day, Carolina went 2-5-0 in a seven game span and was outscored 27-13 in that span.

Carolina is a very high-powered and dangerous team if they get hot. The only problem is that they never got hot in November. Thankfully, they never got ice cold either. They never put together a streak of more than two wins or more than two losses.

Buffalo, on the other hand has been the paragon of "streaky". Prior to Wednesday's loss to the Blues, the Sabres had won five games in a row and had outscored their opponents 18-6. Just before that, they had a six game span where they went 1-5-0 and were outscored 15-7.

According to the Buffalo News, the Sabres will be without Adam Mair, who is recovering from an ankle injury. He could go tonight but they're saving him for their upcoming west coast road trip.
The Sabres have been juggling their lines to deal with injuries, but tonight, the Canes should be facing a top line of Jochen Hecht/Tim Connolly/Jason Pominville. Or is that their second line? Either way, this is a very skilled line, and Carolina will have to step up on defense while also staying out of the box.

In other Sabres news, Brian "Soupy" Campbell has given the captaincy for the month of December.

Derek Roy should be back in the lineup for the Sabres, but Dmitri Kalinin will still be out.

Carolina will be playing without Defensemen Mike Commodore (broken finger) and "Avi" Tanabe (flu). I'm hoping that Andrew Ladd goes to the press box and Trevor Letowski is given a shot. Ladd's play has been pretty uninspired lately. Frankly, I'd really like to see him traded out West for one of those young puck moving defensemen like J-M Liles or Matt Carle. Ladd was a fourth overall pick in the 2004 draft behind Ovechkin, Malkin and Cam Barker. He has a tremendous amount of "untapped potential", but it's getting kind of old waiting for it to come to fruition.

For tonight's matchup, I would expect Peter Laviolette to give Cam Ward the night off after playing last night. Johnny Crackers hasn't been very good lately, or really at all. However, he's going to have to be the man tonight. Until Carolina calls Michael Leighton up from Albany, Crackers is the #2 guy.

Although Carolina's PP and PK woes continue, last night they found a way to find a way. Despite being badly outshot, they turned the ship in the right direction and had the advantage in "scoring chances". Unlike the other night against Philly when they had 41 shots, but very few scoring chances, they had good chances and had quality shots. And they got some bounces. Sometimes, a lucky bounce or two is all a team needs to get back in their groove. I hope that's the trick.

Kevin BFLOBLOG will be at HSBC with his son. The Sabres usually win when his son is there. Nothing personal against the little guy, but I hope his luck runs out tonight.

For Sabres commentary, visit BFLOBLOG, as well as these other blogger-types:

Sabre Rattling

The Willful Caboose

Dispatches from the Aud

Top Shelf


Kevin BFLOBLOG is one of the good guys. He roots for the wrong team, but he's a good writer and a good hockey fan. And he respects the competition.

While I often disagree with Tom Sabre Rattling when it comes to analysis of Canes games or players, I don't have a problem with him. He doesn't like the Canes but he doesn't use the third grade tactic of calling them names either. He's just a passionate fan with a healthy dislike for our boys in red and black.

I'd gladly drink beer with either one of these guys. I can't speak for or endorse the others. I just know that they're active Sabres bloggers.

For giggles, here's proof that the Sabres are pretty cool guys. Although this video sparked a little bit of debate, the whole thing is clearly staged. And funny.
The Buffalo Sabres: Can they pick up the pieces


And this piece about Andrew Peters:


Okay. That's enough. Puck drop at 7:00. Full write-up to follow.

Another retirement

The Onion scores another goal with its parody story about Eric Lindros retiring from a "78 year career" with Citibank.
This is right up there with some of their best hockey comedy.

My all-time favorite is If Al-Qaeda Had a Hockey Team, We'd Kick Its Ass!. I swear I burst into hysterical, cant-breathe, tears-streaming-down-my-face laughter every time I read that one. Unless you hate comedy, I strongly urge you to click and read. Here's a snippet:

President Bush'd be there to fire up our skaters by looking right at the al-Qaeda bench and repeating his warning to all terrorists: "Bring it on!" The crowd would go nuts! Everyone would be going so crazy, they'd hardly hear Ted Nugent sing the national anthem! The camera would cut to the al-Qaeda bench, and they'd all be sitting in their towel helmets thinking, "Oh, shit, what the fuck did we get ourselves into?"

Here are links to some of my other favorite hockey parody stories with little previews:

• NHL Admits Slam-Dunk Contest Portion of All-Star Skills Competition a Mistake ("Marian Hossa may have ended his career when he tried, and failed, to dunk from the blue line.")
  
• TeemuSelanne Practices Kissing Stanley Cup on Hand (Giguere said his offer to loan Selanne his homemade aluminum-foil kissing-practice cup was rebuffed by Selanne as "just sad.")
  
• Carolina Residents Confused, Terrified as Victorious Hurricane Players Riot in Streets("Following their leader—a man Canadian officials have identified as one Rod Brind'Amour—a group of between 26 and 30 heavily bearded Caucasians drove onto the Raleigh Chapel Hill Expressway at speeds exceeding 120 mph, causing several traffic accidents and overturning one 16-wheeler, which eventually exploded," Perlov said. "The members of the gang we're calling 'The Hurricanes' then exited their vehicles and descended on Hillsborough Street, where they entered the storied Velvet Cloak Inn, woke up guests by throwing alarm clocks, chairs, and mattresses out the windows, and then promptly burned them.")

Good stuff. Good stuff.

Hurricanes beat up, but still know comedy

After sustaining a slew of injuries on a three game road trip, the Canes flew home for a four game homestand starting with a back-to-back this weekend. On Friday they'll host the Thrashers, and on Saturday the Panthers will be in town.

On Monday, Erik Cole suffered a neck injury after colliding with Florida goalie Tomas Vokoun. He left the game with 7:32 remaining in the third and was at the Cleveland Clinic when Cory Stillman scored the game-winner with a little more than a minute remaining. Initial CT scans were negative, Cole was cleared to fly, and all reports were that he was "okay". Upon returning home, team doctors took a look at him, and have ruled him out for 7-10 days. They want to make sure that he has a full range of motion and that the stiffness and swelling in his neck go away. Given that he is only about 20 months removed from his C-5 compression fracture, this is to be expected. Frankly, I'm surprised that he got off that easily. The collision with Vokoun looked pretty bad, and we're all breathing a sigh of relief that he didn't sustain a serious injury.

On Wednesday night, Bret Hedican took a puck to the jaw, which left him woozy and with a puffy face. Later, Craig Adams got pummeled in a fight with Doug Janik and he probably had to get stitched up. Hedi and Adams both practiced on Thursday and are said to be no worse for the wear.

Good news is that Andrew Ladd has been participating in full practice, and is likely a "go" for Friday. Nic Wallin is getting close, but will be out for a little while longer. Scott Walker has been skating, but is not cleared for contact. Although not immediate, this signals an eventual return. All good news.

Now for the comedy.

In my in-box today was "a special message from Chad LaRose". A video promoting the "player figurine" giveaway that will be done on November 28 against the Flyers. The first in a series of four, the Rod Brind'Amour figurine looks nothing like the actual Rod, and the way "mini-Rod" is hoisting the Cup is nothing like what the real Rod did when he hoisted it. Us Canes bloggers are in agreement that these figurines look like crap.

The Sliding Pokecheck has posted the video message, which has made me laugh about a million times. You should definitely check it out. It looks like this video was dreamed up, scripted and filmed in a span of about nine minutes. Chad clearly has the script in his hand, and did nothing to prepare other than throw a ballcap on. He's doing all he can to not burst into laughter as he mockingly holds the figure and says "I picked mine up the other day, I put it on the shelf in my bedroom, and I look at it every single day".
I laughed. I cried. It's just a wee bit cooler by the inclusion of "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim as the background music.