Canes to open at home

The full schedules are expected to be announced today, but Hurricanes fans learned yesterday that they will open the season at home against the Panthers on Friday October 10. They also learned that the three "wildcard" teams from the West whom the Canes will play twice will be Phoenix, Anaheim and St. Louis.

This is the third consecutive time the Canes have opened the season at home, and the first time that it will be a divisional opponent.

Carolina fans may remember that FSN South signed a deal with the Hurricanes, pledging to broadcast 65 games this coming season, up from 60 in 2007-08. They also have pledged to broadcast "at least 70" Charlotte Bobcats NBA games. I did some research and discovered that last season, the two teams had simultaneous games 34 times, and each team had 44 nights when they were the only one playing. There were an additional four times where one team played early and one team played late. Supposing the common dates were split down the middle, that gave each team 61 broadcastable games. Including the "doubleheaders", there could have been 65 games for each team. All of this is, of course, using last year's schedules as a template. In any event, it doesn't seem possible for one channel to commit to as many games as they're committed to.

I've written to FSN South, asking them how they plan to honor both commitments when the schedules probably won't accomodate 135 different broadcastable games. I haven't received an answer.

The NHL also "officially" announced that the Winter Classic '09 will indeed be in Wrigley Field on New Year's Day between the Red Wings and Blackhawks. This came as news to nobody. I think there's some people who are holding out hope for a Winter Classic in Raleigh. It isn't gonna happen in our lifetimes, and if it does, I'll gladly eat crow.

The full 2008-09 schedules will be released at some point today.

Canes lose season opener

There was much fanfare surrounding the season opener last night, but in the end, the fans left the building thinking that they had just seen the Hurricanes of 2006-07. The Hurricanes forced overtime and emerged with one standings point, but like last season, they left with a loss on their hands.
This post will be bare-bones. A more detailed one will come later.

Early on, the Canes looked pretty good. There were some good hits, some good aggressive play, some good pressure, and even a first strike goal.

At 3:37, Erik "Hab Killa" Cole re-directed a one-time blast from Eric Staal near the top of the right circle. It was a power play goal (!). Officially, Cole from Staal and Walker at 3:37.

The Habs knotted it up at 13:01. Mark Streit from Alexei Kovalev and Andrei Markov on the power play.

In the first, the Canes had several good chances go by the wayside. Ray Whitney missed a yawning net, they hit a few posts, and on a few occasios, Cristobal Huet made spectacular saves.

No scoring in the second, but the Canes blew a golden opportunity at about 17:00 when the Habs made a sloppy change. The Canes ended up with a three-on-one break and couldn't convert the opportunity. This is what I would later refer to as the "Chad LaRose syndrome". Failure to finish.

9:31 of the third, Saku Koivu put the visitors ahead after Nic Wallin had been sent of for tripping. He went hard to the net and tapped one in from the low slot. Officially Koivu from Markov on the power play.

Bret Hedican rifled one in from the blue line at 12:48 to buoy the Canes hopes. Justin "Viva" Williams and Rod Brind'Amour with the assists. It was the only even strength goal of the game for either team.

Early in the overtime frame, Nic Wallin was again sent away on a cross-checking call. The Habs got what they needed out of their captain when Koivu scored the game-winner at 1:05 of the extra frame. Chris Higgins and Michael Ryder got the assists.

The "official" three stars went to Hedican (3), Cam Ward (2) and Koivu (1). I don't think this does justice to the way Huet played. The RBH three stars went:

THIRD STAR: Erik Cole, CAR. --- 1 goal
SECOND STAR: Cristobal Huet, MTL
FIRST STAR: Saku Koivu, MTL --- 2 goals, GWG

I'll have to go back and check the history, but it seems like Koivu has been what Cole is to the Habs: kryptonite. He certainly was on Wednesday.

During the first intermission, I had the opportunity to finally meet some of my fellow bloggers. It was a short meeting, but it was great to finally meet these good folks.

More on everything later. For now, work.

OPENING NIGHT!!!!

Opening night is finally here!
After a summer of relative silence, there are no less than TWENTY-THREE!!!!! hockey articles in today's News and Observer. Good job, boys. I haven't had time to read them all, but there's some doozies in there.

After some craziness, some back-and-forth, it looks like fans in North Carolina will be able to catch this game on Teevee. The Canes network wasn't covering it, and Center Ice usually blacks out the local feed for home games, but fans will be able to get the froggy RDS feed. Most people down here don't speak French fluently, so they'll be doing the old college basketball trick of watching the television while listening to the local radio feed. Only problem is, in these modern times, the radio feed runs on a delay of about one second while the teevee feed typically runs on a seven second delay. It's a bit dizzying to hear it before you see it.

OPENING NIGHT IS HERE!!!!!!!!

Puck drop at 7:00. See you there.

Canes to start season with one keeper? Cole awaits Habs.

Opening night is less than 48 hours away, and the Hurricanes have their roster finalized. However, they may need to make a couple of call-ups.

Fourth line pivot Chad "Sharpie" LaRose is working his way back from a tweaked knee and may not be available. This means that Trevor Letowski, who seemed destined for a residency in the press box, will possibly by asked to don his new sweater. That won't be a problem.

Backup goaltender Johnny Crackers Grahame missed practice again on Sunday after having a swollen leg on Saturday. Some fluid was drained, but the problem persisted. Still, the team is treating it as a "minor injury", and is playing a waiting game before making the call to Albany. Obviously, that means Michael Leighton. They've got him on speed dial, but it isn't that simple. Unless I'm mistaken, Leighton would have to clear waivers a second time on his way back up from Albany. He'll probably clear the waiver, but you never know. Frankly, I don't like this wait and see business. Obviously Cam's the #1 guy here, but the longer we wait to make the call, the more hurried that call is going to have to be. If it were up to me, I'd go ahead and deactivate Grahame and call Leighton up. I'd have done it yesterday. Actually, I'd have done it before the Grahame injury. But that's just me.

So the Habs are coming to town, which makes Erik Cole salivate. Historically, he's been en fuego against them. Cole has scored 18 points (12/6) in 17 career regular season games against the Canadiens. At home, he has seven points (4/3) in nine such games. Since the lockout, however, he has notched six (4/2) in four games.

In the Bell Centre, Cole is even plus dangereux. In eight regular season games in La Belle Province, Cole has 11 (8/3) points including two hat tricks.

Additionally, Cole scored seven points (4/3) in six playoff games in the 2002 Eastern Conference semifinal. Three of those goals came in the Molson Centre. One of those has got to be considered one of the most heartbreaking goals in Canadiens history.
May 9, 2002. The Miracle at Molson. The Habs were up two games to one and had been up 3-0 in the third period, and 3-1 late into the third. Bates Battaglia got one at 12:43 to make it 3-2. With the goalie pulled and an extra attacker on, Cole muscled the tying goal past José Theodore at 19:19 in a goal mouth scrum.
Nic "the secret weapon" Wallin notched the game winner in overtime, capping an amazing comeback. The series was tied 2-2, but it was the Death Blow for the Habs. Carolina won the next two games easily to win the series.

Cole is in very good shape, played well in the preseason, and is ready to get this season started. There's no better way for him to get off on the right foot than against the Habs.

2007-08 schedule out

On Wednesday, the NHL released the schedules for the upcoming season. We've known for some time that the Ducks and Kings would be opening the season in London, England. Now we know that it'll specifically be a two-game series on the 29th and 30th of September. Each team will have a "home" game that will be 5442 miles away from it's actual home rink. Do the season ticket holders get this game?

The Hurricanes will open their season at home against Les Habitants on Wednesday October 3. For the record, that's my 36th birthday. They'll follow that with a home game against the Penguins. Then a two-week road trip while the North Carolina State Fair is in town.

Obviously, opening the season at home on my birthday will be a big deal for me. The other highlight is that the Canucks come to town early in the season. Monday October 22.

I haven't had time to go over the schedule with a fine-toothed comb, but I'll have plenty of time for that later.

The traditional New Year's Eve game will be against the Islanders.

For the second year in a row, the Canes will conclude the season with a home game against the Panthers. I don't think we'll have ole Ed Belfour to kick around, though.

I'm scaling back from a 24-game pack to a 10-game pack, which means I won't get opening night. I'll be going to that game one way or another, though. Same thing with the Nucks. That game probably won't be in my package, but I'll find a way to be there.

More notes on opening night

Since I didn't have the time earlier. Okay... To be honest, it takes a TON of battery power to upload images from my camera to my computer, so I had to recharge the batteries.

I wanted to get some more stuff up from opening night. A few still pictures and a video of the banner raising. For some reason, I ended up with about a million pictures of the Sabres' Jiri Novotny. I have no idea what that means. One, which is posted here, is of a faceoff he took against Kevyn Adams in third period action. I got several pictures of a skirmish Novotny was involved in right in front of me, but none of them are worth sharing. The other picture I'm posting here is of the action immediately following the opening faceoff.


Also, I wanted to clear the air about a few things.


There was some talk on some of the Sabres blogs, and also on Buffalo sports radio about how the Canes hadn't sold out the game. This simply isn't true. As I reported here a few weeks ago, there were no tickets made available to the public. The Canes allowed their season ticket holders the opportunity to purchase extra opening night tickets for friends. Before they were even able to honor every request, every seat was spoken for. The sales office held a few dozen back, hoping to sell more full season ticket packages. When those packages didn't sell, the few dozen tickets were released to the public. All of them were lower level or club level seats, but they disappeared VERY quickly. They also made about 100 standing room only tickets available. At some point, one of the Buffalo radio stations managed to get their hands on a few of these, and started to exaggerate the availability of tickets. By the time it was all said and done, the official attendance was 18,840. Hockey capacity for the RBC Center is 18,730. Do the math.

On the other side, there was some rumbling about the Sabres players showing disrespect for the Canes celebration by refusing to be there. This simply isn't true either. According to an article in the News and Observer, Lindy Ruff offered to have his team on their bench during the ceremony. There was some communication between the PR departments from both clubs, and the Canes decided it would be best if the Sabres weren't there. No offense was taken, and the Sabres used the extra time to get pumped up for what ended up being rain on our parade.

You can view the low-quality video of the banner being raised here, or by clicking the embedded player below:

Canes raise banner, lose opener

On Wednesday night, the Canes got to raise the Sanley Cup Champions banner in a pre-game ceremony that lasted about 12 minutes or so. Some visiting Sabres fans who were understandably miffed by our display complained that it went on too long. For what it's worth to them, it could have gone on much longer than that, but the club decided to have a private party for the presentation of the rings. Ryan Miller wasn't annoyed, though.

"When you win the Cup, you can take as much time as you want," Miller said. "We were fine with it. ... We just sat around in the locker room, stretching and trying to get ready. We tried to stay focused. We could tell it was loud."

The game that followed was a good game with ebbs and flows, each team dominating the game at one time or another. Carolina came out strong, and kept all of the action in the Buffalo end for the first 10 minutes of the first period. After eight minutes, the shot count was 11-1 in favor of the Canes.

At the 9:09 mark , the Sabres got on the board with just their second shot of the game. It was sort of a pinball shot, that took a crazy bounce or two on the way in. Jason Pominville was credited with the goal, tipping it in from the left circle. Dmitri Kalinin and Teppo Numminen got the helpers. Kalinin with a wrist shot from the point set the goal in motion. I couldn't tell live, but TV replays showed that the last deflection was off Canes defenseman Glen Wesley's skate. Cam Ward didn't have a chance on it as it beat him glove side high.

At 14:42, Eric Staal knotted the game at one. He came in on a two-on-two rush and fired a shot through the Sabres defenseman and just under the crossbar. Miller didn't even see it. Ray Whitney and Cam Ward got the assists.

During a three minute Sabres penalty parade in the second period, the Canes took a 2-1 lead. Carolina was enjoying the back end of two 5-on-3 segments when Erik Cole tipped one in on the doorstep. Ray Whitney and Justin Williams got the helpers. Whitney faked a shot from the high slot and made a gorgeous diagonal pass to Colsey, who was camped out on the right side of Miller's net. Cole didn't have to do a thing, as Miller couldn't slide over in time.

The lead didn't stand very long, though. Chris Drury made it 2-2 at the 15:32 mark. Tallinder fired a long bomb from the right point, which Drury tapped in from the right side of the net. Cam Ward was moving towards the right post, and Drury snuck it in the long side, beating Ward badly. Evidently, Tallinder's shot was first deflected off Derek Roy, then Drury's pants. At any rate, it beat Ward. Roy with the first assist, Tallinder with the second.

No goals in the third period, nor in the overtime.

Just as Carolina had controlled play in the first eight minutes of the game, Buffalo controlled the flow in the closing minutes of regulation and the entire overtime. Carolina did well to make it to the shootout.

Carolina opted to shoot first, and named Ray Whitney, Eric Staal and Erik Cole as their shooters. Whitney's attempt was stopped by Miller. Danny Briere was the first Sabres shooter, and he made a really nifty hesitation move, faking right, then going left, keeping on the forehand and putting it past Ward. Staal went in with a no-frills type of shot that was easily handled by Miller. Tomas Vanek was next for the Sabres, and his unsuccessful attempt was overly fancy. Erik Cole was Carolina's last chance, but he couldn't make it happen.

Here's what a scoresheet can't tell you:

On the first Sabres goal, Canes defenseman David Tanabe made a terrible mistake in neutral ice, causing a lazy turnover, leading to the goal. He committed a really lazy holding penalty, and made a few other plays that were defensively unsound or just plain irresponsible. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to have him dressed. I'd rather see Anton Babchuk out there.

Most importantly, though, is that I was extremely impressed with the play of the Canes new defenseman Tim Gleason. He was part of that Jack Johnson deal with the Kings. Because he was a left coast player, and a defenseman, and a young one at that, I had never heard of him. He was pretty much the talk of section 112 last night, though. He made some very sound plays, made a ton of hits, and played a really smart game overall. I know it's just one game, but I'm thrilled with our end of that deal. His play was good enough to earn him third star status. I predict that I'll reprise these sentiments many times throughout the season, and I can't stress it enough, but we really like the kid.

Another thing I make note of every time we play the Sabres is that Maxim Afinogenov is an incredible skater. My Sabres fan friend and I agree that if he would quit trying to be such a fancy skater and focus more on finishing plays, he'd put up a ton of points.

Unfortunately, I'm a little pressed for time, and the only picture I've had time to work with is this one I took of Gleason. Later today, I'll work with some others and upload my banner raising photos/movies.