Ice Hawks 9, Raleigh Llamas 1

Game Details

Scoring	1	2	3	Total
Ice Hawks	3	2	4	9
Raleigh Llamas	0	0	1	1

Shots on goal

Ice Hawks	41
Raleigh Llamas	15

Scoring Summary
Period 1
Ice Hawks - Matthew Leech (Chris Caran, Dan Smyrski) , 5:00
Ice Hawks - Greg Frey (Dan Smyrski, Bruce Borer) , 10:50
Ice Hawks - Greg Frey (Ray Eustace, Bruce Borer) , 17:15

Period 2
Ice Hawks - Matt Casulli (Bruce Borer, Greg Frey) , 18:57
Ice Hawks - Bruce Borer (Greg Frey, Dan Smyrski) , 19:50

Period 3
Ice Hawks - Nathan Shadle (Chris Caran, Dan Smyrski) , 2:15
Ice Hawks - Jay Rocker (Matt Casulli, Nicole Leech) , 6:30
Ice Hawks - Ray Eustace (Nathan Shadle, Chris Caran) , 7:55
Ice Hawks - Nathan Shadle (unassisted) , 16:50
Raleigh LLamas - Jeff Privette (Andy Archer) , 19:25

Penalties
Period 1
Ice Hawks - Chris Caran - (Tripping Minor), 2 min , 18:48

Period 2
Ice Hawks - Bruce Borer - (Too Many Men Bench Minor), 2 min , 4:32
Raleigh LLamas - Jennifer Lumer - (Hooking Minor), 2 min , 10:20

Period 3
Raleigh LLamas - Mary Osborne - (Tripping Minor), 2 min , 12:06

Disappointing

Another blown third period lead and the Canes find themselves out of the playoff picture. It was truly a tale of two halves as the Canes were in control up until they actually took the lead. Ottawa absolutely dominated the latter half of the game, piling up an impressive shot count, battering the Canes into submission. Once they took the lead late in the third, I never got the impression that the Canes were going to tie it up. I hoped, but it never looked like a hope with anything to back it up.

You have to give credit to Ottawa for doing what they needed to do, but the Canes let them do it and the only ones to blame are in the mirror. No real action from the Canes at the trading deadline today, so this is what they've got to work with. The teams around them, fighting for spots, made some serious moves. Most notably the Islanders, who with a win tonight supplanted the Canes for the final playoff spot. The guys need to find that fire, that killer instinct, that they had all of last season.

The best player on the ice for the Canes tonight was, strangely, Josef Vasicek. He seemed to play with a purpose and determination that the rest of the team lacked at times. I don't know why he seems to bring intensity when the rest of the team does not, but it's always something I noticed of him over the years. That's the primary reason he led the team in points several years back.

Below the water line

For a moment yesterday, the Canes were out of the playoff picture. The Canes gave solid effort in Atlanta that I did not see - I went to a birthday party and only caught the end of the first period on the radio. Lucky for me, that included the first two goals.

Anson Carter's debut netted 19:01 in ice time and a -1. The Canes are back in the picture, though, and they will have several chances to make the most of it in the coming weeks. Atlanta is in a free fall and everyone is looking to knock them out in their moment of weakness.

Steep price

To Carolina: Anson Carter
To Columbus: 1 bag of pucks

I'm not going to entitle this "Get Carter" as I assume some of my fellow bloggers will. The movie is not worth using in that way. We basically picked up Anson for what amounts to a bag of pucks. A fifth round pick next year. That's it. How many GMs are smacking their foreheads in a Homer Simpsonian manner?

It gives us some scoring depth, hopefully providing our third line with some needed jump. He had 33 goals last year with the Sedin twins in Vancouver, so he definitely has the skill. It's just a matter now of utilizing him in the right way so he can take advantage of it. We'll see tomorrow night in Atlanta how Lavi uses him.

Late heroics and a brawl

Yay Wes! The game was a back and forth affair last night, although the third period play of the Canes again troubled them. I thought Brindy's penalty late would cost the Canes a point (or two, even), but his teammates bailed him out. Unfortunately, Atlanta and Tampa went into overtime last night, along with about every other team in the race. Little ground was gained.

The big news last night was the brawl in Buffalo between the Sabres and the Senators. That was some craziness. Here is the fight, below.

Desire

The opportunity was there tonight and it was blown. Up 1-0 going into the third, a situation from which the Canes haven't lost this year, they gave up three goals, including two in the final 2:30, to lose. Instead of possibly tied for first in the division, they drop down to third. Winning teams step it up in the big games. They make a difference. Atlanta did that. Carolina did not.

I still think Carolina will make the playoffs, but they need to change something about their attitude and their chemistry before then if they want to make it out of the first round. The Canes are in the 7 spot right now, although that's more a factor of having played more games than anything else. It's going to be tight.

Timing

If the Canes had to choose a pivotal game to win, this was the one. Not only are the Canes competing directly with the Habs for a playoff spot, but as luck would have it, Atlanta and the Islanders lost tonight and Tampa is in a dog fight with Florida at the moment (4-4 at the moment. 5-4 Florida win in OT, that's something).

Brind'Amour and Ward were on fire tonight. Ward was rock solid early on and basically kept the Canes in it before the offense kicked into gear. I enjoyed the game thoroughly from both sides - there was a lot of flow and back and forth action. Montreal is some kind of snake bitten right now and their fans can't be feeling comfortable with this state of affairs, especially with Huet going into surgery.

Hockey links

I upgraded my template and lost all of my links. Since I don't know if anyone actually reads this anymore, just pop a comment if you want your site included on the link list.

Ouch

Hedican - concussion; Williams - the ever popular "upper body" injury; down 4-1 in the third period to the Rangers in a exceedingly tight playoff race. Things are getting messy for the Hurricanes, bordering on ugly. They're not playing bad hockey, but this is a dangerous time to start losing players and games.

In even bigger news, Foppa is on his way to Music City. Huge trade and pushed the Preds, already first in the league, into legit Stanley Cup favorites. This is a move akin to the Hurricanes picking up Weight and Recchi last year. Good for them. They had the guts to pull the trigger and go for it all.

Radio waves

I managed to listen to the third period of the game tonight, that being the time after my daughter finally went to bed. That in mind, I really have no idea how the game went aside from the box score. The Canes seemed to outworked them, and just so because LA has been horrible all year.

I won't make it to the Rangers game on Thursday and I may have also sold the game after that. I have honestly lost track. At least some of these other games should be televised.

Late start

When I finally got around to turning the TV on (we had company over) the score was 3-1, nope 4-1, oh, 4-2. Crazy game. We had our chances, but we blew it too many times defensively to have earned it. The Canes need to play better as a whole on both sides of the ice to make the playoffs. It's too tight.

Anyway, Staal was phenomenal. Ladd and Whitney were both very good as well. When I turned the game on, Grahame was already in the game, so I don't know if Wardo was bad or the Wild was just very, very good. The replays I saw showed some pretty solid shots by Parrish and Gaborik, so I don't know how much fault I can find with Cam without seeing everything else.

The other shoe drops

Well, Nashville has turned around and sent Belanger back to the southeast division in return for Vitaly Vishnevski.

I wonder if JR knew about this beforehand or he was surprised. I know GMs don't generally like to trade within the division.

Back from the dead

OK, I decided enough was enough and it was about time for me to get back into the hockey blogging game. I have been completely out of touch with forums and message boards in the time I was "away", so it will be interesting for a while. A few things have happened recently to catch my attention...

1. If Josef Vasicek is the answer, I'm not sure I want to know what the question was. Josef, known now on the PK as "the Answer" (imagine the "Practice? We're talking about practice" speech in a czech accent), was acquired for Eric Belanger. Maybe JR thought we had one too many Erics on the team, or that he just wanted to get "the band" back together since we got Tanabe on the cheap at the beginning of the season. Regardless his reasoning, the Answer is now back with the Canes. We tried to warn Preds fans about Big Joe when the trade for Walker happened, but some lessons must be experienced.


2. Streissand's antics We have a numbers crunch on the roster when Frankie gets back and Streissand pulls a diva and won't report to Albany? What in the hell is that kid thinking? I've read that the human brain doesn't full mature until around the age of 25, and that was my first impression upon hearing Babs didn't want to report because he is an "NHL player, not a minor leaguer". Did someone not explain it well enough? I met the guy and his English seems OK. Although, to be fair, he only said two words. He looked liked he understood though. Whatever.
   
3. Forty minutesNot the average time on ice for El Capitan, rather the amount of time this season that the entire team has been healthy. Forty minutes of Kaberle back in the lineup and playing before Stillman went out. This team is in the thick of things and hasn't been healthy all year. One hopes they will be able to fully recover and make enough noise to get into the playoffs. Things are awfully tight.


4. Sugar Ray Who would have thought that our most productive player would be Whitney? The guy put up very good numbers last year, but was battling health issues. He's been healthy this year and leads the team in scoring by a bit, not to mention the monster 5 point night he had in Boston the other night. Wow.


5. The Key With everything going on with the Canes, the key to their success is still Wardo. The past two games, Ward has been simply outstanding. If he continues to play this way down the stretch, the Hurricanes might get healthy and on a roll into the post season. Only time will tell.

I'll try to keep things updated more often, but family, work, and various hobbies are keeping me busy all of the time. Adios.