Vote

All Star Fan Balloting
Vote: Eric Staal, Justin Williams, and Cam Ward are on the ballot.
Feel free to fill in your favorite Canes elsewhere - maybe Rod Brind'Amour, Matt Cullen, or Cory Stillman?

Vote early and often.

I would add Erik Cole to that list, but he is conspicuously missing from the drop down of players. I mean, Craig Adams is the first name for the eastern conference and they forget Erik Cole?

Update: All of the players appear to be in there now.

Out of touch

I go on vacation for a couple of days and the Canes win two and Erik Cole tries to get himself killed. I haven't seen the video or anything, so I can't really comment on it, but that guy needs a bigger insurance policy or something.

The Board of Governors strikes back

The NHL Board of Governors is meeting today in Chicago to discuss a whole laundry list of items, first and foremost is the current unbalanced NHL schedule. Before I get into that, why does it always seem that whenever a reporter wants a quote about the goings-on of these meetings, Jimmy Rutherford is always front and center. I think he's getting some training from Erik Cole. Next thing you know, JR will be speed dialing Jim Rome with updates.

Anyway, even though nothing will be decided today (the votes, etc. are in December), don't be surprised if next season everyone will be on the schedule once again.

Erik Cole is an attention whore

OK, that's not fair and, strictly speaking, probably not true. Still, just about 50% of the articles coming up on my search page lately seem to be concerning Mr. Cole. I'm beginning to think that Eric Staal's bachelor party debacle was just an attempt to steal a little bit of the spotlight from his line mate. Here's a hint Eric: the wedding is about the bride. Suck it up. (And congrats).

I mean he has a golf tournament in Oswego (with video) and he just started a new charity called the Erik Cole Dream Big Foundation. How much attention does he need?!

In all seriousness, the golf tournament (the Erik Cole Score For Oswego Golf Tournament) is an interesting idea: proceeds from the tournament go to local youth hockey, helping families pay registration fees, etc. The Hurricanes are doing something like that with the CYAH, and I think every penny they invest there will pay dividends down the road with fan support.

Finishing with style

The Atlanta game was disgraceful, but the game tonight was actually a special way to end the season. I don't know what it is about the Panthers, but they are the Washington Generals to our Harlem Globetrotters. They always look like this will be the time they beat us, but the third period was just downright silly. Tanabe was on fire, the Staal-Cole-Ladd line looked great, and the Captain finished it in overtime.

This is the offense we've been looking for (barring the first two periods) all season. That is the energy we've missed. We'll see what moves we make in the offseason and how everyone heals up and gets some rest.

Crossroads

This is it - the final stretch. I couldn't make the game tonight - my wife had a baby shower to go to and my son has a double ear infection. Still, I was able to watch everything from here. San Jose is a very scary team and the Canes jumped out on them quick. They blew some easy chances in that rush, including a 2-on-0 with Staal and Cole; they almost came to regret it too.

Still, the guys played a great game when they needed to and got a very crucial two points. Toronto, Philly, and Tampa are up next. Every game is must-win at this point as there is no room for error. The playoffs probably started, in earnest, last week.

If the playoff cutoff projection of 92 points is true, the Canes need to win 4 of their last 7. That's very doable. Let's look at the remaining schedules of everyone involved.

3. Atlanta (88pts, 6 GR) - FLA, TOR, BOS, WAS, CAR, TB
6. Tampa Bay (86pts, 6 GR) - FLA, CAR, WAS, CAR, FLA, ATL
7. NY Rangers (85pts, 7 GR) - NYI, MON, PHI, TOR, NYI, MON, PIT
8. Carolina (84pts, 7 GR) - TOR, PHI, TB, FLA, TB, ATL, FLA
9. Montreal (84pts, 6 GR) - NYR, OTT, BUF, BOS, NYR, TOR
10. NY Islanders (83pts, 8GR) - NYR, NJ, BUF, OTT, NYR, TOR, PHI, NJ
11. Toronto (82pts, 7 GR) - CAR, ATL, PIT, NYR, PHI, NYI, MON

The Islanders and Candiens both have the most difficult roads, both with games remaining against Buffalo and Ottawa. The Isles have two tilts against New Jersey as well, so it's definitely going to be a tough road. The Rangers play both the Islanders and Canadiens twice down the stretch, so it is entirely possible that those three teams will do most of the weeding out amongst themselves.

Atlanta only has three games against any teams in the playoff race, so they should be relatively safe unless they completely implode. Now it comes down to winning the games against non-playoff foes and making the most against your head-to-head matchups.

Pretty goals

I wasn't at the game last night (holiday party) but I caught the highlights. Wow, the Canes scored some very pretty goals, led by Erik Cole's beauty - blocking a slapshot, gaining his feet, and outracing everyone else to score. That's just plain impressive. The other goals, including Staal's set up by Walker and Whitney's slapshot were just nice execution - not much Thomas could have done. This is how the Canes play when they are on their game. I'm hoping that my prediction after the last game holds true and they've found their groove. We'll see how the upcoming road trip treats them. If the Canes can pull out 4 of 5, watch out.

Finally

Well, after moments of trepidation and a threatened overtime, the Friday the 13th game against the Thrashers turned out to be pretty lucky. There were weird bounces all game for both teams. Craig Adams scored two goals, which is weird enough on its own. Hands of Feet is not known for his goal scoring prowess, hence the nickname. Staal and Whitney both score with a second left in the first and third periods respectively. A puck bounces over the net into the crease and is eventually punched in by Sim, followed later on by Holik's goal which went off Tanabe's skate right onto his stick. It was a fitting ending to a strange game.

The best part of it all is that they finally got a win in the books, in regulation no less, and they can breathe again. We'll see how they do tomorrow in Pittsburgh; that should be a spirited game for many reasons - Cole vs. Orpik 1, Staal vs. Staal. Exciting.