On a lighter note

Well, the Thrash came into town and beat the Canes about the head and shoulders tonight. The funny thing to me was that our best period was the one in which Atlanta scored its opposed goals. I mean, the Canes controlled play in the first, but two plays - a great individual effort by Marian Hossa on the first goal and a defensive gaffe (that's a great word) combined with Mike Commodore not covering the two-on-one well for the second. That was the game in a nutshell.

The second and third were quite miserable and the guys seemed lost, despite Cam nominally keeping the team in the game. Ward was our best player tonight and there was nothing he could have done about either goal scored on him.

A few more thoughts on the game:

• Chad "He Hate Me" LaRose seemed to draw just about every Atlanta penalty. It was bizarre. It's like the entire city of Atlanta has a deep wish to see Chad beaten and bloodied.
• My inside voice took over once during the third period on an Atlanta three-on-two break. I believe what I said was "David Frickin' Tanabe! Cover the trailer, damn it!" He was staring at the guy with the puck and not the Atlanta player crashing the net. Luckily it was broken up anyway.
• The high sticking non-call on Pascal Dupuis - When Brindy took the stick up high, half the crowd was irate. I didn't have the benefit of instant replay, but my initial impression was that it probably shouldn't have been a penalty. It looked to me that Brindy took Dupuis' feet right out from under him and, when he was in mid-air from this, he caught Brindy up high. It could have been both of them called for penalties, so it was just as well that it ended up being neither. Granted I could see a replay later and change my opinion, but like the ref, that was my impression on the spot.
• The passing was weak and lazy tonight. After the first period, the Canes made several half-assed, disinterested passes that were easily intercepted by the Thrashers. It was very disappointing.
• Brat Watson made his first appearance at the RBC since "Divegate". I'm actually mad at myself for even typing that. Anyway, the crowd didn't particularly let him feel their wrath. The crowd energy was a bit underwhelming tonight, not that the Canes did much to help it.
  

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.

Does hockey have potties?

Sorry. That's the question my daughter asked when she had to go during the second period. We didn't actually arrive at the game tonight until 7:30 (2 minutes left in the first period) due to my daughter's 6:30 swim class. We had all four of us tonight and fun was to be had by all. The kids really got into the game and both teams decided to wait until we got there to start scoring. Definitely a win on both counts.

I'm finding it hard to believe that Brad Isbister found a spot on Vancouver's roster. It's a credit to the Canes' depth at forward that this guy couldn't even secure an AHL call-up spot for us and he's playing on another team's regular roster. The guys played very well today - the highlight was definitely the gorgeous cross-ice pass from El Capitan to Rosie the Riveter for a beautiful goal past Luongo.

I won't be at the Buffalo game on Wednesday, so I'll have to catch it on TV.

Congrats to the Captain

The Captain has won a second-straight Selke Trophy. Way to go Rod!

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.

A pulse

Going into the third period tonight, the Canes were on their last leg. Down 3-1 with no chance of anything. A short handed goal by Brind'Amour followed by the game-tying goal by Rosie gave the team a burst of life they exploited in overtime with a rare 5-on-3 power-play. Unlike every other power play this team has squandered in the past few games, Whitney came up big and got the all-important two points. To make things even nicer, the Rangers smoked Toronto tonight.

3. Atlanta (93 pts, 3 GR) - FLA, TOR, BOS, WAS, CAR, TB
6. NY Rangers (91 pts, 3 GR) - NYI, MON, PHI, TOR, NYI, MON, PIT
7. Tampa Bay (90 pts, 3 GR) - FLA, CAR, WAS, CAR, FLA, ATL
8. Montreal (88pts, 3 GR) - NYR, OTT, BUF, BOS, NYR, TOR
9. Toronto (87pts, 3 GR) - CAR, ATL, PIT, NYR, PHI, NYI, MON
10. Carolina (86pts, 3 GR) - TOR, PHI, TB, FLA, TB, ATL, FLA
11. NY Islanders (84pts, 4 GR) - NYR, NJ, BUF, OTT, NYR, TOR, PHI, NJ

Solid

It's funny what a little bit of effort and hard work will do for you. The Canes played a solid game tonight and pulled off a 3-1 win over the Kitties from Florida. All three goals were effort goals: A Stillman putback of a loose puck, Walker fighting for the puck under Belfour, and the Brindy deflection short handed. Those are the kind of hard working goals this team needs to consistently get in order to break out of this goal-scoring slump.

The game would have been a shutout if not for the perfect example of the famed Olé Defense as demonstrated by Joe Vasicek. Nice one.

The downward spiral

If your team loses and you're not there to see it, did it really happen? I saw the first 10 minutes or so of the game last night before I left for my own hockey game (we won 9-1 and I had 3 assists). I caught the final score on the radio on my way home. I understand that Emery was pretty outstanding, but this just sounds like another disappointing effort by the Canes.

I've not given up on them to make the playoffs, but they need to play better down the stretch. They're giving up a lot of games in hand and they traditionally don't play well on a lot of rest for some reason. Someone on the team needs to step up and I think it has to be Rod Brind'Amour.

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.

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.

Not so much

Well, the Canes are 0-2 on their western conference road trip. I didn't actually see much of either game. I saw tidbits of the Calgary game while I was in the emergency room (my two and a half year old daughter needed half a dozen stitches) and the Edmonton game was overlapped by my rec-league playoffs (we lost). I understand that Brindy is hurt (moreso than he was before) and Stillman returns tomorrow, so the Vancouver game should be interesting for a variety of reasons.