Red & Black Hockey
The Legace hazard (or: It’s just Manny being Manny)
by David Lee on 11/09/09 at 09:45 PM ET
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On Monday morning, the Hurricanes announced what everyone knew was coming. They have signed 36-year old veteran goaltender Manny Legace to a one-year two-way contract. He will be paid the league minimum of $500k at the NHL level and $105k at the AHL level. The one-time Stanley Cup winner was last seen in Atlanta’s system on a tryout contract with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. This, of course, came on the heels of Cam Ward suffering a deep laceration on his left thigh on Saturday. Ward has been ruled out for at least four weeks. The signing was pretty much an emergency situation, and given the price tag, I don’t think they could have done any better.
While some people are making light of the fact that Legace was drafted by (but never played for) the Whale, there’s a far more alarming thing about Legace that should concern all of us. There’s a really bizarre trend with his health. Specifically, he’s never been able to stay healthy in December
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, injuries, Manny+Legace,
No goalie move yet
by David Lee on 11/08/09 at 05:37 PM ET
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On Sunday, the Hurricanes announced that they have reassigned forward Zach Boychuk to the Albany River Rats. This, supposedly, will be to make room for Ray Whitney to return from his “upper body injury”. All reports indicate that The Wizard will be back in the lineup on Veterans Day. This is a bit of good news.
There’s a big surprise, though. Even when Cam Ward was kept overnight in Columbus, and then kept for an extra day, there have been no roster moves at the goalie position. I assumed that Justin Peters would immediately be called up to back up Michael Leighton, but so far, Leighton is by himself. The Hurricanes have indicated that they’re interested in signing a free agent or trading for an NHL goaltender. Third on the list of solutions to the problem was “call up Justin Peters”.
Whatever they do, they will have to do it very quickly so that they can have two goaltenders in practice. Presumably, if no move is made by Monday’s practice, Fox Sports Carolinas color commentator Tripp Tracy will serve as one of the practice goalies. Which he will talk about all season after that.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes,
When will the nightmare end?
by David Lee on 11/07/09 at 11:39 PM ET
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On Saturday night, the Hurricanes lost more than just the game. For the third time in the last four games, they scored the “all-important” first goal. For the second time in as many nights, they led after one and looked great after two. For the twelfth time in a row, though, they ended up with a loss. Not only are the losses piling up, but so are the injuries. And tonight, the Canes suffered an injury loss that they can’t afford: Cam Ward.
Early in the first period, Ward was cut by the skate of Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash, who was skating through the goal crease. Although it was well inside the crease, the contact was incidental, and nobody will blame Nash for causing the injury. Ward had to be rushed to the hospital, where he was stitched up and where he will be held overnight.
In March of 2007, Ward suffered a similar injury in a game against the Rangers. The fear was that he was going to miss the remainder of the season and that he wouldn’t be able to play for Canada in the IIHF World Championships. He only missed three games and played very well in the IIHF tournament. Hopefully this fall, he’ll be able to make a similar speedy return to the lineup.
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Tags: Cam+Ward, Carolina+Hurricanes, injuries, losing+streak,
another ugly loss for Carolina
by David Lee on 11/04/09 at 09:56 PM ET
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On Wednesday night, the Hurricanes traveled to Sunrise and extended their winless streak to ten (0-7-3) games with a 3-0 loss to the Panthers.
Despite dominating play in the opening stanza and getting off 21 shots against Tomas Vokoun, they didn’t score. In the second, the Canes got into some penalty trouble, but did a good job to keep Florida scoreless. Things fell apart in the third. First a lucky bounce goal by Steven Reinprecht, then a power play goal from Cory Stillman, then an empty net shorthanded goal sealed the deal.
Confidence is now at an all-time low. Frustration has to be at an all-time high. I know it is for the fans. I expect a lot of empty seats on Friday against the Maple Leafs. If there’s another loss on Friday, I’m afraid frustrations might boil over in the locker room. Hopefully, we won’t find out.
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Is this rock bottom?
by David Lee on 11/02/09 at 07:29 PM ET
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The Hurricanes, at 2-8-3, are off to the worst start in franchise history. They have now gone nine (0-6-3) games without a win, and in some of these games, they haven’t been very competitive. They’ve been plagued by lapses in focus, lack of presence in front of (either) net, defensive breakdowns, lack of discipline, and mostly, an inability to score. Some nights, the Canes have run into crazily hot goaltenders. Some nights they’ve squandered too many scoring chances. Some nights, they have bad luck. The bottom line is that the puck isn’t going in the other team’s net. All of this has led to a frustrated team and an angry fanbase.
A friend asked me today if I think the Canes have hit rock bottom. I immediately answered that things could be a lot worse, and that they haven’t bottomed out (yet).
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Jim+Rutherford, losing+streak,
Halloween with the Canes
by David Lee on 10/31/09 at 11:12 AM ET
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On Saturday afternoon, the Hurricanes and Flyers will meet for the second time this season. Since it’s Halloween, you can find out what the Canes wives will be handing out to trick-or-treaters. Erik Cole’s house should be fun. Interesting that Tuomo Ruutu doesn’t hand out Snickers bars. Remember this? And maybe it’s just me, but every time I see Andrew Alberts, I think he’s Cam Ward.
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Nightmarish October continues for Canes
by David Lee on 10/29/09 at 07:11 AM ET
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On Wednesday, the Hurricanes played host to the St. Louis Blues and stretched their winless streak to seven games by losing 5-2. Since shelling the Panthers 7-2 on October 9, the boys have gone 0-4-3. While there has been some improvement, there are some recurring themes in this losing streak.
The special teams have been getting much better. The power play was two for six and the penalty kill was a perfect one for one. The Canes have now scored at least one power play goal in four straight games. For the fifth time in the last eight games, the PK was perfect. Those are small things, but it’s a start in the right direction.
Unfortunately, some bad trends are continuing. For at least the fourth time this season, the Canes fell asleep at the wheel and allowed two goals in a span of less than 30 seconds. That can do a lot to the landscape of a game. In this game, Eric Staal missed a couple of grade A++ chances, which is another trend that needs to reverse if the Canes expect to win any games.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, David+Perron, St.+Louis+Blues,
Yelle waived, Sutter likely to be moved to wing
by David Lee on 10/26/09 at 02:26 PM ET
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On Monday, the Hurricanes announced that they have waived veteran forward Stephane Yelle. If he isn’t claimed, he’ll clear waivers at noon Tuesday. Being placed on waivers doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Frantisek Kaberle was placed on waivers at least 37 times last season. He was never claimed, he was never re-assigned to Albany, and he was only bought out this last summer.
Unlike Kaberle, though, Yelle is cheap. His salary this season is $550k, and if a team claims him off re-entry waivers, they’d only be on the hook for half of that. This might be attractive to a team like the New Jersey Devils, who just learned that Jay Pandolfo will be out of the lineup for up to six weeks.
Depending on what happens with Yelle’s waiver situation, it could make a permanent spot for Brandon Sutter in the lineup. The 20-year old has been called up to fill a spot while Tuomo Ruutu is serving a three-game suspension. If Sutter stays, he’ll most likely be shifted to a wing position.
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Tags: Brandon+Sutter, Carolina+Hurricanes, Stephane+Yelle,
Canes keep losing, Rats keep winning
by David Lee on 10/25/09 at 12:08 PM ET
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The Hurricanes four game road trip came to a close on Saturday, and they didn’t have much to show for it. They lost a rollercoaster 5-4 game in Denver on Friday, then lost 3-2 in overtime at Minnesota on Saturday. On the four game trip, the Canes only managed two standings points and have yet to win on the road. For the third time this season, they will now have three days off before their next game. Wednesday night, they’ll be back in the RBC Center against the Blues. While they’ve been lousy on the road, the Canes have grabbed five out of eight standings points at home.
While the Canes are struggling, the Albany River Rats are doing well. They have a record of 5-3-0 and sit atop the Eastern division. More importantly, they beat the Adirondack Phantoms 3-2 on Saturday to grab a two games to none lead in the 12-game season series with the hated rival.
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Tags: Albany+River+Rats, Brandon+Sutter, Carolina+Hurricanes, Ray+Whitney, Tuomo+Ruutu,
Road trip starts badly for Canes
by David Lee on 10/21/09 at 10:27 PM ET
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The Hurricanes continued their annual late October extended road trip in desperate need of a win. The Islanders were a winless team, but have been playing good hockey. Unfortunately for the Canes, this was the night the Isles finally got into the win column. After falling behind 3-1, Carolina mounted a third period rally to tie the game, which was ultimately settled in the shootout. The home team converted all three of their shootout attempts, while the Hurricanes succeeded just once.
It was a night to celebrate Ray Whitney, who was playing in his 1000th NHL game and his 300th as a Cane. Unlike last Wednesday, when he lit the lamp twice, he failed to light the lamp this time. Eric Staal got off the schneid, but it wasn’t enough to lead the Canes to victory.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Eric+Staal, Joni+Pitkanen, Jussi+Jokinen, New+York+Islanders,
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About Red & Black Hockey
David Lee is a restaurant manager with an unused degree in political science. He can be found at Carolina Hurricanes games, Scrabble tournaments and indie-rock shows. Sometimes, all in the same day.
David has contributed to CBC.ca for their Stanley Cup playoff coverage in 2006 and to the New York Times Slapshot blog for theirs in 2008. Red and Black Hockey was founded in July of 2005.
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