Red & Black Hockey
Entries with the tag: Carolina+Hurricanes
Canes down Ducks
by David Lee on 10/20/08 at 01:43 AM ET
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On Sunday night, the Hurricanes needed some heroics from goaltender Michael Leighton in order to squeak out a 3-1 victory in Anaheim. The Canes took three of a possible four points in California, getting the six game road trip off to a good start.
Michael Leighton got his second start of the year, and he was much better than he was in his win against Tampa. Partial credit on that goes to better defense in front of him, denying second chances. Mostly, though, the credit is his for having better rebound control and better awareness.
Rod Brind’Amour and Eric Staal got key goals late in the game, and Ryan Bayda continued his impressive campaign by scoring his second goal of the season.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Anaheim+Ducks, Brandon+Sutter, Carolina+Hurricanes, Eric+Staal, Michael+Leighton, Nic+Wallin,
Canes fall to Kings, lose Kaberle
by David Lee on 10/19/08 at 12:17 PM ET
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On Friday, the Hurricanes began their annual late October two week road trip in Los Angeles. After giving up the game’s first goal, then taking a 3-1 lead in the second, Carolina ended up losing in overtime 4-3. Carolina also lost defenseman Frantisek Kaberle to injury.
At 6:37 of the second frame, Kaberle hobbled off the bench and to the Canes locker room. He didn’t return to action, and the initial report was that he had suffered a fracture in his foot after blocking a shot. He is expected to miss two to four weeks. It’s very early in the season, but already Carolina has nine man-games lost to injury. Tonight’s injury scratches will raise that number to 13.
Eric Staal was also injured in that game, enough to keep him out of practice on Saturday. However, he is expected to extend his consecutive games streak to 259 tonight against the Ducks.
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Tags: Anaheim+Ducks, Carolina+Hurricanes, Frantisek+Kaberle, injuries,
Tanabe is finished.
by David Lee on 10/17/08 at 03:03 PM ET
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After months and months of waiting, the issue between the Hurricanes and defenseman David Tanabe has finally been resolved.
Tanabe is finally off the books, and Carolina will pay out $850k spread out over the next three years. This payment is per an agreement that was made between Avi and the Hurricanes.
I wrote about this yesterday, wondering when, if ever, this would come to a close. After the attempted buyout and resulting grievance, the Hurricanes scheduled a meeting with an arbitrator. That meeting was to occur “sometime in October”, but according to this News & Observer piece, the hearing was canceled when the two sides came to this agreement.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, David+Tanabe,
Carolina begins road journey
by David Lee on 10/17/08 at 08:41 AM ET
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On Friday, the Hurricanes will play the first of six straight road games, and they’ll have to do it with yet another forward on the shelf.
When Carolina visits Los Angeles tonight at 10:30, they’ll most likely be doing it without Tuomo Ruutu. He missed most of the pre-season with a groin issue, and it’s persisted enough for his status to be deemed “doubtful”.
Ruutu makes three top nine wingers on the injured list. There will be a lot of line juggling, and Chad “Sharpie” LaRose was practicing with the top line on Thursday, so he might get a chance to do that in game action. Patrick Eaves, who started the season on the top line, has found his way into Peter Laviolette’s doghouse, but there’s no telling how the lines will be made tonight.
Still, this is an opportunity for another young player.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, injuries, Los+Angeles+Kings, Tuomo+Ruutu, Zach+Boychuk,
Searching for David Tanabe
by David Lee on 10/16/08 at 08:16 AM ET
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One of the more perplexing stories out of Raleigh over the last 10 months or so has been the health status of Canes defenseman David Tanabe. The story has taken a few twists and turns and there’s always a promise of resolution just around the corner, but right now we know less than we did in January.
On December 18 of last year, Tanabe left the game against the Maple Leafs during the first period. Later, it was reported that he had suffered a concussion. He never returned to action, and health status updates were shady at best for the rest of that season.
in July, the Hurricanes attempted to buy out the remaining year of Tanabe’s contract, but that maneuver was immediately protested by Tanabe himself and also by the NHLPA. Injured players cannot be bought out. Fair enough, but the Hurricanes hadn’t heard a peep out of Tanabe. And they still haven’t.
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Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, David+Tanabe,
Canes lose, but look like ninjas doing it
by David Lee on 10/13/08 at 11:15 PM ET
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On Monday, the Hurricanes lost their first game of the season 3-1 to the Red Wings. Even though they lost the game, the Hurricanes can take some good things out of the game.
They also debuted their new alternate third sweater, which is actually a whole uniform. They looked stealthy and ninja-like with their black socks, black pants, black gloves, black sweater and black lids. I like the uniform in action even more than I thought I would. I wasn’t in the building tonight, but they looked sharp on teevee.
Unlike the first two games, Carolina actually looked good in all three zones in the first period. Like the first two games, they were scored upon first. Unlike the first two games, they were unable to come back.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey, game summary | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Brandon+Sutter, Cam+Ward, Carolina+Hurricanes, Detroit+Red+Wings, Ryan+Bayda, Ty+Conklin,
Carolina opens with wild ride, win
by David Lee on 10/10/08 at 10:10 PM ET
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Carolina opened their 11th season on Friday with a wild game against division foe Florida and a 6-4 win. It wasn’t pretty, but two points in the standings look good any day of the week.
The Hurricanes stumbled out of the gates, giving up two goals in the first six minutes of the contest, but settled in nicely with goals from six different players and assists from seven different players. At the end of it all, Tim Gleason earned the game’s first star with three assists.
Recap and notes after the jump
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey, game summary | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Brandon+Sutter, Carolina+Hurricanes, Florida+Panthers, Frantisek+Kaberle, game+recap, Joni+Pitkanen, Tim+Gleason,
Opening Night!
by David Lee on 10/10/08 at 07:59 AM ET
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The unbearably long wait is finally over. Tonight is opening night for Carolina and 12 other teams. Thousands of hockey fans in Carolina will be cutting out of work early, or skipping work altogether. The RBC Center parking lot will fill up early and the sweet sweet smell of propane and grilled meat will be thick. Cold beer and loud music will be coming from every tailgate. Friendships will be renewed and new ones will be forged. The sun will be shining and the birds will be singing. It’s hockey night in Carolina.
Unfortunately, I won’t be there for opening night. Instead, for the first time since 2001, I’ll be watching the home opener from RBH headquarters.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Florida+Panthers, opening+night,
Tampa Bay writers, fans irked by Carolina’s rebuff
by David Lee on 10/08/08 at 09:12 PM ET
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Earlier, Paul wrote about a scheduling problem in the City of Tampa. It seems that some professional baseball team from the Bay area is participating in some post-season tournament, and one of their games is scheduled for the same time as the Bolts home opener against Carolina on Saturday.
Under normal circumstances, the city would just cope with it, as Detroit did when both the Red Wings and Pistons were simultaneously playing home playoff games on the same night last summer. Or they might petition the league to move the start time of one or the other game. In this case, Carolina has veto power on bumping up the start time of the hockey game because they will be on the back end of a back-to-back, and the proposed start time of 5:00 would be just 19 hours after the end of Friday’s game. Carolina said “thanks but no thanks”, and certain people have been rubbed the wrong way.
Carolina is used to having grenades lobbed its way by the press from the Sunshine State, but this is getting really silly.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Tampa+Bay+Lightning,
Canes make final cuts
by David Lee on 10/07/08 at 05:24 PM ET
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On Tuesday, the Hurricanes announced their final roster cuts. Defenseman/Right Wing Tim “We Got us a Great Big” Conboy, left wing Trevor Gillies and winger Joe Jensen have been sent to Albany, putting the roster at 25 men. Justin Williams and Scott Walker are on the injured reserve, so that unofficially puts them at 23, where they need to be for opening night.
It hurts a little bit to see Conboy sent down, as he has been a RBH favorite, but he was injured during camp and didn’t get much of a chance to play. He will most likely have a few cups of coffee this winter, but he’ll begin the season at the AHL level.
The big news here is that free agent try-out Dan LaCouture has made the final roster, as has 2008 first round draft selection Zach Boychuk. In all likelihood, Boychuk will play in nine or fewer games, then be returned to Lethbridge of the WHL. He is still recovering from surgery and hasn’t been cleared for contact yet, so he’ll be a scratch on opening night. It looks like the lines will look like this:
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Patrick+Eaves,
Walker out, no cuts made yet
by David Lee on 10/06/08 at 06:20 PM ET
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Today, I expected to hear some news about final cuts made to the Hurricanes roster. Instead, I came home to learn that forward Scott Walker will be out of the lineup for the next six weeks. Walker, who has become more of a hothead with every passing month, injured his left hand in a fight during last Sunday’s preseason game in Philly. He had surgery today and will miss the first quarter of the season.
Things were starting to look a little better on the injury front, but this will throw a wrench in the opening night plans.
No cuts have been made, and the roster stands at 28, but free agent tryout Dan LaCouture was signed to a two-way one-year contract today. The 31-year old has played in a total of 326 NHL games with five different teams, and has been out of the NHL since 2006-07. According to all reports, he came into camp in terrific shape and has impressed the coaches all along.
At this point, anyone’s guess is just as good as mine, but here’s my updated projections for the opening night lines:
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes, NHL Hockey | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, injuries, Scott+Walker,
Canes close preseason with win
by David Lee on 10/05/08 at 06:16 PM ET
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After losing the first three exhibition games (and looking bad doing so) the Hurricanes rattled off three straight wins to finish the preseason. Carolina will start playing games that count on Friday with a home game against the Panthers.
Eric Staal and Ray Whitney scored today for a 2-0 shutout over the Preds. Cam Ward went the distance, making 31 stops with both teams pretty much fielding the “A team”.
For the first time all preseason, Rod Brind’Amour played. He skated 19 shifts for a total of 15:04 of ice time. He took just 13 of the faceoffs, compared to 17 taken by Brandon Sutter. This was pretty much the plan: to use him sparingly.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Brandon+Sutter, Cam+Ward, Carolina+Hurricanes, Eric+Staal, Joni+Pitkanen, Patrick+Eaves, preseason, Rod+Brind'Amour,
Jeff O’Neill leaves Canes camp
by David Lee on 09/30/08 at 08:52 PM ET
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On Tuesday, the news came that Jeff O’Neill, once a Hurricanes hero, once a Hurricanes pariah, most recently a Hurricane hopeful, ended his quest for a return to the NHL. For now, anyway.
N&O Hurricanes beat writer Chip Alexander has a quick hit and Luke Decock has a much better take.
History may record Jeff O’Neill as an underachiever, never reaching the promise that made him the fifth overall pick in 1997. But for a few seasons with the Hurricanes, he was every bit that good—just not this fall.
According to the articles, O’Neill and the Hurricanes came to an agreement that it just wasn’t going to happen. I can say that after attending one preseason game and watching another, there is no doubt that O’Neill was a non-factor. He was hardly even visible. When Justin Williams went out with his Achilles injury, things looked good for #92, but he didn’t bring enough to the table to seize the opportunity.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Jeff+O'Neill,
Canes defense remains a mystery
by David Lee on 09/29/08 at 05:28 PM ET
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The Hurricanes have trimmed their training camp roster to 33 players, and with the regular season just 10 days away, there are still quite a few lineup issues to be resolved. The most intriguing issue is the blueline. There are still nine defensemen in camp, and only three of them—Joe Corvo, Tim Gleason and Joni Pitkänen—are guaranteed roster spots. And this doesn’t count the enigmatic and AWOL David (aka “Avi”, aka “Snuggles”) who has not shown up for camp and claims he is still concussed.
The News&Observer has opened the floor for the debate: How will the defensive pairings be filled out? Everybody agrees that Gleason, Pitkänen and Corvo are in the top four. The debate is about who among Anton Babchuk, Tim Conboy, Frantisek Kaberle, Josef Melichar, Dennis Seidenberg and Nic Wallin will play every night, who will be a healthy scratch, who will be relegated to Albany, and finally who will be traded to Los Angeles. To make matters more confusing, free agent Bryan Rodney is among the last men standing after another round of cuts on Sunday.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Anton+Babchuk, Bryan+Rodney, Carolina+Hurricanes, David+Tanabe, defensemen, Dennis+Seidenberg, Frantisek+Kaberle, Joe+Corvo, Joni+Pitkanen, Josef+Melichar, Nick+Wallin, Tim+Conboy, Tim+Gleason,
Canes drop preseason opener
by David Lee on 09/24/08 at 11:17 PM ET
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On Wednesday night, the (preseason) puck dropped in Raleigh. Unfortunately for the 2/3 full house, it wasn’t a happy return as the visiting Capitals won the first game of the home-and-home 4-1. Neither team sent its “A” team on the ice, but Washington’s “B” team was a lot better than Carolina’s. LW Tomas Fleischmann led the way for the visitors with two power play markers.
Filed in: Carolina Hurricanes | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Carolina+Hurricanes, Joni+Pitkanen, Nic+Wallin, preseason, Washington+Capitals,
