Workin' for a Livin'

Just a short post to salute all of us hard working son-of-a-guns out there! Happy Labor Day! Shockingly, during my daily Carolina Hurricanes related search this morning I came across an article about the hypothetical comeback of one Arturs Irbe, (or The Wall, as the author called him). At first I thought the article might be true and Dallas was going to give him a try-out this year, but as the article went on the author made it clear he was just joking. It's still an interesting article though and brought up a couple of old facts about Irbe that I was not aware of. For instance did you know that while he was in San Jose, Irbe suffered a devastating dog-bite injury to his left hand and the wounds included a severed artery as well as permanent nerve damage? According to the author, Art Middleton, Irbe was never the same goalie again afterwards. The name of the story is "Don't Call it a Comeback!". Check it out, it's an interesting read!

It's kind of freaky that after months and months of not seeing anything written about Arturs Irbe, the day after I make the "Favorite Canes Goalie Poll", I find an article about him! Weird! In my post yesterday, I kind of made fun of the various bad times some of the goalies had here. While Irbe will be remembered by some fans for the selfish, "play me or trade me" demand he made right before his downfall here, he should also be remembered for the many outstanding performances he gave over his several years with the team. He still holds Carolina franchise records for most wins, most shut-outs, most total games played by a goalie, and most games played in one season by a goalie. I think eventually those records will belong to Cam Ward, but for now they belong to Irbe and deservedly so. In addition, I think that he was really an entertaining goalie to watch most of the time. Each of the listed goalies had their good moments and bad, I really don't mean to just focus on the bad for any of them. More to come tomorrow.

Huey Lewis and the News