Take This Job and Shove It

The talk of the day is still about Jason Karmanos resigning from his position yesterday. In subsequent interviews, he said that he had been thinking about doing it for awhile. In my opinion, the timing of this seems a bit weird. While Jason said that the busy part of the year for management is during the summer months and he purposely waited until after the hard part of the season was over to resign so not to over-burden Jim Rutherford, it seems to me that in most cases hirings and firings around the NHL seem to occur during the offseason, not a week before the regular season starts. Many people assumed that Jason was the heir apparent to being the organization's future general manager, president, and/or possible owner. Who would turn down a dream future like that? When asked about any possible sale of the franchise, Karmanos replied, "I'm not aware of any change in any status of ownership". Maybe I make too much of things, but that's not exactly like him saying, "no, there are definitely no plans in that regard". People are going to speculate and make assumptions about this resignation and there are certainly plenty of unanswered questions to fuel that speculation, but we'll just have to see what happens. Peter Karmanos was out of town and not available for comment. Jason mentioned that he wants to stay in the area and considers Raleigh home. As I said yesterday, best of luck Jason!

The Canes beat the Blue Jackets last night, 3-0, giving them 2 shut-outs in the pre-season so far. John Grahame earned it last night, accomplishing something he couldn't do all of last year. (getting a shut-out) Let's hope he can carry that success over with him to the regular season. I'm sure he's aware that it's the final year of his contract and he will have to play very well to keep earning those big bucks! Cory Stillman is in the same contract situation, and seems to have found his game, scoring 2 goals last night. (one on an empty netter) Jeff Hamilton continues to impress. The much maligned defense is certainly holding their own so far. But I don't think anyone questioned how well they can play, I think the big question is how healthy can they stay? If this group stays healthy, this could be a very successful season. At least they are starting out better than they did last year in that regard!

Tonight is the last game of the seemingly, short pre-season schedule. The Blue Jackets are in town to look for some revenge. We should see most of the Hurricanes regulars tonight, as they try to get a feel for how the opening night lineup will play out. In other news, Michael Leighton cleared waivers and Albany fans have reason to cheer. We will have to keep close tabs on those River Rats, I think that they should be a pretty decent team this year. TGIF!

Johnny Paycheck