Showdown

by Bob Wage on Oct 3, 2007 12:01 PM EDT

The stage is set as the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens are ready to square off in the season opener for both teams tonight. Word is out that there will be a special video presentation at 6:45, so get there early! The Canes will be celebrating their 10th anniversary with a variety of different events this season, and this will start things off. Be sure to get your magnet schedule and special "decoder" at the entrance. The decoder will help to win the free house that they are giving away later in the season. Yes, a free house!

As we discussed earlier, the game will not be broadcast on television locally due to Versus license restrictions, but people with cable can watch on the free NHL Center Ice Preview on channel 732, (Time Warner Cable). Of course the various satellite companies offer free Center Ice as well. The game will also be broadcast on 99.9 FM here in the triangle.Â If you are out of town, the other stations listed on the "Hurricanes Radio Network" are: Pirate Radio 1250 AM and 930 AM in Greenville, 990 AM in Southern Pines, and 1490 AM in New Bern. That doesn't seem like much of a network, but there is always the internet feed if you don't have access to any of those stations.

John Grahame's leg injury has improved and he will be on the bench tonight, ready to play if needed. The lines are listed as follows: Staal, Stillman, Cole, Brind'Amour, Whitney, Williams, Cullen, Walker, Ladd, and Hamilton, Adams, and Bayda, (or LaRose). The defensive pairings are Commodore-Hedican, Wesley-Kaberle, and Gleason-Wallin. Of course Cam Ward will be in the net. Hopefully, the Canes will come out as fired up as the fans will be!

Thumbs up to the News and Observer for their great, in-depth coverage in today's paper. Thumbs down about the mistake on one of the photo captions, declaring that Martin Gelinas scored the series clinching goal over "Montreal" that put the Canes in the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals. People should proofread these things!

The Canes were 4-1-1 during the pre-season. Of course those games don't count in the standings, but I think that they are important for a team's confidence. We will see if they can carry forward their pre-season success to the regular season, very shortly. Have fun Caniacs, and Go Canes!

ELO

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Comments

Looked like a loose but determined group at the pre-game skate this morning. Plenty of joking around between Cole and Crackers. I did notice toward the end of practice Seidenberg and Letowski seemed to be getting “punished”. They were working with Jeff Daniels on some skating/passing shuttle-type drills to the point of exhaustion. I couldn’t tell if this was punishment of some sort or voluntary to try to bring themselves up to speed to get in the lineup. Any ideas?

by jwalther420 on Oct 3, 2007 12:54 PM EDT reply actions

Seidenberg and Letowski were scratched for tonight. It’s not unusual for the healthy scratches to stay after the pre-game skate for extra work. Sounds like they got a good workout!

Thanks for the report. It’s good to know that the boys are loose, hopefully just not too loose!

by Bubba on Oct 3, 2007 1:54 PM EDT reply actions

Bubba,
Thanks for great off-season coverage, and making slow days seem fun this past summer! I wish you the best of luck through the season, and hope that the Canes realize that YOU are the truly legit blogger in the area, with the best website around.

I don’t know what you do for a living that allows you to do what you do, and if you are married, God bless your wife for obviously not giving you a hard time with all the time you take to do this.

We are all hoping for a great season, and despite some “experts” predictions (yeah I’m talking to you Ek), I think this is going to be a great year, and last year will be become a distant memory. I see us winning the conference (Melrose picks tha Thrashers, what is he smoking?), but once again, we will outwit the experts, and outplay the opponents!

Best of luck this year, and don’t forget my prediction …. if I am wrong, two tickets go to someone deserving in Canes Country’s name!

Sean

by CaniacSean on Oct 3, 2007 3:20 PM EDT reply actions

Sean,

As always, thanks for the kind words. I think that the Hurricanes have the best, or one of the best blogging communities in the league. And that’s without the benefit of a blogger’s box!! Anyway, I enjoy it, so I give it my best. Most of the writing and work that I do is late at night. I’ve always been a night owl. Luckily I do have some flexibility at work, but this past year has been one of the busiest that I have had at my job. (lots of overtime and weekend work). My kids are grown so they don’t need me reading them books or playing with them every night anymore. And my wife loves hockey about as much as me, so she’s cool with the blog work. Plus, it keeps me out of trouble, which I have been known to get into from time to time!

Cheers!

by Bubba on Oct 3, 2007 4:38 PM EDT reply actions