Only Worse

Wow! I was seriously hoping that Buffalo would make this an even ten to zero route!

There is nothing to say about this game other than it stunk!!!

But I have to say that I do believe that the team has tuned out Peter, and that if over this road trip, things don’t turn around, he will be in jeopardy of losing his job. This is a point that cannot be denied!

I was so glad that he let Cracker Boy sit and wallow in his own blood from his own jugular! Cam was not part of this, and he deserved to sit this one out and let Grahame swing in the wind. As for the rest of the team, THEY SUCKED! Poor puck handling, poor PK, poor PP, turnovers….. And now we have to face a surging Rangers club!

I will always be in the Canes corner, but this does it. They have squeaked by for sometime now, and tonight, the ice was broken. It is time to shake this team up, time to move on past our hearts, and look at reality. This team deserves a two hour skate from end to end on the ice on Sunday, and nothing less. I hope that JR is on the phone now, and by weeks end, someone is gone, and someone has come in to replace them. And this goes from Brind’Amour on down!

Pardon me while I Fabreze my livingroom from the stink of this game!

Sean

I’m starting to think, maybe the problem actually is coaching. The Canes are built for offense, a fast team packed with scorers. But that offense isn’t always going to be there, and you’re going to have to win a few 2-1 games here and there.

Just look at the Rangers. There’s a team with not one but two 600-goal scorers. They’ve got Chris Drury and Petr Prucha—two 30 goal scorers—on their third line.

But they don’t win games with scoring. They win with a defensive system (and of course the best goalie in the league). Maybe the Hurricanes need some defensive discipline as opposed to an all-out attacking strategy? Is Laviolette the coach that can give them that? I have no idea.

Another question: is it time to admit that Cam Ward isn’t the goalie we saw in the 2006 Finals? Is the real Cam Ward going to hover around 2.65 GAA and .900 SV%?

The Hurricanes still have a healthy lead in the division and are still near the top of the conference. I think these kinds of games are going to happen. This is a puck possession, all-out-attack team who can win games 5-4 or 6-5. When they’re on, they score 7 goals, but when they’re off, they give up 7. I think it’s just the nature of their style of play.

Your most recent poll results are surprising! Fans would bench Ladd and Hamilton before LaRose? By the way…why was Hamilton scratched last night?

John,
your poll question leads to an interesting question… Why would people want to see LaRose not benched? He has of late become a whiner on the ice, and the refs know it. I hate to say this, but he has been very lucky of late for not getting diving calls. He is trying to draw penalties, and from where I sit, his timing is off enough to bring validity to his “injury”.

Either way, I don’t see this as being a good road trip for the boys. And maybe, if the results on this trip aren’t favorable, the sunset for Lavi!

Sean

If the boys truly are tuning out Lavi, they have to ask themselves, will things be any better with someone else as coach? That’s doubtful. I still think that it will be awhile before JR sends Laviolette packing. There will be several trades before that happens unless he is insubordinate to Rutherford, and I doubt he would do that. But having said that, as I have mentioned before I do think Laviolette needs to be more flexible regarding his game plan as well.

There are several LaRose fans that hang out here and no offense, but I’m getting tired of his antics myself. I know I’m old school, but I wish he would just shut up and play the game. He’s really not good enough to be trash-talking against every team, in my opinion. I think playing on the one of the top lines has gone to his head a bit, he wasn’t like this at the beginning of the year. One thing about LaRose though, he always plays at 100%.

Laviolette said that he played Tanabe to help out on defense. I only saw him play at forward though. Letowski played okay I guess. Too bad for Craig Adams who had a 175 consecutive game streak broken last night because of a healthy scratch. Weird. and why Jeff Hamilton was scratched? Beats me, although he’s had a rough spell lately, after his hot start. Maybe he just needed a rest.

Coach took this team to a Cup …. he did not get stupid overnight. He is also not the problem.

This can be a great team (again). Recchi would be a huge addition, not just for the goals but for leadership and locker room as well. Go back and look at the 2006 DVD for the number of big plays he made.

The Canes never have replaced Aaron Ward … without a doubt the leader of the D, physical, hostile and a shot blocker. They need a banger,
someone like Hatcher that makes forwards pay for
time in the slot. Right now only Seidenberg and Gleason hit anybody. We are just too easy to play against in our own end.

Finally – Graham has got to go (and not because of last night). I was shocked when they brought him back for this season. He has a habit of giving up big goals at the worst times; way too undisciplined with his position in net and puck handling.

Thanks for your comments John!