Hurricanes win over Penguins but lose Captain

This pretty much sinks us for this year I would think.

I don’t agree. Brind’amour is a huge part of this team, but he hasn’t been playing well lately, offensively or (as far as I can see) defensively.

It’s not good, but I don’t think it will change our current course too much. Maybe it will wake us up.

How can it not affect the team? Brindy hasn’t been playing all that well lately and the Canes haven’t been winning – that is the correlation to make.

We now have 1 centre – centre! – Eric Staal. Who else is behind him? Hamilton…With Cullen out and Brindy out we become a team with 1 first line C and the rest of our C positions anchored by AHL and 4th line NHLers :( It’s really depressing. He is the heart and soul of the team.

My 2 cents:

The loss of Brindy sucks, but he hasn’t been playing up to par, so I don’t think it’s his play that is going to missed as much as it is his leadership. I could be wrong, but Staal and Whitney seemed to jump right in and fill his shoes on the leadership front. The new guys seemed be the “fountain of youth” for some of our older guys like Wesley and Walker. I don’t think our season is sunk at all, on the contrary, I think that if guys get used to stepping up and filling Brindy’s shoes, we may just look even better. The team dynamic seemed to shift last night. You could see it happen….

i agree with most of this.
but you guys dont give aucoin enough credit.
hell be a great center for the remainder of the season. and just because brindy wont be playing, doesnt mean he wont be around the team still being a leader. and about the dynamic of the team changing last night: i agree it did change. but it has changed so many times like that this season just to change back sometime over the next two days to see a deplted team on the next game. the question whether the new dynamic will stay.
it hurts imy heart so much to have brindamour, williams, larose and cullen out (especially after that trade) but it is exciting to see a game like last night. the hitting and toughness was amazing.
in all this sadness this is what im excited about
-aucoin, bayda and borer
-(and even mormina and brookbank after not being afraid of laraque)
-cullen could be back soon
-williams could play the playoffs.
-watch eric staal in regards of defensive forward. his toughness and stick handling sometimes looks amazing.
and lastly
- i know all of you are loving what samsonov is doing with the puck.
its exciting everytime he has it and starts to speed up that stick handling and move around. ive never seen that before. and its so exciting to watch. its almost like a fast forwarded version of brindamour smoothness when puck handling in the offfensive zone.

so dont give up.
nobody is denying things are tough
but we are not out of it.

one question
-do yo uthink rutherford will look to aquire so kind of help at center?

-juengel

It may just be me, but I think the River Rats would beat the Canes if they played!! Those guys deserve to stay around for a while, at least a few of em. Aucoins played great all year for us and so has borer. I saw borer make a couple of really nice defensive moves last night. Bayda should of had 2 or 3 goals, but ended with one. I mean come on….this is just showing us how complacent the rest of the Canes have become. The energy the River Rats bring to this team amounted to 46 shots on goal!!! THATS A LOTTA SHOTS….I dont care whose in net, 46 shots is tough to beat. We scored 4 Goals and Sabourin still posted better than a .900! Thats how you win games.

The loss of Brind’Amour hurts, but it might not kill the team yet. I think they do need to pick up another warm body at center though. They got by last night, but in the long run they need more than Staal, Aucoin, and Letowski up the middle.

Last night Forslund mentioned Peca. Fedorov also might be available and could play well alongside Samsonov. Whomever they pick up, I doubt the Canes will give up much to get him. They just can’t afford to decimate their depth any further.

I was impressed with The Big Letowski in the face-off circle. I didn’t check up on his percentages, but he seemed to step in and pick up the really big ones. That was a surprise. So through it all, The Dude abides.

Jordan staal taking a run at wesley was the funniest moment of the whole game. I think wesley and his 39(i think)years of experience would have given that kid a beating to remember if it would have went down.

Imagine this team, as is, making the playoffs? That would be the true Cinderella story of the sports world!

Sean

Down, but not out. Time for the rest of the guys to step it up. Brindy’s the man, but now maybe Staal can emerge as the new team leader. Hope the guys throw some hits early and set the tone like last game. Taking Malkin off his game was amazing with the run he’s been on recently. The Rats are healthy enough not to get pushed around and come ready to play. These kids are hungry and want their roster spots…not that they have much of an alternative . I think if they can get this one against the Cats tonight and go three in a row this should get them on a roll for the rest of the season.