"Fun Fest" Highlights
by Bob Wage on Jul 25, 2008 2:08 AM EDT
in Albany River Rats
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PrintI went over to the RBC last night to check out how the Carolina Hurricanes first "Fun Fest" was going. I'm not very good at guessing the number of heads in a crowd, but if I had to make a guess I would say that there were probably a few hundred people in attendance.
While the crowd looked a bit sparse at times, the food lines were long at the beginning and the "freebie" line was very long most of the night. The Canes were giving out posters and wooden street hockey sticks almost the entire time I was there. (I left after the Q&A segment.)
Everyone seemed to be having a good time and most importantly, the ticket agents looked like they were pretty busy. Yes, some people were buying season tickets.
John Forslund came out as scheduled at 8PM and started out by interviewing Tom Barrasso and Glen Wesley, then Chad LaRose and Justin Williams, and then finally Peter Laviolette. Some of the highlights-
- Tom Barrasso gave his assessment of the goalies. He is very happy with each of them and is expecting a big year this coming season from both Leighton and Ward. The organization has been very impressed with Daniel Manzato's development and he will be the main man in Albany this year. Justin Peters will also play for the Rats and they feel that with proper seasoning, he is NHL capable.
- Glen Wesley is enjoying retirement and is looking forward to his new role with the Hurricanes this coming season.
- Chad LaRose was a joker as usual. He mentioned that he was very happy with his contract and wanted to stay a Hurricane. When asked if he could guarantee the playoffs this year, he answered with a resounding yes, but then went on to guarantee that Justin Williams would have 40 goals this year as well.
- Justin Williams said that he is feeling fine and that he has been skating and working out. He's ready to play right now. Justin and his wife recently had a baby boy, "Jaxon" in early July. There were no guarantees of 40 goals by Williams.
- Peter Laviolette said that losing to Florida on the last night of the season and missing out on the playoffs literally made him sick to his stomach. He believes that the whole team, as well as the entire organization will be hungrier than ever for success this coming year. When asked for possible line combinations, he was very vague, but seemed to like the combo of Ruutu and Staal with either Whitney or Samsonov. When asked about Wade Brookbank, he said that barring any roster changes, he would expect both Brookbank and Tim Conboy to make the squad this year. He also mentioned that training camp will begin on September 19th.
There is not much more to report, that I can remember. Here is a brief video that shows the beginning of the question and answer segment. I still need practice with my camera. TGIF!
P.S. The rumor on Lord Stanley's Blog concerning Nic Wallin yesterday was false. Wallin actually contacted Luke to inform him of that fact. Weird. More about that later on The Hockey News blog.
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I have been wondering over the past few seasons about the goalie situations in the NHL (The Canes, in particular.) I was thinking that, would it not be a good idea to do a “goalie rotation” in the kind of style that the MLB does with their pitchers. (I do know that you are only allowed to dress 2 goalies in a game with a possible 3rd goalie already on the bench in the form of a regular player regular to step in if the 2nd goalie is injured.)
The reason for the pitcher rotation is to match up the best assets of one pitcher against a team while giving the other guys a break to recuperate.
It seems as though the past couple of seasons Cam has struggled here and there and, while I don’t blame him entirely for missing the playoffs, it does seem that there were some games where he just didn’t seem “on.”
So, I guess my question is: Would a “Goalie Rotation” type program work within the NHL, is it legal, and is it something that Carolina could benefit from?
I don’t think anyone would benefit from a straight 50/50 division in the work load but, I do think that more could be done to get the most out of each goalie…with your “bullpen” being the farm teams.
I dunno…any ideas?
by Parker Thomas on Jul 25, 2008 12:38 PM EDT reply actions
Some coaches have done this in the past, with varying degrees of success. Most coaches like to “ride the hot goalie,” which seems to be the best thing to do. Some goalies need to play through adversity, some get their confidence shattered by not playing. Pitchers throw sometimes over 100 pitches a game – they are involved in every play of the game in baseball (it all starts with them) while goalies aren’t and don’t necessarily need 3 days between starts. Both Can get shelled, though.
Besides, hockey players are just tougher than baseball players in general. (That might stir something up.)
by marc on Jul 25, 2008 4:15 PM EDT reply actions
wow i am on youtube!!! haha. i enjoyed going to the rbc center cant wait till the season starts. alot of season tickets are left. i hope our team performs well so they can make plenty of money.
by salim919 on Jul 25, 2008 6:46 PM EDT reply actions
check out the great the eye of the storm blog
by sansonovfan14 on Jul 25, 2008 10:30 PM EDT reply actions
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