Kaberle Off IR, Conboy Reassigned

by Cory Lavalette on Dec 17, 2008 12:02 PM EST in Albany River Rats

Frank Kaberle will be back in the lineup tomorrow. He was activated from injured reserve today. To make room, Carolina assigned defenseman Tim Conboy to Albany (AHL).

Kaberle has battled injuries this season, playing in just seven games with two lengthy stints on the shelf. When he has played, however, he has looked better than the past couple seasons when he was still recovering from shoulder surgery performed before the 2006-07 season.

Conboy was benched last night following a breakaway by Montreal's Guillaume Latendresse, which led to a penalty shot and eventual goal to cut Carolina's two-goal lead in half. Conboy played just 2:59 on the night.

The bigger picture presents a few interesting subplots.

1) Health! — The team is as close to full health as its been in a long time. The only two players out with injuries right now are defenseman Anton Babchuk, and he could be back as early as this weekend, and Niclas Wallin.

2) Albany Pecking Order — The one player called up who is still around? Rookie blueliner Brett Carson. Carson has looked comfortable the past two games in a third-pairing role after averaging more than 24 minutes in his first two NHL outings. He even saw four and a half minutes on the power play last night. The 23-year-old has emerged as the Canes No. 1 Albany blueliner the past 10 days, moving ahead of Conboy, Casey Borer and Bryan Rodney. With Josef Melichar seemingly a last option and Babchuk, when he's not hurt, struggling some this season, don't be surprised if GM Jim Rutherford makes room — if possible — so he can keep Carson up with the Canes.

3) Tough Enough? — The reassignment of Conboy does raise one question: who is the Canes resident tough guy? Pugilist Wade Brookbank has been a healthy scratch the past four games, so if coach Paul Maurice wants a fighter in his lineup he'll have to scratch a forward. Could Chad LaRose, who was scratched against the Rangers Saturday, be back in the press box to make room for Brookbank? Ryan Bayda — who earned rave reviews from associate coach Ron Francis for blocking a shot without his stick last night — and Brandon Sutter seem unlikely to sit, and goalless Patrick Eaves is playing his best hockey of the season, coming close to ending his drought on a few opportunities the past couple games. So it seems either LaRose or Brookbank will be the odd-man out, meaning the team will either be without a designated fighter or one of their best energy guys.

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sorry conboy, we will miss ya!

by wylde4canesHatesJR on Dec 17, 2008 12:03 PM EST reply actions

well that sucks…

by Mateo on Dec 17, 2008 12:31 PM EST reply actions

“1) Health! — The team is as close to full health as its been in a long time. The only player out with injury right now is defenseman Anton Babchuk, and he could be back as early as this weekend.”

Wallin is also out.

by Jonathan on Dec 17, 2008 12:42 PM EST reply actions

Eek .. lol

by Cory on Dec 17, 2008 12:46 PM EST reply actions

Thanks Jonathan … total brain fart. It’s fixed.

by Cory on Dec 17, 2008 12:48 PM EST reply actions

can you imagine whod be scratched if cole was still in the picture.

even so,
i think its time to make another move.
la rose needs to NOT be a healthy scratch,
and any of the ways to fix that are possible
weve got the depth,
and now with the forwards healthy, im thinking big move.

staal needs a semin or a malkin.
im not saying that cant be rutuu or williams,
it hasnt quite been yet

jordan staal is rumored being shopped by pittsburg?

who knows.

why do i always talk about this…

-chris j

by chris j on Dec 17, 2008 1:13 PM EST reply actions

There’s simply no room in the budget to add more salary. If anything, I could see LaRose being moved to a team in need of a PKer.

by Cory on Dec 17, 2008 1:16 PM EST reply actions

sad to say but rosey is expendable. I love his heart and grit and energy but, he is expendable. I would like to see us make some big time moves that brought in the size we were promised during the off season.

BTW (random thought alert)can’t wait to see what Sutter is going to be like next year and the year after that. Once he gets some muscle on him, he is going to be hard to play against.

Another random thought, did anyone else notice how much space Williams was creating for himself last night. He just seemed to find pockets all night long that would allow him to hold the puck and read the ice. He is soon going to be 100% and a major danger out there!

by wylde4canesHatesJR on Dec 17, 2008 1:54 PM EST reply actions

Yeah… I noticed Williams a bunch! It’s only a matter of time before Willy brings Brindy’s +/- up…

by Mateo on Dec 17, 2008 3:03 PM EST reply actions

Trade Eaves, trade Kaberle—-problem solved. We are the 2nd healthest team in the NHL. I’m sure that is killing some who love to use the injury excuse as to why this team is tinkering on 3rd place in our division. I remember some laughing at Florida’s team for this season, who’s laughing now?

by Caron on Dec 17, 2008 3:06 PM EST reply actions

Could it be? The ‘Canes actually having healthy extras? Someone needs to research this and find out when was the last time we had a complete team. It didn’t happen at all last year.

by Frank on Dec 17, 2008 3:15 PM EST reply actions

You may laugh but skrawny ass Sutter is being as physical as can be expected. That melon crush hasn’t hurt him and he is apparently good with a face wash, I have watched him several occaisions. He obviously isn’t going to brawl with LaRoque or even forecheck a big guy until he puts on some pounds. But he plays big. When his nuts drop, I think he’s gonna be nasty talented dude. I also think Ruutu can be like his brother and doesn’t really care who he drops the gloves with as long as he can the dude. Walker same story. So play like Sutter, stick together and if Ruutu or Walker has to throw down, throw down with him. I can work with 5 on 3 to see this team stick together. Gleason I keep hoping get’s a mean streak….

Picture this:
Staal get’s run into the boards, just two random guys, say LaRose goes high and Rutuu takes him down. We lose them both, but points made. How many times will you have to show you are willing to go two men down if it’s the way it goes down.

Where I grew up, you either traveled in packs or you lost your lunch money and maybe more. If everytime one of out own get’s a nasty and everybody on the ice throws back, it will hurt on the PK, but you gotta leave us three men on the ice….

by Paladin6 on Dec 17, 2008 5:06 PM EST reply actions

Boo.

Keep Conboy, scratch Babchuk.

by Sunny on Dec 17, 2008 5:40 PM EST reply actions

“Gleason I keep hoping get’s a mean streak….”

Really? IMO, it’s there.

by Cory on Dec 18, 2008 9:28 AM EST reply actions

Ummm yea, Cory. Agreed.

Did you not see the game on Tuesday Paladin? That boy was literally ready to kill someone after Staal’s hit. He’s just as mean as Conboy without the psycho aspect.

Conboy will be sorely missed, thats for sure.

by T-Leaf on Dec 18, 2008 11:04 AM EST reply actions