Clicks and Clippings: Prepping for the Penguins
by hockeymomof2 on Oct 13, 2009 12:30 PM EDT
16 comments
As Harwood led off in his story here this morning, guess who's coming to play tomorrow night? Sidney, Geno and Uncle Jordan have already arrived in Raleigh to face-off against the Hurricanes for the first time since that painful sweep last May, and you have to believe our boys in red would like to give the Penguins a special night they'll remember for a long time to come. Opposing goalies Cam Ward and Marc-Andre Fleury have a little extra riding on this one as Team Canada's decision makers will likely be watching from the northern provinces.
Wednesday's re-match has the potential to be the much-needed momentum changer for Carolina, to set the standard for the rest of month as the Canes take off after this one for their annual "State Fair" roadtrip . For the next 4 games (and 5 of the next 6) they will be the visitors as they travel from the Devils to the Avalanche, wrapping up October with the Flyers on Halloween night (with way too much "orange and black" for me to contemplate that evening).
Hockey fans: this is your call to get your tickets to Wednesday's game to rally the troops against the Penguins tomorrow night. Think what a Wednesday sell-out crowd of screaming Caniacs would do to inspire the hometown team! Believe me when I say: we need More Cowbell!
(Is it too early to say "must win"?)
Thinking outside "The Box":
The theme of the day for the Hurricanes media on Monday seemed to be understanding the Penalty Problem. We looked at it here Sunday night and Chip Alexander, Paul Branecky and Paul Maurice all offer up great statistics and insight in the following links:
Canes Now - Maurice: penalties 'major problem' for Canes
Discipline a Cause for Concern - Tracking the Storm
Penalties are mounting too quickly for Canes - News & Observer This piece from this morning goes further and compares the Canes numbers to other teams around the NHL.
Late add: The Big Tailgate :: Puck Drops following up on their conversation with Harwood yesterday: "PK or PP: What's the Real issue on Special Teams?" by Brian LeBlanc.
More from practice today, Albany and across the NHL after the jump.
Both Eric Staal and Joni Pitkanen are sitting out practice today, according to CanesNow. However, Eric's father (AKA Parker's grandfather) Henry Staal is in the seats at the RBC, wearing a Canes jersey. (Thanks to the LGC twitter feed for that visual.)
UPDATE: Joni Pitkanen will not play against Pens, Maurice says. Staal will play.( thank you ice_chip for the news - I guess )
Glad to hear that Jussi Jokinen is back on the ice so Ron Francis doesn't need to pretend he's a 26-year- old Finnish wing like he did yesterday when the Hof'er filled in the lines (thanks to ice_chip on that one, too).
Here's a piece on Jordan Staal's increasing responsibility with the Penguins from the Hockey News. If you don't hate watching and listening to the Pens stars, check it out. Otherwise, avoid at all costs.
There are about 4 sources for Weekly Power Rankings I haven't included because they serve no useful purpose except to require we all go refill our Zantac prescription. However, this one really got me. Again from The Hockey News: Ranking the Hurricanes at #22 (up from #26 last week!), their added comment: "Would anyone be really surprised if these guys missed the playoffs?" GRRRR.
American League highlights from New York (and I don't mean my NY Yankees)
For more on the very exciting Albany River Rats, check out the always helpful The Infestation: News & Notes from October 12, including a link to see highlights of Friday's win on Youtube. I so enjoyed seeing and hearing all those names (Zach Boychuk, Brandon Sutter, Jamie McBain, Patrick Dwyer, Brett Carson, for starters), I embedded it here to be sure you didn't miss it. You can really see the chemistry developing in the highlights.
I'll keep an eye out for Saturday's blow-out win over the Amerks with Mike Murphy in goal and put it up as well.
Audio links/Podcasts
With Harwood's celebrity appearance on the Podcast known as "Puck Drops" yesterday, I thought I'd link you up with a few other hockey podcasts. If you haven't discovered this yet, you can subscribe to an RSS feed or through iTunes and find these automatically downloaded to your portable device to listen to on your next trip to the gym or long drive to work. Very easy and different from your usual iTunes fare.
Over at the Hurricanes offices, blogger Paul Branecky and media handler Kyle Handlin do a great job with their weekly discussion called The Hurricanes Report.
From TSN.ca , you can find a variety of weekly podcasts by Bob Mackenzie and others, though they may seem a little too Canadian for your tastes.
At ESPNRadio, Barry Melrose talks about the NHL on Hockey Today. (this is a link to the index for all the available ESPNRadio podcasts - you'll need to search for hockey to get to the appropriate hook-up)
This list doesn't begin to scratch the surface of everything hockey that's out there as a podcast. If you all have another one you find that you like, please share in your comments below
Around the NHL
If you thought hockey in Raleigh got no respect from Versus, check out this: Versus.com blogger Adrian Dater: Music City Off Beat for NHL "It’s a tough thing to say, but it needs to be said: the Predators should get the heck out of the NHL. They’ve been a charity case team the last few years, needing revenue-sharing money from the rest of the league just to stay operable." Ouch!
What We Learned: Contraction talk? Must be that time of year - Puck Daddy - Ryan Lambert gives his weekly synopsis of 30 teams and rails on the ridiculous premise of the Versus article.
Last word on the topic is from Predator's blogger Dirk Hoag who pulls out all the stops as he makes his rebuttal over at the SBN blog On the Forecheck : Denver columnist Adrian Dater calls for Nashville to "get the heck out of the NHL"
Finally, read what the NHL is telling its players about the nasty pitfalls of the unpredictable and way-too-risky (risque?) internet: Blogs With Balls reminder; NHL scares players about Internet - Puck Daddy . I wonder if this is how Dick Clark felt when he started American Bandstand in 1952? The more things change.....
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NHL Network will air the Canes/Pens game tomorrow night as well as FSN.
Even more reason to beat the Pens. They would love nothing more than to talk all night about how great the Pens are and how disappointing the Canes are. I assume that the NHL Network will use their own broadcasters.
I watched some of NHL Live on the NHL Network yesterday (since I was off…thanks Columbus for discovering us) and had a reality check on how lucky we are to have an NHL team in Raleigh. They had several callers from Canada calling hoping an NHL team would come to their area in Canada since they are not able to travel to the other cities to see games. They even mentioned how they would love to have another team in Conneticutt. As HM2 has said, we really need to support this team. I can’t imagine life without a hockey team here. I feel for those fans. It was interesting that they said ticket sales was only 58% of the revenue that a team generated for a team to be successful. Even if you sold out every game, a team still had to generate the other 42% somewhere else (sponsors, food, store etc) to stay afloat in the NHL.
Go Canes!
C
Speaking of making a statement about how great and lucky the fans are in Raleigh
I just spotted this over at Puck Daddy (it went up after my last check there) – someone with a video camera and a youtube account needs to get to work on a rebuttal. Soon!
(to be clear: Puck Daddy doesn’t seem to like the video series either)
Video: This does nothing to help the image of Carolina fans
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by hockeymomof2 on Oct 13, 2009 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Ummm…. my life would have been just as well off if I didn’t have to watch that horrible youtube video….
We should never speak of this again….
by Mateos_Canes_Lamp on Oct 13, 2009 11:20 PM EDT up reply actions
I too would like that 4 minutes of my life back…
but the interviewer looked more like a moron than anyone else (except that sabres fan in the canes jersey…)
I mean, ask a bunch of stupid questions, what the heck do you expect people to say? the first guy was obviously just messing with her… and the last guy? Chicken-fried hockey anyone? (I know, he said southern-fried hockey – but aren’t they really the same thing?)
by Andrea's evil twin on Oct 14, 2009 9:21 AM EDT up reply actions
I’m sure there will be enough Pen fans to fill RBC up but at least it will look full on the NHL broadcast. If the Pen fans don’t show up it will probably look like a ghost town on TV. Although I would love to see the Canes blow this game up I feel this will be another VERY UGLY game for us. With our D sucking the way it is (thank you Joni for keeping your REAL injury from the fans and press) and the Pens being the offensive power house they are this game could be will be worse than the Boston game. Pens 6 Canes 2 and Mo don’t pull Cam at the end of the game it only makes the score look worse after Sid scores and empty netter.
Oh yea, LETS GO CANES!!!!!!!
Talk about a buzz killer. (It's only October, isn't it?)
Maybe we could all become long-distance River Rats fans in preparation for 2 or 3 season from now.
You really see no hope?
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
by hockeymomof2 on Oct 13, 2009 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Now Staal is hurt with a mystery injury
No hope for tommorrows game, it’s just setting up for a nightmare. Staal leaves early on Mon. and today he doesn’t practice. They say he is “tight” and well play regardless of injury. Last year he hurt his shoulder (although they never admitted it) even though he played through it he wasn’t much of a factor in many games last year….he was in a slump, so they said. Without Staal 100% and without Joni 100% I feel the team isn’t going to be 100%. For your comment about it being Oct. yes it’s early but every game counts, two years ago we missed the playoffs by a point or two. Will this be another close year missing the playoffs? We will see.
I’m not having a pity party.
Staal has been a no-show so far this season.
Joni is turning into a complete head case…. (is he too cold to practice?)
Sucks…. but that is just the way it is….
by Mateos_Canes_Lamp on Oct 13, 2009 11:26 PM EDT up reply actions
My goodness, I was actually excited about tomorrow’s game. Now, I don’t even know if I have the will to go on. ;)
Seriously though, it may not be as bad as we’re making it out to be. At this point in the season, they’re probably going to be extra careful (with both injury and illness) and give guys as much time off as they can.
Well, since jenni and CG and I often find ourselves on the same side of an argument, here’s a good omen or maybe just a good-luck charm for our game tomorrow – under the traditional Hurricanes’ heading “it’s not over till the clock reads 00:00:00”. (Maybe it’s just a Mars and Venus thing)
From the remarkable “down-by-5-goals early, then-win-it-in-overtime” game in Chicago last night, see how quickly you can identify this familiar play-by-play voice in the highlights.
Let's go Canes!
Hakkaa Paalle!
WRAL 11 o’clock news just reported that Joni will not play (again) tomorrow…. Because he “doesn’t feel strong enough to play.”
I think he is suffering from a mental injury….
by Mateos_Canes_Lamp on Oct 13, 2009 11:30 PM EDT reply actions
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