Cam Ward to Start 10th Game in a Row - Canes at Wild Game Preview
by Bob Wage on Oct 24, 2009 5:06 PM EDT
54 comments
The Carolina Hurricanes, (2-5-2), and the Minnesota Wild, (2-7-0), will meet up for a game tonight at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Both teams are reeling with poor records although the Canes have lost five games in a row. The Wild lost in St. Louis last night, but beat the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday.
The Hurricanes will be starting Cam Ward for the 10th consecutive game as the goalie has yet to take a break this season. The original plan was to have Michael Leighton start at least one of these road games, but Paul Maurice changed his mind and will go with Ward once again. This back to back sequence is the third one this season in which Ward has started both sets of games. The Canes are 0-2 in the second games so far this season.
Of course, Tuomo Ruutu will be unavailable as he serves the first game of his suspension. Brandon Sutter has been recalled to take his place. It is assumed that Sutter will play center on the third line, but there was no game skate today so we will have to wait until tonight to find out for sure. Look for these lines:
- Staal, Whitney, LaRose
- Cullen, Brind'Amour, Walker
- Sutter, Jokinen, Samsonov
- Yelle, Kostopoulos, Conboy
According to Ice Chip, Tim Gleason is still ailing and is expected to miss another game. The defensive pairings will probably remain the same as last night.
Russo's Rants has Niklas Backstrom in goal again for the Wild. Here are both goalie's stats so far this season:
The Wild are a different team from previous years with a new coach and new philosophy. Marian Gaborik left for New York, leaving the team with players like Eric Belanger to hold the fort.
As you can see, Belanger is having a pretty good season so far and will certainly be active again tonight as he always is against the Canes. Andrew Brunette and Mikko Koivu are also at the top of the leaderboard for the Wild. Martin Havlat and Chuck Kobasew are also worth watching.
The game will be broadcast in HD by FS Carolinas starting at 8 p.m. Eastern. Of course you can also listen at 99.9 The Fan. We will have the "Live Game Thread" cranked up at 7ish.
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Give Cam a break!
Damn, he’s going to burn out. Isn’t that we are paying Leighton for?
Satan is just a coping mechanism for monotheists.
Interesting quotes from Mo about the decision to start Ward again
From CanesNow:
“The reason is this — he’s playing well, No. 1,” Maurice said. “So it’s not a matter of switching a goaltender to make a change. Secondly, we need to win. We need the group that’s in there with a sense of urgency, to have that feeling that we want to get out of this. And Cam gives us the best chance to do that right now.”
Maurice said the Canes would prefer to work Leighton in more and give him some meaningful playing time. “But based on our start I don’t think we have that luxury,” Maurice said.
by caniacgirl on Oct 24, 2009 5:23 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Why does he feel Cam is doing that great. Obviously Mo doesn’t look at stats that often.
Cam along with everybody that has signed new contracts are sucking ‘BAD’
Cam is the last person I’ll criticize on this team. He’s kept us in many game we had no business being in…
Still not a crook!
I know everyone loves CAM WARD, I too think he is a great goalie. But…….at the same time he is not consistent just like years past.
Hard to develop consistancy as a goalie when you can’t have faith in your teammates to do their job…
Still not a crook!
by TrickyD26 on Oct 24, 2009 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
And neither is the team in front of him…just like years past. You can’t be consistent when the team in front of you runs hot and cold and you never know which team will show up.
by caniacgirl on Oct 24, 2009 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I believe he said Cam’s playing well, not great, but well. And between Leighton and Cam, do you really think Cam isn’t our best chance at winning?
Who really knows Leighton doesn’t get enough chances to even show he has any skills. I say try Leighton maybe our sorry D (even worse w/o #6) will try harder .
I do like that idea actually. The team responded really well to Leighton being in net at San Jose last year.
Still not a crook!
that’s what I’ve been thinking all day…
by Andrea's evil twin on Oct 24, 2009 7:08 PM EDT up reply actions
If Leights had the skills to be a #1 goalie he would be. He’s had chances to do that on other teams and was never able to. I want Leights to play because Cam certainly can’t play all 82. But between the two, Cam is, and always will be, our best chance at winning.
I see both sides to the coin. Might be the old forest through the trees thing. Maybe Leights would give Cam a new purpose and energy and a friggin’ break.
One side the other is the simple fact that Cam is the #1 on this team and is by far the better goalie.
I think I would agree with MO in light of Cams new contract. You gonna play and get paid with the big dogs. You get played until hurts.
A
Maybe Leights would give Cam a new purpose and energy and a friggin’ break.
The only person who I think doesn’t need a new purpose is Cam-he seems to come to play every night and with the exception of the Boston game has kept us in it the whole way. Maybe, just maybe, Leights would force the team to play properly in front of him, but even then I don’t know. The main reason I see to start Leighton is to give Cam a break.
Cam’s stats are strongly influenced by the guys in front of him. Those other guys are currently sucking a** every game. I hate that Cam frequently panics and drops into the butterfly seemingly at the mere threat of the puck crossing the blueline, thus giving up the upper part of the net and giving up softies. I also hate that Cam couldn’t stop a beachball on the glove side high. But despite those glaring faults, he has actually played better this year (so far) than last. He has done enough for us to win most of our games (other than Boston…). If the rest of the team ever starts playing up to potential, and we are still getting beat 80% of the time, then I’ll start throwing Ward under the bus along with them.
by East of Here on Oct 24, 2009 6:19 PM EDT up reply actions
Cam couldn’t stop a beachball on the glove side high
That is my biggest complaint about his game. It’s gotten better, but it’s still a problem.
Um…if you look at my other posts, you’ll see that I am one of his biggest supporters-to the point of other people giving me a hard time about it. And he has weaknesses in his game-everyone does-even the best goalies in the world. I was merely agreeing with East of Here who was pointing out one of his commonly accepted weaknesses (shots to the glove side high).
But to answer your original question, yes I watch hockey.
sorry,
misread your post above as criticism without reading up the thread
my bad.
by DidJussiThat? on Oct 24, 2009 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions
Before the game...
For those with access to the NHL Network, I highly recommend Hockey Night in Canada’s pregame show at 6:30 (TSN feed) to get you in the mood for some hockey.
First game of HNIC’s traditional double-header on Saturday nights is also carried at 7 (Toronto vs. Vancouver). Don Cherry’s first intermission show is always entertaining.
That’ll get you to the game in a good mood for some hockey.
Don’t watch Don Cherry today… you won’t want to hear it.
by Andrea's evil twin on Oct 24, 2009 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions
and probably like most everyone else, assuming Tuomo and Sharko are either the same person, or our ruuty is a carbon-copy of his brother
He’ll also rant that Ruu backed down from/avoided a fight right after he delivered that fateful hit…
by Andrea's evil twin on Oct 24, 2009 6:53 PM EDT up reply actions
I actually read someone who, in all seriousness, said that “dirty play runs in Ruutu’s blood.” I’d like to meet the genetics expert that found that gene.
Well the easy answer would to look at Jaarko. I think that was a small part of it. When you look down the goon list past Avery and ORpik, you find a Ruutu who would be up for probably a 3 gamer by now. Unfortunatley it was Tuomo this time. I just Bettman is such a creting he couldn’t read past the comma. So he probably came up with th gene theory to covers his moronic ass.
A
I have a salt shaker firmly in hand whenever watching Don Cherry theater. No question he’ll want to talk about that hit.
Still…good theater!
On the bright side...
It’ll all be over in… oh, I don’t know… less than six months…
by Andrea's evil twin on Oct 24, 2009 6:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Cam Lovers........here you go......
I like Cam so this is not Cam bashing time but just stats.
Here is Cams new ‘HABIT’ that some believe doesn’t exist.
Cam letting in to many goals back to back cost games.
Flyers 2-0 final 2nd period…….goals scored 22 seconds apart.
Boston 7-2 final 1st period……..goals scored 66 seconds apart.
Tampa 5-2 final 2nd period…….goals scored 15 seconds apart.
NYI 4-3 final 2nd period………….goals scored 89 seconds apart.
COL 5-4 final 1st period…………goals scored 31 seconds apart.
2nd period………..goals scored 40 seconds apart.
HOW CAN PEOPLE NOT SEE THIS as a major problem
I've done this with you already, but I can't resist-which I suspect you already knew.
Some of those goals could not be helped. I clearly remember Chuck saying that about one of the last two against Colorado last night. His exact words were something to the effect of “nothing a goaltender can do about that.”
Some of those goals were a result of the poor play of the team in front of him. If the team was playing grade A hockey, I would be very concerned. They are not and oftentimes have left him out to dry. Since they are not, I only see it as something to keep an eye on. But I am more of a “wait and see” girl so maybe I am completely alone on this one.
not alone...
by which I mean, you’re not alone in that
Wardo, sadly, often is…
by Andrea's evil twin on Oct 24, 2009 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions
So if they play grade A hockey in front of the net we wouldn’t need a goalie. Cam proves in shootouts how good he is with nobody in front of him. Thanks for the help proving my point:)
Whoa what? I’m not sure whether I just don’t understand what you wrote or if there is a thought missing.
A team playing well in front of the net does not make a goalie expendable. In fact, it makes any goals scored primarily the fault of the goalie. And shootouts can’t be used to decide how well a goalie plays in any situation other than the shootout. A glorified skills competition doesn’t carry over to regular play.
So like I said, I don’t know how I helped you prove your point. But if you want to think I did…I guess go for it. :)
by caniacgirl on Oct 24, 2009 7:19 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Ward may be the best goalie on the team...
But the simple fact of the matter is this is an 82 game season, and the tenth game of the season against a non-conference opponent is not going to make or break your year. Of course you want to win, but on the latter half of a back-to-back crossing several time zones and flying from Raleigh to Denver to Minneapolis, it sure seems like a good time to give Cam a breather.
Ward is a workhorse, and it seems the team is expecting 70 games out of him, but you also have to consider that he’s probably (given his good play of late) going to be making some olympic appearances for our neighbors to the North, and that’s a lot of wear and tear to go through for a goalie.
Hurricane's
If any critisism is to be dealt out it should be dealt to the whole team. I mean let’s face it they are 2wins 6 loses 1sol and 1 otl nothing to shout about. So you see my fellow hockey watchers just like in the years past with all the talent and veterans on this team we still have to wonder which team will show up for the game. A shame indeed.
robert
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