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Eric Staal has MCL sprain, expected to start 2013-14 season

2013-05-18T15:30:21Z

Hurricanes fans are breathing a collective sigh of relief this morning as the organization announced the status of team captain Eric Staal, who suffered a knee injury while playing in the IIHF World Championships on Thursday. Based on MRI and medical staff evaluation, Staal has been diagnosed with a third degree MCL sprain, and while still a significant injury, he will not require surgery, and the recovery timeline should allow Staal to be healed in time for the start of the 2013-14 season.

Following is the official press release from the Hurricanes.

RALEIGH, NC – Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test on team captain Eric Staal’s right knee revealed a third-degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament (MCL). Surgery will not be required to repair the ligament, and Staal’s rehabilitation should last three months. It is expected that he will be healthy and ready to play to start the 2013-14 season.

Staal, 28, was injured when he took a knee-on-knee hit from defenseman Alexander Edler in the first period of Canada’s quarterfinal game at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships on Thursday in Stockholm, Sweden. Edler received a five-minute major kneeing penalty and a game misconduct by the game’s officials. On Friday, the IIHF Independent Disciplinary Panel determined that Edler should have received a match penalty as a result of the play and suspended him for the remainder of the tournament.

In his nine NHL seasons, Staal has missed just 14 games, and only 12 of those due to injury/illness, having played in 690 of Carolina’s 704 regular-season games (98%) since the beginning of his rookie year of 2003-04. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only Henrik Sedin (VAN – 698), Martin St. Louis (TB – 697), Joe Thornton (BOS-SJ – 693) and Olli Jokinen (FLA-PHX-CGY-NYR-WPG – 692) have played more regular-season games than Staal in that time frame. The Thunder Bay, Ont., played in a Hurricanes-best (since relocation) 349 consecutive games from March 20, 2004-Nov. 1, 2009, and he currently holds the team’s longest active games-played streak of 149 games, dating back to March 1, 2011.

Eric Staal Appears To Injure Knee At World Championships

2013-05-16T18:57:16Z

Carolina Hurricanes captain Eric Staal suffered what could be a serious injury following a knee-on-knee hit from Vancouver’s Alexander Edler during Thursday’s Canada-Sweden game at the World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden.

Edler was given a five minute major for kneeing and ejected from the game following the hit that left Staal writhing on the ice in pain.

Here is a Vine clip from @mattbrigidi that shows the hit and Staal's reaction.

We'll update any news on Staal as we get it.

Update: @ice_chip: GM Jim Rutherford says Eric Staal has been taken for an MRI by NHL doctors. No word yet on seriousness of the injury.

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Canes Country's Round 2 TV Super Schedule

2013-05-14T20:28:38Z

We're into the second round, and with that, a new round of the Canes Country Playoff Super Schedule. What will your next two weeks look like? Read on.

Note that just about everything is now on NBCSN. Only one game (so far) is scheduled for CNBC, so if you're like my wife who never fails to have trouble finding CNBC, fear not. Also, all games beginning this round are nationally televised, so if you happen to be reading from another team's market there won't be any blackout concerns to deal with this time around.

Enjoy!

Canes Country Playoff Pick-Em: Round 2

2013-05-14T03:03:55Z

So, everyone who picked the Bruins in 7 totally had them coming back from a 3-goal deficit in the third period of game 7 to win, right?

First, here are the standings right now:

CaniacChica: 15

Corey S: 15

PittsburghCaniac: 14

Patrick Clarke: 12

formersaint: 11

Jamie: 11

mburgess00: 11

b.axeman: 10

Bgallen: 10

rabidwolf123: 10

anonymousJ: 9

caniac97: 9

Cory L: 9

PackPride17: 9

Shrilnixx: 9

ctlentz: 8

eburges1: 8

Incipient_Senescence: 8

Cathye: 7

GoCanes77: 7

lsleblanc82: 7

ASU-: 5

Bob: 5

CruelIn10tions: 5

Hockeydog: 5

keebler elf: 5

ltd2point0: 5

Brian: 5

Kram170: 4

Sara James: 4

CoastalCane: 3

Limelon: 3

RobbinDollar: 3

hotchipsnsalsa: 2

And now, it's time for you to pick Round 2.

The stakes are upped for this round. Picking the correct team to win the series earns you two points. If you pick the correct team winning in the correct number of games, you earn four bonus points for a total of six.

As with the first round, comments will remain open until the start of games on Wednesday night. However, in order for your picks to count for the two series which begin Tuesday, they must be in by game time as stamped on your comment: 7:30 pm for Penguins/Senators, 10 pm for Kings/Sharks. Picks for these series which are posted after the start of game 1 will not be scored, although your other picks will still count.

Also, if you didn't make picks in the first round, it's not too late for you to start now. Jump on in and play along!

Here are the CC writing staff's picks for round 2. Who ya got?

	*Eastern Conference*		*Western Conference*
	(1) PIT vs. (7) OTT	(4) BOS vs. (6) NYR	(1) CHI vs. (7) DET	(5) LAK vs. (6) SJS
Bob	Penguins in 7	Rangers in 7	Blackhawks in 6	Sharks in 6
Cory L.	Penguins in 6	Bruins in 6	Blackhawks in 5	Sharks in 7
Brian	Senators in 6	Bruins in 6	Blackhawks in 5	Sharks in 7
Jamie	Penguins in 5	Rangers in 6	Blackhawks in 6	Kings in 7
Corey S.	Senators in 7	Bruins in 6	Blackhawks in 6	Kings in 7
PackPride17	Penguins in 5	Rangers in 7	Blackhawks in 6	Kings in 6

Season Over For Checkers

2013-05-06T16:08:35Z

A once very promising season came to an end on Saturday night as the Charlotte Checkers lost the deciding game of their playoff series to the Oklahoma City Barons, 6-2 at Time Warner Arena. The home team outshot the visitors 51-28, but still came up on the short side on the scoreboard.

After taking a 2-1 lead in the series, the Checkers lost the previous night by an 8-1 score as the Barons forced a deciding game with emphasis.

When the season started, Charlotte coach Jeff Daniels was rotating the goalie tandem of Justin Peters and Dan Ellis and things were going very well. The plan was that one of those goalies would be staying in the AHL, but after the injury to Cam Ward, these same two were taking turns in Raleigh and plans had to change in Charlotte.

The team brought in John Muse and Rob Madore, and after an injury had to sign Mike Murphy, who left the organization after last season.

The goalies had a rough time of it in this series:

Murphy allowed four goals in just 34 minutes of ice time and posted a save percentage of .800.

Muse, (who most likely was still injured) played just 26 minutes, (all in game five) and allowed one goal while posting a .917 save percentage.

Madore saw the bulk of action and allowed 16 goals in 240 minutes while posting a .881 save percentage.

With Cam Ward not getting any younger, look for the Hurricanes to be carefully examining goalies in the upcoming draft.

Zach Boychuk led the team in post season scoring with three goals and three assists in five games. Brody Sutter was right behind him with two goals and three assists. Zac Dalpe did not register a single point in the five games.

Rookie defenseman Ryan Murphy played in all five games and had two assists while finishing with a (+/-)+1. Danny Biega had two assists in three games and also had a +1. Look for these young blueliners in training camp next fall.

For more details and information about the Checkers, go to Go Checkers.com and Paul Branecky will have game recaps and quotes.

Hurricanes Could Go Many Different Ways This Offseason

2013-05-03T16:15:05Z

The Carolina Hurricanes "need to be tougher to play against." What that means is open to interpretation.

GM Jim Rutherford and head coach Kirk Muller held their end-of-season press conference Thursday at PNC Arena, closing the book on a 2012-13 campaign that started with so much promise and again ended with disappointment and question marks.

There are only three givens this offseason:

• The top line of Eric Staal centering Alexander Semin and Jiri Tlusty — arguably the best forward trio in the NHL season — are locked in to be the starting forwards on opening night.

• The defense will continue to revolve and rely on 21-year-old Justin Faulk, already a legitimate top pairing blueliner despite having just 104 NHL games under his belt.

• The team will look to Jordan Staal to find a better comfort level in the first year of his 10-year, $60 million contract, and for Cam Ward to rebound from the knee injury that cost him most of this season.

Beyond that, the changes that will occur to the Hurricanes roster are anyone's guess and open for discussion. That includes the proposition of dangling Jeff Skinner for a similarly young and talented defenseman, as Luke DeCock mentioned in his column in Friday’s News & Observer.

It also likely means saying goodbye to long-time Canes like Joe Corvo (who turns 36 this offseason) and Chad LaRose (whose drop in production and effectiveness, coupled with Rutherford's touched upon disappointment in the 31-year-old's decision not to attend his exit interview), pending UFAs Tim Brent and Bobby Sanguinetti, and stretch-run rental Marc-Andre Bergeron.*

(*Note: Rutherford did say the team would look at Bergeron as someone who could be back with the team next season, especially given the improvement on the power play after he was acquired. But with the need for at least one defensive-minded defenseman and prospect Ryan Murphy turning pro, it seems unlikely the team would use one of their roster spots on a specialist like Bergeron)

In their place, you can expect Rutherford to target at least one veteran, defense-first blueliner, and Muller also seems to want some bottom six forwards that can contribute on the penalty kill.

The latter has been an issue the past two seasons. Outside of Patrick Dwyer, the Canes’ bottom six forwards have failed to establish themselves as assets on special teams. LaRose and Brent — both of whom saw too much power play time and not enough penalty kill time given the expectations one should have for them — both stand out as players that should have found a niche on the PK and instead rarely played there in favor of top line players like the Staals, Tlusty and Semin.

That means looking at UFAs like Edmonton horse Ryan Jones, who logs big-time PK minutes, or even Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke — a top-of-the-line agitator that has toned down his aggression of late and thrives short-handed — to be the guy on the Hurricanes bench who relishes the opportunity to stop an opposing team's power play.

As for the defenseman/men, a lot will depend on Rutherford’s willingness to part with an asset and who the team is targeting in the June draft. If Valeri Nichushkin is on the board at No. 5 and willing to come to North America immediately, can the team pass on a potential Evgeni Malkin-esque player that could immediately take Skinner’s spot on Jordan Staal’s left wing, leaving the Canes to use No. 53 as their third line center or even trade bait for that much needed defenseman?

Does Rutherford revisit what he did at last year’s draft and try to bring another Staal brother to Raleigh? The Rangers would probably like to hold on to Marc Staal, especially given his reasonable $3.975 million cap hit over the next two seasons. But with their own cap troubles looming and Ryan McDonaugh due a new deal, would New York listen if Rutherford called looking to complete his four-of-a-kind?

Or would the NHL-run Coyotes, with three defenseman costing nearly $15 million in cap space next season and little in the way of goal-scoring, discuss a Keith Yandle-for-Skinner offer now that Oliver Ekman-Larsson has emerged as a second No. 1 blueliner on their defense?

Rutherford even has the option of making some room in his budget (deal Jamie McBain?) and waiting to how some teams handle the lowering salary cap. He then may be able to land a player via trade that otherwise wouldn't be available, or grab a buyout victim to add talent to his back end.

The options are many and go well beyond what's outlined above. As he has said most seasons, Rutherford likes his "core" of players. But just like Brandon Sutter wasn't untouchable last offseason, so it is for all but a very few Hurricanes this summer.

Muller will finally have a full training camp to set his systems and lines with old and new players alike, and outside of any setbacks Tuomo Ruutu might have following a second hip surgery, the team should be completely healthy come September. If Rutherford can can reshape his defense, Muller can live up to the coaching expectations heaped on him, and the team performs to their capabilities, there's no reason next season’s Carolina Hurricanes will not be playing in May.

Who will be on the ice for them? That remains to be seen.

End of Year Press Conference - Quick Highlights

2013-05-02T17:54:00Z

Cory and I attended the end of year press conference with Kirk Muller and Jim Rutherford. I will have more detailed thoughts of it later tonight when I have a chance to write more, but for now here are some highlights to discuss:

Chad LaRose did not attend his exit interview. Rutherford made a point of mentioning this and the surprise of it. It seems like number 59's days as a Cane are over.
The team has no intention of trading up at the draft. After the top defenseman who will probably go at number one, they have the top five offensive players in the draft rated very closely and will be happy with whomever is available to them. "Number five could end up as being as good or better than number two".
They would like to get bigger and tougher to play against, with the blueline being the priority.
Justin Peters is under contract next year, but the backup job is not a given. Dan Ellis or another could come back. They were happy with Ellis.
Marc-Andre Bergeron is under consideration for coming back.
They might trade a top six forward to get a top rated defenseman. Chances are slim they can do this, but they would for the right player.
Rutherford thinks there might be buy outs because several teams will be in trouble with the salary cap dropping, and they might be able to pick up a veteran defenseman after the carnage.
Marshall Johnston, currently head of pro scouting will be cutting back his time and they will designate someone from within the organization to be head pro scout.
They missed both Jaroslav Spacek and Bryan Allen. They offered Allen a contract but got out-bid by the Ducks.
Muller will "stick with the system" and never considered changing it, even with all the injuries. The players love it and he believes it will lead to success long term.
The team could use more vets in the locker room. Muller called it a "quiet" locker room.
No anticipated changes coming to the coaching staff. (in it's entirety)

Watch the entire 35 minute press conference here: Rutherford and Muller press conference

On the Wire: Peter Karmanos Selling Everblades, Jim Rutherford Taking Heat

2013-05-01T15:39:03Z

In case you missed the morning paper, Chip Alexander and Luke DeCock had articles published today which are worth discussing.

First, Chip interviewed Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos, who reportedly is selling the Florida Everblades as well as their arena. But while the 70 year old Detroit tycoon is selling that aspect of his hockey operations, he has no interest in relinquishing control of the Hurricanes.

"I like owning the Hurricanes," Karmanos said.

Chip got the following quote as well.

"I keep saying we have one of the best arena deals in the league. We have one of the best facilities. We’re in one of the fastest-growing markets in the country. Why would we ever move?

While Karmanos is selling small portions of the team to interested parties, he apparently still wants to keep control.

The owner blamed the team's dismal record this year on injuries and says all will be fine next year. Be sure to read the entire article at the following link:

Hurricanes Owner Says He Is Committed

Next up, N&O columnist Luke DeCock wrote an article about Jim Rutherford which included the following:

Rutherford has to ask himself: Is he still the right man for the job?

While the statement may seem harsh, the one time highly regarded general manager has a club with many questions about it.

Does this franchise have any credible depth?

How can he re-vamp arguably the worst defense in the league?

Is this team too "soft", "small", "fragile", or "easy to play against"?

When asked what happened this season to the Hurricanes, the easy answer is injuries, especially the injury to Cam Ward. But all hockey teams face injuries and this team has failed to make the playoffs four years in a row.

Team defense has been a recurring problem and it was again this past season.

Over the past three years, Carolina has allowed more shots on goal than any team in the NHL. Here are the team rankings for average shots and where they placed in the league over that time period:

2012-13 - 32.2 - 26th
2011-12 - 32.4 - 30th
2010-11 - 33.2 - 30th

It is no secret that the team needs to improve in this area.

DeCock speaks about the draft and player development in his article. Be sure to check it out here:

GM Rutherford should review his own performance

There are many issues to look at but the bottom line in this business is winning. Has Rutherford done enough of it lately?

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/04/30/2861253/decock-canes-gm-rutherford-should.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/05/01/2861230/canes-owner-says-hes-committed.html#storylink=cpy