Sorry for the delay in blogging, I was out of town over the weekend and have been hard pressed for time. Speaking of time, the Hurricanes certainly used perfect time management Friday night in Atlanta! About two seconds of time was the difference between winning and losing the hockey game for the Thrashers and Canes. Eric Staal scored on a breakaway with 1.5 seconds remaining in the 1st period as he hit the inside of the post and bounced the puck in the net. The real kick in the pants for the Thrashers though was when a lucky bounce of the puck came out to Ray Whitney who somehow got the puck by Kari Lehtonen with less than a second left in regulation. This after Atlanta fought and clawed their way back from a 3-0 deficit, only to tie it but then see the game slip away in the last second. What a way to lose what moments earlier Thrashers coach Bob Hartley probably figured was at least a sure point!
Not only was time on the Canes side that night, but so was space. Staal's goal hit the post and went in while Kovalchuk hit the post two or three times and the puck bounced out each time. In the future I will remember that Friday the 13th is "The Wizard's" time to shine. Also kudos to Craig Adams who had 2/3's of a hat-trick! Stay in front of the net and clean up those rebounds Craig!
Any truth to the rumor that Hartley fired the Philips Arena timekeeper? Home ice advantage indeed! Canes win 4-3!
That same night the Canes flew to Pittsburgh so they could play Mark Recchi and the Penguins on Saturday night. No rest for the weary, but the Canes looked fresh and sharp on the 2nd night of a back to back for them. They scored early and often and literally skated circles around the sluggish Pens. That nasty hit on Letowski burns me up, but what can you do? You can't get inside Colby Armstrong's head to determine what his intent was. It's extremely difficult to legislate the dangerous physical aspect of hockey without the game losing it's "edge", so the NHL will do nothing regarding a suspension in this instance, in my opinion. At least Colby was contrite which is more than his piece of crap team-mate Brooks Orpik ever showed.
Cam Ward looked very good once again but this time got his just desserts in a 5-1 win. Scott Walker continued to shine and was rewarded with 2 goals. Staal added another in the over-hyped "Battle of the Staal Brothers", (part 1 of probably 100's to come once his other brothers enter the league). Commie and Hutch added the other goals for the Canes.
Speaking of Commie, our "red" friend has joined the blogging community with a new blog called "Commie's Corner"! Congrats to Mike, another blogging brother in arms! Check out what he has to say along with John Forsland, Mike Sundheim, and another new blogger, Canes youth hockey coordinator Paul Strand over at Canes Blog Central.
Hootie and the Blowfish