To quote Dick Enberg, "Oh My!!" There were some gorgeous goals last night by the Hurricanes. The first goal of the night was a nice wrister by Eric Staal off of his own rebound on a shot that was eerily similar to his very first goal in the NHL. Kevyn Adams started this one by stealing a puck behind the goal line and feeding it out to Anton Babchuk who fired it right on net. Staal was there for the rebound which Thomas stopped initially but the puck came right back to him for the easy put back. Does this look familiar? It's a picture of Eric's first goal back on October 23rd, 2003.
The Canes had a brief let down and saw the Bruins take control for a short time. Attempting to create something, Staal had a turnover in the neutral zone and the Bruins Shean Donovan took the puck and scored on a nifty shot through Bret Hedican and past Cam Ward. After another Bruin score by Brad Stuart, the 1st period ended with the Bruins ahead 2-1. Then the 2nd period started and it was a whole new world of hurt for the poor Bruins. About 5 minutes into the 2nd, Erik Cole scored on what might be the best overall individual play you could see a player make in hockey. After throwing his body on the ice to block a shot, he jumped back to his skates, beat the defenseman to the puck, and blew by him down the ice. Another defenseman tried to get an angle on him but Cole held him off, cut across the front of the crease and patiently waited out goalie Tim Thomas. After Thomas made his move Cole rifled the puck over the goalie's shoulder making the incredible play look easy while the 2 Boston defensemen looked on helplessly. All coach Laviolette could say about the play was "wow!". The goal obviously stirred the crowd and the rest of his teammates and Carolina pretty much dominated the rest of the game.
Later in that period during a penalty kill, Rod Brind'Amour patiently waited for Justin Williams to sneak behind the defense once again and fed him beautifully for a breakaway goal by Williams. Then six minutes into the 3rd, it appeared that Erik Cole just dumped the puck into the Bruin zone, but Scottie Walker was streaking down the ice to the puck and backhanded it through the crease blindly as soon as he touched it. Eric Staal was waiting there and scored easily again as the Bruins seemed mesmerized while watching the bing, bing, bing, lightning fast play.
Finally, another picture perfect pass by Brind'Amour found Ray Whitney open and "The Wizard" roofed it perfectly over Thomas once again to make the score 5-2, and that was all the Canes needed. Carolina dominated the 3rd period again out-shooting Boston 14-6. Apparently the loss was so humiliating that Bruin goalie Tim Thomas complained to the media after the game. His exact quote was:"They're a point hungry team. I'm not talking about points for the win. The end of the game there, they were all doing a little bit of cheating to get their point totals up, so that they can get a bigger contract next time".
Someone should give Tim's head a shake. His poor losing, whining is absurd and laughable on every level. First of all, what are the Canes supposed to do, stop skating or stop trying? Secondly, most of the Canes have already signed their big contracts. Staal, Cole, Williams, and Brind'Amour have all signed for multiple years, they don't need to pad their stats for a new, bigger contract. Finally, the Canes are the only team in the entire NHL that has 6 players with double digits in goals scored. Brind'Amour, Cole, Whitney, Williams, Walker, and Staal all have 10 goals or more. It seems to me that these players care more about playing within the team concept rather than padding individual stats. Tim Thomas should concentrate on his own performance and what his own team is doing, plain and simple.
Back in August I posted about Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson tying the knot.
As everyone probably knows they split up recently, but here's a picture of Kid Rock during happier times with "Bubba's Star" of the game for 2nd game in a row, Erik Cole!
