The dirty birds of Atlanta flew into town late last night to take on the Hurricanes for an important Southeastern Division matchup tonight. I call them dirty birds for good reason. They are not above delivering cheap shots, questionable hits, and basically have no qualms about bending the rules and "breaking the law" when it comes to attempting to prove some kind of point at the end of a losing game. Remember the last time we played them in Atlanta? Garnet Exelby crashed into Cam Ward with less than a minute in the game. The puck wasn't anywhere near the play. In the meantime, Andy Sutton and Eric Boulton were both trying to start fights with other Canes. The shenanigans at the end of games is not that unusual for these birds. Sutton has been suspended before for his questionable conduct. Well, actually it's not questionable, it's just plain dirty. I don't look for anything to change tonight. These two teams don't like each other, period. If the Canes are up handily with 2-3 minutes to go and you are one of those who likes to leave early to get a jump on traffic, this would not be the game to do that.
The Thrashers are coming off a really tough loss last night. I was watching the 3rd period, and they were ahead 1-0 until a foolish tripping penalty by you know who....Garnet Exelby. Shortly afterwards during the penalty kill, Bobby Holik had to take one of the most stupid hooking penalties of his career. He literally reached out with his stick and grabbed a Devil, and didn't let go. That has been called hooking all year long, but he had the nerve to argue about it. Sure enough the Devils took advantage of the 5 on 3 and tied the score. Then 30 seconds later they took the lead with a disgusted Holik throwing his water bottle in the penalty box. I must admit, I got a chuckle out of that! Thank you Devils!
The Canes can pull within 2 points with a win tonight. They should have the advantage as Atlanta will be the tired team and Carolina should be fresh. There are no changes that I am aware of on the injury front for the Canes. The same faces will be in the pressbox that have been there in recent games. Hopefully the Thrashers won't try any funny stuff, but if they do I hope Scott Walker is on the ice. He's about the only Cane who won't put up with it. I expect a dramatic game and a full house. Let's make some noise Caniacs! Let's Go Canes!
Judas Priest
P.S. I now have the awesome live version of Breaking the Law on my playlist. Just click to play!