Last night the Canesvision people played last year's playoffs theme song "The Rising" during the warmups. The players noticed and as did the coach. The Hurricanes came out hitting and skating like it was a playoff game from the drop of the puck to the final horn. They outhit the Penguins 41-19 and outscored them as well, winning the crucial game by a score of 3-2 on two goals by Scottie Walker and one by Frank Kaberle! I don't think anyone can complain about lack of effort in that game although it was frustrating to watch at times. I say frustrating because they came so close to scoring several times only to come away seemingly, snake bitten. Poor Eric Staal skated his heart out and played one of his better overall games of the year, but came away without a point. One of the highlights of the game was his crushing hit on Brooks Orpik. Most the the Canes played very well and you could tell they had cranked up their intensity for this game. Sid Crosby scored the game's first goal which just happened to be his 200th point scored in the NHL. In case you haven't been able to read any other hockey news for the day, he was able to get that 200th point at the youngest age in the history of the NHL. Yes, that's even better than Gretzky! The Kid is scary good, and he's only going to get better.
Rod Brind'Amour and Ray Whitney both were skaken up a bit during the game, but came back to play some, Brindy more so than Ray. We'll have to keep track of their status. Bret Hedican was scratched because of a lower body injury and might miss a couple of games. Laviolette went with 6 defensemen and 12 forwards, which might have helped with the Canes energy. Trevor Letowski came out of the pressbox to play and did well, especially on the penalty kill. The win last night combined with the Habs loss to the Sabres, put the Canes back into the 8th spot in the conference. They travel to Atlanta later today to play the Thrashers in an afternoon game tomorrow. The game was originally picked up by NBC as the game of the week, but NBC dropped the game a few weeks ago, which means that the game will not be televised at all, not locally or on Center Ice. Bummer! We'll have to listen to this one Caniacs.
The picture above is an unusual one of two players who were traded for each other earlier in the year, now playing for the same team and congratulating each other after a goal scored. Wouldn't it be sweet to see much more of that! Katherine Fritsch sang again last night and Carolina improved their record to 6-1 when she sings. Needless to say the game tomorrow afternoon is another important one for the Canes. Hopefully they can keep their focus, they will need it. The Thrashers are coming off a huge win over the Senators last night. Have a great weekend all!