Carolina Hurricanes forward Stephane Yelle cleared waivers today, meaning that no other team in the NHL claimed him. According to Canes Now, he will remain with the team and most likely will see action on the fourth line tomorrow night against St. Louis. It will be interesting to see what happens when Ruutu's suspension is over, (Sunday), and when Erik Cole returns to the lineup.
Yelle's future is still up in the air. If he starts performing the way that management envisioned when they signed him in August, then this waiver situation would be soon forgotten. Also, a lot depends upon how the team performs. If they continue losing, look for more steps like these in the coming days and weeks.
For now, the Canes are experimenting by moving some players around.
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Coach Paul Maurice is concerned about the penalties taken and admits it disrupts momentum. In this interview, he also mentions that there are good penalties as well as bad ones, something Canes Country readers are well aware of.
It's keeping us from really pushing that momentum," Maurice said. "It's got to be 10 or 11 mimutes (in penalties) to (the opponents') three and four minutes each of our last two games, and nobody does that well.
"I think that's the big factor in how we're playing. ... I don't mind some of the penalties you take. You go in, you're aggressive, crosses the line, this game happens so fast sometimes that's just going to happen.
"It's the penalty that does nothing for you, there's no benefit to it. Basically every time we've lifted our stick to parallel we're going to the box. We've either got to complain about it or stop lifting our sticks -- those are our two options."
The team is also going to try moving Brandon Sutter to wing. He'll be on a line with Jussi Jokinen and Sergei Samsonov. More feedback about that tomorrow.