Quote of the Day

"Those who know the sport best will tell you that hockey has a certain rhythm to it. Every shift, every game, and every season is inevitably packed with ebbs and flows. Teams are never as bad as they appear during their lowest points, and never as good as they seem during their highest ones. The very best clubs must not just be talented, but resilient. Not just hungry, but focused. Their sport demands it."


~Conclusion of HBO's 24/7 Penguins-Capitals Episode 1

The Morning After

Last night was a tough night to follow Hurricanes hockey. I went into that game over the top excited & all I left with was a mini-Skinny bobble head. 

It was Jeff Skinner's 100th game, as well as his Calder bobble head night.  Cam Ward let in 4 goals in the first 2 periods, but to be fair, they were good shots and the defense wasn't giving him much help. The phrase "look alive" seemed to be lost on the Canes (with the exception of Pat Dwyer and Jay Harrison). Even Skinner was out of it; his normal fluid transitions were messy and he just looked off his game. Maybe the novelty of his bobble head was getting to him? It was nice to see Eric Staal actually getting things down the ice though, even if they weren't able to convert.  

To be honest, I think the reasons the Canes are 1-17-3 to the Flyers in the last 21 games has a lot to do with Coach Laviolette knowing "the system".  He took over the Canes from Paul Maurice in 2006, so he had to look at the books and analyze what happened to the team before he came along.  I think this just shows the stagnation with Maurice's coaching style; the Canes need something new because obviously this isn't working.  Also, I was disappointed that Zac Dalpe saw a measly 2:41 TOI and Zack Boychuk played 3:54. Tlusty saw a little time on the pk, but also didn't play much.  This disappointed me; I understand they aren't as good, but they could be used to shake things up. Even the Flyers 4th line saw more play; lowest time on ice was around 7 minutes.

I could keep expressing my displeasure, but that won't help us move into the future.  Canes play Eric Cole and the Canadiens tomorrow night. Let's Go Canes! 

Penalties of the day reflect Skinner's two penalties last night (even though 1 was technically not him).  

Holding

Holding is one of the ambiguous penalties in hockey because many things constitute holding; luckily it's not commonly called. In general, it is using a free hand to prevent an opponent from moving. Most calls involve grabbing and holding an opponent's stick, but it is also called when a player takes their opponents stick.

Too Many Men on the Ice

This penalty is the result of an unsuccessful line change and is when more players are on the ice for a team (normally 5 plus goalie) than is legal.  It's a bench penalty and the person serving it is normally arbitrary.  

Avalanche at the Penguins tonight! 

Duchene & Stastny vs Malkin and J Staal! 

Until Next Time,

L

I Have a Feeling This Will Happen a lot Tonight...

Today is 1 of 4 days a year where hockey makes me a nervous wreck.  I love the Hurricanes and the Penguins (oriented alphabetically, not by preference to be clear), but when they play each other, it's always a mess.  Do you know how hard it is to cheer for Malkin, J Staal, Crosby (when he's playing), and Neal when they're trying to score on Cam Ward? I normally cheer for a tied game, so they at least each get a point.  I think I'll cheer for that tonight, or at least to the idea that Carolina won't lose 5 straight games. So Let's Go Canes & Let's Go Penguins.  And here's to hoping for no fights; last year Kunitz and Skinner got into it and I was REALLY a mess. Sadly, I do think there will be fights tonight.  Carolina is going to need something to get the boys going.


The word of the day is 'Scrum', which happens a lot every game, but I think will happen even more tonight with possible roughing consequences.  


Scrum

An incident in front of the net involving pushing and shoving by both teams.

I think a lot of us remember this a few weeks ago:

Is it just me, or is that a different Hurricanes team than the one we've seen lately?

And finally, best wishes to all of our boys out there tonight.

Good luck to Neal, who is 1 goal away from leading the NHL in goals.

Good luck to E Staal and getting his head back into the game.

Good luck to Johnny in net, even though he probably doesn't need it.

Good luck to the Canes in the 3rd in hopes they just don't fall apart.

Good luck to Skinner, hopefully he can get one of those elusive points this game.

Good luck to the Penguins, in hopes they avoid all possible injuries this game.

And finally, good luck to Sidney Crosby, who is always in our thoughts even when he's not on the ice.

Until Next Time,

L

Middle of the Week Lull

Well this is an odd feeling. 
Both of our favorite teams don't play again until Friday. It doesn't feel like they've played in days, mainly because the Penguins haven't since their West Coast adventures and I've blocked last night's Canes game from my memory. Waiting until Friday to blog seems like too long time to wait, so I'm making a mid-week escape from the hockey lull. 


Last night the Dallas Stars beat the Washington Capitals 5-2. Not shocking-  we got to see some of the strong Stars play Sunday when they beat the Canes with the same score. Santa, also known as Bruce Boudreau, was extremely displeased with the Caps' performance.  Today during practice he subjected them to a bag skate (hence inspiration for a word of the day).


Bag Skate
A bag skate is a team practice composed of repetitive, strenuous skating drills and sprints. Normally pucks are not involved.

Ouch. That just sounds painful for the Caps, but they probably deserved it.
Maybe it made Alex Ovechkin's ego drop a few points?
No? Damn, a girl can always hope. 



Video example of a Bag Skate (from one of my favorite hockey movies of all time, The Miracle):

One of the best hockey quotes is included in that clip: 
"When you pull on that jersey, you represent yourself and your teammates. And the name on the front is a hell of alot more important than the one on the back! Get that through your head!"


Sometimes I wonder if the Hurricanes did a little more of this, if they would be in a better situation.  It's never great to publicly humiliate your players, but it's worth it if it makes them work harder.  My respect just went up for Boudreau (not by much though). 


Until Next Time,
L 

In Good Times & In Bad

The Penguins are leading the NHL in points at the moment; they've had their ups and downs with injuries this year (especially awaiting the return of Sidney Crosby), but they haven't faltered as a team. I wish I could say the same for the Hurricanes.


The Hurricanes have an overwhelming number of home games this November and they've gotten off to a lackluster start.  Last weeks game against Tampa Bay (Tuesday, Nov1) was a strong effort by the team. Jeff Skinner & Chad LaRose each notched 2 goals; it was a great start to the month. 


Both Friday (Capitals) and Sunday (Stars) were a dismal effort by the entire team.  With Washington they were trailing, but once Skinner's goal was whistled no good, something changed.  What we were hoping to be a good energy, just turned into more mistakes.  They needed that goal to pull them to even-strength, but instead it pulled off their focus.  They were outplayed Friday much like they were on Sunday.  Granted, both the Capitals and the Stars lead their respective divisions, but the Canes needed to want to win.  Where did the heart of the team go?


Rutherford has said there will be a change.  What will we get? A new forward in exchanged for one of our defense men? Someone else to make our blue line efficient? Some new faces from Charlotte? Only time will tell what's next for the Hurricanes.


Here are some things to mull over:

• Skinner is 22nd in the league with 14 points, the next highest is the injured Jussi Jokinen and Chad LaRose with 9 (making them 90th and 93rd respectively). 
• Skinner has 6 goals and is 19th in the league.  Both LaRose and Ruutu have 4 goals and are next highest. 
• Skinner another team-leading stat by having 8 assists (28th in the league).  Jokinen has 6, both LaRose and Pitkanen have 5. 
• The issue? Skinner is -7 with +/-.  So while he does a good job to convert, he's on the ice when a lot of goals are scored by the other team.  Worse? Pitkanen is -10 and Staal is -16.   Staal is last in the league at 681st for his dismal +/-.   Skinner is 666th- geez that's a bad number. 

While we are huge Jeff Skinner fans, this is a problem.  We want Jeff to be a star, but he shouldn't be leading the team as he is.  There needs to be a greater group effort.  Staal also needs to find his footing.  I understand that there are ups and downs when playing sports, but Staalsy needs to get out of this rut.  We rely on him a lot and he needs to get his mental game back so he can lead the team once again.

This weekend reminded us that we are fans in good times and bad.  Even when your team loses (and damn, does it hurt to watch your boys lose), you have to support them.  Neither N nor I were at the games this weekend and we're grateful we weren't. That being sad, we still watched the games.  I had to walk away and even shut off video feed off for the Stars game (I still listened to the game on the radio), but we will always support them in good times and bad.  I don't like seeing our fans turn on our boys by booing or yelling during the game- I don't know if I could have handled being at the Stars game in person. Even though I can't always make it through watching a whole game, I am still a fan.  Here's to hoping the Canes can get better and get the support from their fans that they deserve.

On the plate this week:

• Canes at Devils, Tues 7pm on VS
• Canes at Rangers, Fri 7pm on FSCRs

Next home games:

• PENGUINS at CANES, Sat 7pm
• Flyers at Canes, Mon 7pm

We're excited about Saturday.  Always nerve-racking to have your two favorite teams face off though. 


Until Next Time,
L

Hat Tricks are Trending

Hey so we've been failing to update the blog (surprise, surprise)! I'm going to do a quick update of things that have happened this weekend and adding a new term to the list.  


This weekend has been a prime example of what young guns can do in the game of hockey. These three guys- Matt Duchene (20 yrs old), Tyler Seguin (19 yrs old), and Steven Stamkos (21 yrs old)- all scored hat tricks this weekend.  Kinda funny how old I'm feeling right now and I'm the same age as these guys (well Stamkos, but still).  N & I have actually met all these guys (thank you NHL All Stars 2010 weekend) and they couldn't be more deserving.  They've worked so hard in their (so far) short careers and they deserve the credit they're getting.  


Note: Notice that for once we didn't mention Jeff Skinner.  I swear this website is becoming his personal fan club page.  Okay I just mentioned him, but trying to avoid Hurricanes because I know I want to bring up his temper tantrum over that bulls$*! call the other night over the dead puck.  I'm stopping now. Really. 


I was waiting to cover hat tricks as a vocab word until Skinner got his first (okay I guess with us the reference is unavoidable after all), but he missed his chance Tuesday night to get mentioned and I think these guys above are deserving enough to merit doing hat trick as the word of the day! Plus, I've been waiting to do this one since the beginning and I can't wait anymore! 

Hat Trick

In hockey, scoring a hat trick (hattie) means a player has scored 3 goals in a game. It's pretty rare, but normally celebrated by the crowd tossing their hats onto the ice. 

Some of our favorite examples:

Matt Duchene:

 

Sidney Crosby (one of his many, couldn't find a good video of 11-27-10):

Okay I'm off for some shopping then watching the Canes game on my laptop, because I don't have tickets for today's game and stupid football is preventing FSCarolinas from showing the game. Ack. Anyways, Let's Go Canes!


Until Next Time,
L 

Professor Paul

I stumbled upon this video yesterday and just thought it was laugh out loud funny! It contains one of my favorite hockey players, Biz! Enjoy...

A lot of these terms are so easy its ridiculous people don't know them and the responses are just hilarous. Zamboni a pasta dish...oh geez!  The sweet girl who thinks a biscuit is something from Red Lobster needs to head the Carolinas', sweetheart please. Does Biz like Puck Bunnies... haha #Awkward 


The only term I have never heard is Grocery Stick, interesting. Fourth line for life!


Hope ya'll enjoy!


Peace Love & Puck Bunnies 
N