Sweet Tea, Barbecue, and Bodychecks

I knew it was going to be a rough day when I went to move a monitor at work and my back said “GUESS AGAIN KIDDO!”

So you can’t say that I wasn’t prepared for last night’s game–though I was hoping to actually be at the game, rather than flat on my back AGAIN praying that ibuprofen would be a suitable replacement for Flexeril. I’ll never snark about players with back issues again, I swear on my grandmother.

The game was a bit of a haze, and I admit that I got excited when my boy Malik saw the puck squirt out from under Hank’s pads and hauled it out the zone. I also winced and knew that things weren’t going to go well when I saw Sergei and the Bishop collide at the blue line. But I do remember enough through the endorphinic haze to be able to say that Cam singlehandedly kept the team in the game.

You heard me. It’s become fashionable for some of the less-intelligent citizens of the Caniac Nation to blame the goalie every time this team loses, but really. Cam played just as well as he’s played the last several games. The defence, on the other hand, decided to get an attack of the stupids–and the aliens brought back Atlanta Frankie too, which pissed me off–and I’m sure that the talking heads today will be all up in the “See, we told you they’re going to choke cos they lost their captain!” nonsense. Yeah, cos ONE GAME is really a representative sample.

But Saturday, the ‘Canes have a chance to redeem themselves by administering a world-class beatdown to the Lightning–which will start another nice win streak

Just sayin’.

Yeah, so last night was Tuomo Ruutu’s debut in the Sightless Eye.

I knew it was going to be interesting when I heard 96Rock’s Foster dub him “The Bishop” as I was driving home from work. I just didn’t know how interesting it would be.

Second shift, Ruutu rocked Colin White with a big hit (that he really should have been levied a boarding call for) and immediately endeared himself to the TSB Goon Squad (and everyone else in the arena). Mike Rupp responded by Orpiking Tim Gleason, who had to be helped off the ice with an unspecified head injury and didn’t return, and that little tease Bret Hedican made me think he was going to throw down in defence of his sidekick–but no, such was not to be. It was all just a tease. Get me all excited for null comma nichevo. Damn elves…can never trust ‘em. Especially when they own-goal and spoil the shutout.

So it was up to Wade Brookbank, who stepped to Rupp and administered a partial beatdown (I say partial, because it was more wrasslin’ match than fight). And that was the end of the first–more or less. The game settled down, more or less, in the second and third. The crowd was up in arms when three Devils basically held The Chosen One back while that whiny little bitch Marty Brodeur took a couple shots at him–Staal responded by going RAWR! and putting Brodeur on his ass (to the delight of the crowd and the dismay of Devils homer colour dude Chico Resch). Ruutu wound up leaving the game toward the end of the third after Patrik Elias accidentally-on-purpose (IMO) clipped him by one eye with his stick.

The game went to OT, and Sergei Samsonov wound up potting the game-winner. And the Devils, after the game, actually had some praise for the ‘Canes:

“They played a lot better game — that’s the bottom line. That’s a different team than we’ve seen in the first three games. They played like the Carolina team we know. They were playing hard, they put a lot of good things out there, they were aggressive, and we didn’t come with the same desperation they did. And it showed.” — Jamie Langenbrunner

Why thank you. Thank you very much.

9 games to go until I render my final opinion of the Ruutu trade. Go Canes.

To CAR: Tuomo Ruutu

To CHI: Andrew Ladd

So…hmm. This trade is really fairly even, except in terms of age and immediate (as in “over the last ten or so games”) benefit. Tuomo is 25, which isn’t bad but isn’t great either.  But the trade did kinda need to be made–I mean, our second-line center is Trevor Letowski; do you really think that will last much longer?  I don’t.

So yeah. Scouting reports from my friends in the Western Conference leave me skeptical–Ruutu is a bit injury-prone, and he has a reputation for being a bit dirty; two things that will reduce his half-life here by a fair amount if they continue–especially the dirty part. Hard-hitting is one thing. Standing up for yourself is one thing. But being a cheap-ass bastard is uncool. However, I will give him a few games to see what he can do for us.

In other Divisional news: the Channelside Drive Boatlift continues as Brad Richards and Johan Holmqvist are the latest Bolts to flee the tinpot dictatorship of Fidel Tortorella; they head to Dallas for Mike Smith, shootout specialist Jussi Jokinen, and Jeff Halpern. The Capitals have traded a second-rounder to the Habs for Cristobal Huet, which makes me wonder what if anything the Caps have planned for Olie Kolzig. Team rivalry aside, I like Olie and I would hope that GMGM will allow him to finish out the season and retire a Cap.

And Wade Belak has been shipped to Florida for a fifth-rounder. That poor bastard, he must have really pissed off Chairman Mo to get exiled to Florida hell like that.

Canes and Devils throw down at the RBC tonight at 7:00. Y’all have fun with that, I’ll be flat on my back yet again, dosed on painkillers and listening to ChuckandtheletterK.

Go Canes.

So this Saturday I had to watch the Caps-Canes barnburner on teh t00b–which robbed me of these choice comedic moments:

Olaf Kolzig throwing a little tantrum and breaking his stick after the Hurricanes’ fourth goal.

The goal horn at the RBC blowing a lung.

The Caps fans that bused in going home quietly. (I kid because I love, guys–srsly!)

A few drunk members of our nation’s military trying to re-enact the USO scene from “Apocalypse Now” with several members of the Storm Squad.

Well OK, that last one wasn’t comedic so much as pathetic, but you get the idea.  The Hurricanes have been playing rather well since the Warchief went down–which apparently puzzles such luminaries (ha ha) as EJ Hradek, but doesn’t surprise me. I’d had a feeling that various guys (like Eric Staal) would step their games up, and I was right. I am right.

So tomorrow the Hurricanes face the Devils for the fourth (and last) time this season. The Devils let the Capitals get a point yesterday, which didn’t please me in the least. Hopefully they give us two points tomorrow night. Just sayin’.

Couple things:

First–the ‘Canes win a wild one at the RBC last night v. the Thrashers. Actually, it was wild only in that the entire first period was the Hurricanes throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Kari Lehtonen. In the second, they finally threw the sink at the guy and wound up winning 5-3. It was ONLY because Lehtonen was so on that first period that the score wasn’t something freaky like 15-3. The excuse given by the Thrashers’ broadcast team on Turner South was that the team is “distracted” by the whole Marian Hossa thing.

Bitch please! That’s not a distraction. Losing your Captain for the season? Now that is a distraction.

And speaking of the Warchief–Greatfather Bob is in town visiting his boy and grandkids (he was holding court at the RBC last night, according to several fans who stopped by to deliver their well-wishes), and had a little rap with Luke DeCock. Yes kids, the Warchief doesn’t want to take his recovery lying down; not a day after surgery, the man was already back to pumping some Fe:

“He’s struggling right now,” Bob Brind’Amour said. “He wants to do more than he should and he doesn’t realize it’s the healing process. The knee, when he ices it, it almost looks perfect. But then he walks and the blood gets in there and the fluid and it blows up.

“He got operated Friday afternoon. Saturday morning at 7:30, he’s lying on the floor in his bedroom and he’s lifting 55-pound weights. He’s got his leg up on a chair. I went up there and said, ‘You idiot. What are you doing?’ He’s so dedicated. He knows his body, but in this case he’s got to tone it down a bit.”

Our Warchief, ladies and gents. You can’t keep him down. Tomorrow, the Hurricanes take on the Capitals at the RBC–Puck drops at 5 PM, and the game is pretty close to sold-out according to Ticketbastard; so hurry up and get your tickets before the Caps Road Crew takes ‘em all up.

What a week:

My computer falls victim to the Great Collapsing Table Disaster.

I get smacked down hard by the flu.

The Warchief (well, his knee) falls victim to shithappensitis–contrary to what some foolio on on X Random Messageboard is positing–and all the talking heads pronounce the season over.

The Hurricanes win three straight–with the third game taking place ~2h after a State game–and effectively give the finger to the aforementioned talking heads. They’re not dead yet!

I’d say “cool”, but really only the last one is cool. The first three really suck.

Monday we’ll see if the ‘Canes can make it 4 in a row when they venture into the fetid swamps of The Garden State to take on the Devils.

So Tuesday night, the Hurricanes celebrate the arrival of their new comrades-in-arms by almost choking a three-goal lead to the Boston Bruins.

Last night, they celebrated my anniversary by beating the Pens down 4-2 and making Evgeni Malkin cry like a little bitch. Well OK, a big bitch.

In a development that has half the ASBOs in Western New York rejoicing in their MD20/20 (and has the more class-free members of the Pens Nation clapping for glee as well–my wife, OTOH, is none too happy), the Warchief is out for the season with a torn ACL. Was it a cheap hit? No. It was a “shit happens” thing–I didn’t see anything deliberate on the part of the Pens (as opposed, of course, to Brooks Orpik piledriving Erik Cole into the boards and breaking his neck–you still can’t convince me that it wasn’t deliberate).

Yes, I have a wife. Two of them! And a husband, and a husband-in-law too. Deal.

So yeah, anyway. The power play finally woke up last night, which was encouraging. It was very encouraging, but I won’t be fully encouraged until I see them keep it up.

Tomorrow night the ‘Canes will play the Panthers at the RBC. Wonder how long it’ll take before they get Vokoun to have another of his very entertaining meltdowns?

CAVEAT: If this post sounds like I am making even less sense than usual, I blame the flu. I’ve been fighting it and an opportunistic generic URI all weekend.

That said, here’s the deal:

TO OTT:

Cory Stillman
Mike Commodore
TO CAR:

Joe Corvo
Patrick Eaves

Pretty nifty trade thar, Jimmy–especially if the Dread Pirate Stiller winds up coming back in July (which he might–that’s the only reason I can see for him waiving his NTC). This trade is effectively an announcement that any playoff run will (barring a miracle) be short, but I can live with that if it means the team actually does wind up getting better long-term. There are a couple bandwagon-hopping “only cheer for the team when they’re at the top of the conference” smacktards on X Random Messageboard pooh-poohing the trade as “too little too late” and whining that we got robbed, but whatever. Corvo is roughly the same age as Commodore with a few more brainfarts but better puck skillz. Eaves is a not-bad forward who can pot a couple goals here and there (not that he’s scored on us a few times or anything) and who plays with a little reckless abandon.

And Corvo pwnt the Slugs in the playoffs last year–and anything that makes the ASBOs unhappy makes me happy.

So far so good. But I guess some rubes people just won’t be happy until the whole team is traded for nothing but draft picks and we deliberately tank the season in a futile attempt to get the #1 pick, which JimR will blow on drafting a fourth-string goalie from the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL.

For those who listened to NHL Live today to hear Don and EJ goof on me, here is what I wrote from the depths of my server room:

Guys,

If the only way the Hurricanes can make the playoffs is to be third-by-default, then I don’t want them to make the playoffs at all. Period.

2004 and 2006 were supposed to be the new paradigm for the rest of the Southeast Division to live up to. The new “no more Southleast” idea was supposed to be the banner that the Hurricanes would rally around as they marched out of the depths of slack-ass mediocrity.

What we have here now? It wasn’t supposed to happen. Our defense wasn’t supposed to suck, our offense wasn’t supposed to just go poof after October ended, and 2007 was supposed to become a quickly fading memory as the Hurricanes went on another deep playoff run. It was supposed to be better. It was supposed to be a corner-turning, the proverbial dawn of a new day, but instead the Hurricanes are once again stuck at the light with a tank full of fumes and falling toward another 2002-2003 style Season From Hell.

And the killer for me? I see no urgency. I get no “oh crap, we gotta get on it” vibe.

If that’s all that the Hurricanes want to do–rest on old laurels–then I hope they never make the playoffs again.

It hurts me in my heart to say that, but it’s time for some serious toughlove on the part of this fan.

Sorry for writing instead of calling, but I’m stuck in a server room with no phone at the moment.

Cheers,

AQ

For the record: The year the Hurricanes won the Cup, they were second in the East–by ONE point. The third seed (who was third-by-default) was New Jersey with 101 points. The Sabres were third-on-points with 110.

Also: It’s the settling for third-by-default that leads to people bashing the Southeast. Nevermind that the Central is the weakest division in the NHL, with the Red Wings feasting on all their conference rivals (except for Chicago)–people habitually expect the Southeast Division to be the mediocre division, largely because they are mediocre. Or rather, because they tend to play like it. And the fans just settle for it. “Oh, third seed is good enough.”

Screw that. Go hard or go freaking home already. Don’t freaking settle.

Luke DeCock on last night’s fiasco–and since he’s saying what I’m thinking, I’ll let him do the talking today.