for Rookie of the Year and the coveted Calder Trophy.  I am glad that there are those who don't just look at what team the rookie plays for but what they actually mean to the chances of their team.

Be honest, even you can look into all the various outcomes for the Canes sans Skinner, how many of them would have the Canes knocking on the playoff door during this arguably intense rebuilding year?

You can read their (very reasonable) reasons here:

Jeff Skinner THN choice for the Calder

get 1 point from an OT loss in their last 9 games in the regular season.

Now is that 100% accurate? Hell no but it is a good rule of thumb and the reasons are:

Continue reading this post »

Hey All,

It is I, LCD, that would like to start this season's home opener of with merriment, food and of course beer.  This Wednesday is opener against some of your favorite teams in the South Least, the Washington Capitols.

So who's in, who's thinking about it and who's going to be anti social?

Where:  Backyard Bistro

When:  Wednesday starting as early as you'd like.

Now I'd like to reserve a table or two or three.  The sooner I hear from by extended dysfunctional surrogate family at Canes Country with people who want to or think they will come to the pre-game celebratory festivities, let me know and I'll reserve what I can.

The sooner, the better.

Well, our turn.  I present a few Puck Bunny cheesecake pics.  Puck Bunnies and Easter.  Makes it a good fit.

Yes, time for us to see some of the lovely ladies of hockey, and I don't mean players.

Now here are the pictures for consideration:

Call me Santa:


That's a rodeo I could really get into:

Ever wonder why the Islanders seem to leave it all in the locker room?

If the refs all looked like this, who cares what they call!

Those Canadian hockey girls look like they can handle a stick.

Texas is well served.

Do we know any other ladies from Toronto who like dressing up?

How did this get in here?

Pretty in pink.

One might note I didn't really ask which one of these hotties is your first choice.  Come on now, really, would you care which one came up to you and said, "Hi!"?

Hey kids,

Well, the end is almost upon us.  I have to admit that when I thought with my head and not as a fan that the end would of come in February for the Canes.  Face it, in late December/early January the odds of the Cane's getting 50 points in the season looked slim.  There were times you know that even I, Captain Positive/Glass is Half Fullman, had a difficult time of being positive about the Cane's "ramping it up" and making the playoffs.  Yes, it is true.  So to you all, I must confess that I tried but didn't always maintain the facade of "being above it all".

While I always had (and maybe still do) hope that the Canes could turn it around and make it into the playoffs, from an empirical point of view, they were climbing mount improbable.  Still from January to just last week it looked as though the Canes could have pulled one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.  But I know what the organization said when Ruutu went out for shoulder surgery.  The writing was on the wall.

Now what do we do?  With April coming up soon (which means new episodes of Fringe, Bones and Stargate Universe!) that means Summer, you know that annoyingly hot and humid time between watching the puck drop and making fun of Tripp's oft spoken anecdotal insights into his hot tub forays, is coming up.  Yeah, summer is a hell of a way to miss out on hockey.  I won't mind if we were in the desert, with all of this this humidity crud, but I digress.

But there is still one last thing we can do to see the end (and good riddance) of the Hurricanes 2009-2010 hockey season:  A Canes Country gathering.  Now some of us will still be watching or at least keeping tabs on the Stanley Cup Playoffs (GO YOTES!) the the team we love, curse and moan, and come out for will not be there.  So we need to have one more gathering to say goodbye to the season and to the Canes.

When will this be?  The last game of the Hurricanes Season, April 10th at 1pm.  It's a game against the B's of Boston.  Who knows, perhaps the Canes can ruin the Bruin and make it difficult to make the playoffs.  So where to meet?  Rudino's Pizzas and Grinders off of Strickland, between Six Forks and Lead Mine, just south of I-540.  Rudino's Roof top is pretty cool.

The only issue is weather.  The roof top has seating under canopies but it would defeat the purpose if it were raining.  The backup location would be Carolina Ale House at Brier Creek.  That is NOT the location of the last Cool Bar of the season which is the one off of Creekside.

So let me know, the earlier the better (and let's avoid the last time when I had no idea who was or was not going to be showing up) and let's all meet, greet and say goodbye to a season that started poorly but shows signs that next season will be great.  (Holy Crap!  I'm sounding like a Cub's fan now!  However I don't think the Canes are anything like the Chokes, I mean Cubs!)

Later kids,

Frank

in the various "power rankings" so take your pick.  Yeah, these latest "Power Rankings" from the various experts are out and sometimes more than a few are out somewhere that I'm sure requires chemical helpers.

They range from a Power Ranking of 10th from <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/allan_muir/03/09/power.rankings/index.html" >Allan Muir on Sports Illustrated</a> here,  all the way down to 26th on several other lists (why are most of those Canadian or NE sites?) you can see the discrepancies.

Some split the difference like <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/business/power+rankings+March/2658733/story.html">Elliott Pap</a> and give them an 18th Power Ranking.  Heck, even ESPN's Scott Burnside gives the Canes as <a href="http://espn.go.com/nhl/powerrankings">19th</a> Power Ranking.  Then you compare that to Robert Picarello of Fox Sports and his <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/powerRankings">26th</a> place for them.

So what is the best way?  This would not just be for the Canes of course, but for all teams.

Obviously, the overall record counts but what about the times a team are hot and cold?  With what, 12 wins in 14 games, the Canes are playing tough.  Conversely, the Sabres at 3-5-2 of their last 10 or the Senators and their 5-4-1 with many of those losses AFTER the Olympic break aren't scaring too many other teams right now.

On the other hand, even other teams' blog sites are wary of facing the Canes.  "Playing with nothing holding them back", "Having the freedom to take confounding chances" and more are becoming the norm when referring to the Canes.

So what is my solution to the issue?  Complicated of course.  It's done in three different stages and each stage uses slightly different metrics.

The first stage is straight forward: You take all the Points Earned, add the Goals For and subtract out the goals against and the result is the "Relative Power Rank", RPR.  Or RPR = Points+GF-GA

The second stage is when all teams have played more than 30 games.  It uses a slightly different formula.  The first part is as above but you exclude the last 5 games played.  The second part is only counting the last 5 games the team has played.  The last 5 games are more important in determining how the team is playing now so the Points earned and the GF and GA of those are given twice weight as the earlier games.

RPR = (All games save the last 5 games)[Points+GF-GA] + 2*(Just the last 5 games)[Points+GF-GA]

The last stage is where we're at with all teams playing more than 55 games.  There are three parts to the formula, the last 5 games, the 10 games previous to the last 5 games (the 6 to 15 last games) and the first games minus the last 15.  The last 5 games are weighted 3 times, the previous 10 are weighted twice and the first games save the last 15 are normal.

RPR=(All games save the last 15)[Points+GF-GA] + 2*(last 6 to 15th games)[Points+GF-GA] + 3*(last 5 games)[Points+GF-GA]

Yeah, its a bit complex but I think that better describes what a team has done and what it is currently doing.  Of course, to give a better fit as not all teams play games as fast as others, if one team played 66 games and another just 62, divide each team by the number of games they've played and multiply each result by 64.  That would be the "Weighted Relative Power Ranking", or WRPR.

God I hate conference calls.

No, I don't pray being agnostic and all, but I do believe in the Hockey Gods.

So here's a prayer to them:

"Our Father whom art in Vancouver, hockey be thy name. Thy will be done, the gold will be won, on ice as well as in the stands. Give us this day, our hockey sticks, and forgive us our penalties as we forgive those who cross check against us. Lead us not into silver but deliver us to golden victory. In the name of the US, of A hockey team, AMEN!"

No, I didn't come up with it myself but I did alter it as it was originally written for cough, gag, choke..... the guys from the 51st to 60th states and the corresponding 3 northern territories.

Just this.  I didn't make any reservations as there weren't too many who said they'd go.  Because of that I didn't think that a reservation is needed.

Also, I won't go as I'm not feeling well and I don't want to get the rest of you, er most of you at least, sick as well.  You can all thank me later.

Just take notes and pictures and hopefully I'll see you all soon.

Ciao.

At Cary's "Spirits Pub and Grub", starting at 6:30pm.  Here's the link for Spirits Pub and Grub location (you may need to allow for pop ups) and the link for the menu is here too.

There, we will be able to complain, talk trash and generally be Hockey Fans.  There, we'll watch our team play not for just the right to pick first in the lottery for the T. Hall sweepstakes, but also play to get choice tee-times come mid-April.

So come on out.  We'll toast being able to see the Canes up close and personal, but only in the local grocery store or pumping gas, not on the rink going for the Cup.

Just let me know if you're going to go as next Friday, January 28th, I will be making reservations if we get more than 15+ people.

Later

Hey kids,

Well, the Canes are in real danger of climbing to 29th, even 28th place in the rankings.  While the Canes are 3-1-0 in the new year, the Miserable Languishing Maple Leafs and out of gas Oilers are slipping into free fall.

So where and when to meet?

Friday is always a great way to start off the weekend.  Drinking and watching hockey with friends, or at least people who can ignore you well enough while watching hockey, is great therapy.  Saturday is good too as we can get an early start to the drinking, say noonish, and be completely ready for the 7:00pm puck drop.  On a great day like that, it will be interesting to see if the score, or number of Canes' fans still standing would be higher.

Now where.

I liked the Ale House, but we've already done that.

Then there's the place Cyn4canes and raccoonfink suggested in Cary.

Backyard Bistro is very close to the hallowed grounds of the RBC Centre.

Then there's Rudino's Roof Top off of Strickland.  It's really cool (cold even) but the upstairs is on the roof.

So, I'd like to know who's interested and where you think it would be a good place to go.

See ya there,

LCD

Well kids, those 8 brave souls who joined me in watching another tepid breeze of a game from the Hurricanes who now, until further notice have been down graded to a nothing more than a "Major Depression".  I'd like to especially send out kudos to Canescup and Jenniwa30 for being such troopers as they braved coming out from NEW BERN, like 3 hours away when others couldn't handle a little rain......

Oops, sorry.  Any anger and disappointment well, that's for the Canes and their singular ability to make the "Cry-A-Thon" a huge and oh so prophetic event.  To that end, I'd like to note the players we all wish to thank for making that prophecy come true.

1st Star:  A. Ward for his continued help on ensuring the Canes the winning ticket in the lottery for whatever hunky stud is coming up through the draft.

2nd Star:  C. Ward gets a nod as well for letting in at what count was at least 3 soft goals.

3rd Star:  E. Staal.  Nah, he didn't play that bad but watching Serendipity push Canescup's buttons about Staal was worth the price of admission.

Now the fun part.  I'd like to do this two more times and depending on how successful perhaps a third time.  The Last time is obvious.  The last away game for the "Wake-A-Thon" when we Caniacs wake up from this nightmare known as the 2009-2010 season.  That of course is the last regular game (and almost certainly the last Canes game) of the 2009-2010 season.  It's against the Bruins at 1:00pm, Saturday April 10th.

The first game is up for grabs as to when.  I was thinking either Friday, February 5th vs the Buffa-Slugs or Saturday, February 6th vs the Islanders.  I vote for the Buffa-Slugs but the only down side is if we lose, a likely scenario, losing to the Buffalo Cow Patties would be difficult.  Besides a friend of mine from Buffalo and a Slug fan might be down and listening to him go on.....

As there is no hatred for the Islanders, there won't be as much excitement either.  Such is life.

In any case I thought it was fun and I'm looking forward to doing it again this season.  Let me know what your thoughts are and locations for them.

Later,

LCD2YOU

Cary Ale House, Map

I called and confirmed.  We will have the back, outside bar area.

Looking forward to seeing all of you who are coming.  I have made reservations for about 20 or so.  If we get that or more, that'll be great.

For those people who can't make it, we'll miss you.  Hopefully we'll take pictures.  Some of them we might use for black mailing purposes!

SEE AS MANY AS POSSIBLE THERE!

It will be on December 18th starting at 6:30pm.  Come earlier if you want, it's your liver.  I see that by the previous poll it appears that the 11th has 13 votes and the 18th has 12 votes, but I was informed by Briney that he voted incorrectly and wanted to make sure his vote for the 18th was counted correctly.  That brings the 11th down to 12 and the 18th up to 13 votes.

Hell, there is still enough to go to both and I just might do that.  However, I'll only go out and get a reservation, of sorts, for about 25 or so Canes Country people for the 18th.  If anyone wants to plan the 11th, please be my guest.

The location will be at the Cary Ale House.  Note this is not the same place as the Cool Bar which is at the North Raleigh Ale House.  I was thinking about that place, combining the two events, it is just that the North Raleigh Ale House is small and has no outside bar seating.

I welcome all suggestions if you have a better place or want to combine it with the Cool Bar but I thought this would be a nice place to get the Canes Corner dysfunctional family together.  There will be plenty more Cool Bars, one is this Wednesday up in Wake Forest, and we can go to them as needed but again, this is for Canes Country folk.

Let me know what you think about it.  Also, if you thought you were going but can't, let me know sooner the better.  I will be calling up the Ale House on the 11th and making the reservations.  I would hate to make reservations for 25 or so people and have 6 show up.

Ciao

Okay, never done this Fan-Post before so forgive me.

I would like to get everyone together for a toast and a burial to a season that should have been.

Right now, the two best dates are 12-11 or 12-18.  Both are Friday nights and both are away games.  The difference is Dec 18th is a Canes Cool Bar, but who cares?

So either day is fine with me.  I'd like to get as many people together at the Cary Ale House, cheap eats and cheap beer, for our wake of the Hurricanes.  Games start at 7:00pm so I figure get there around 6pm or 6:30pm and take over a section of the bar area, outside if its warm enough.

Pick a date and the day with the most people wins!

My choice:  I don't care.