Last night saw the opening game of the British Elite League, and one of the games saw my boys at home, the Nottingham Panthers, take on the Belfast Giants (yes, the team thats going to be hosting the Bruins in a month's time). 

Naturally, of course, I had to attend this sure-to-be-classic opening game - last year the Panthers won the Challenge Cup, and the Giants won the playoffs, and these two teams, along with the Coventry Blaze, are favoured to top the league throughout the season.

It proved to be an excitingly close game!  We came out of the gates well, strong and defensive against the feared Giants' offence.  Our new goalie (who, incidently, happens to be an old Hurricanes 2000 draft pick Craig Kowalski!  Does anyone remember him?  He's way before my time lol) let in two softies in the first five minutes which only proved to be a good thing in the long run as he and the rest of the team played near perfect hockey (well as near perfect as our league can get =P) to take the game into overtime with a score of 3-3.  A tense period of overtime resulted in no goal so it went down to a shootout which took 7 rounds before the Panthers took the game winner!  The building was going nuts, the players were elated, and the Giants got to sulk!  What a perfect way to start the season!  (Even if we had a clear goal in the 4th round of the shootout disallowed by a questionable ref - unfortunately we don't have the privilege of video replay!)

In all, I just wanted to express my love for this great sport, and after a long and tedious summer I am overjoyed that I can revel in it again!  I just hope that my fellow Canes fans have a speedy last month so you can join in on the marvel that is live hockey!  Traverse City and training camp not too far away now, and Helsinki is nearing fast!  Three cheers for hockey!

Canes and Panthers for the win!!  =D

Just been reading around a bit and have come up with some speculation.  I notice that Mitchell hasn't been scooped up yet and realised this is the type of player that JR could well target - Mitchell had a bad season ending hit from Malkin in January and maybe still experiencing some post concussion syndrome, hence why teams may be passing over him.

This may open the door for JR to sign him on the cheap a few weeks down the line?  I definitely would not be upset if we could sign him, he seems solid in his own end and could fulfil a top 4 role, two aspects our D needs.  I was also pleasantly surprised to see he has only ever had one year of a negative +/-. 

According to NHLnumbers.com he was only earning 3.5M last year with the Canucks so we should be able to get him for less if no-one else is gonna touch him.

What do people think?  Do you think it would be worth risking signing someone who may still be feeling the impact of Malkin's hit, albeit if we could get a top-4 Dman for cheap?

I certainly wouldn't argue with a D corps that looks like the follwing:

Gleason-McBain

Pitkanen-Mitchell

Babchuk-Sanguinetti

Harrison

Hey all!

A little off topic but I was just wondering if anyone here is also into motorsport?  Proper motorsport like Formula 1 that is, not your nascar =P nah I'm just teasing!  Lol!

Anway, I'm a massive F1 fan and there is a new team entering this coming season called USF1 and they're based in Charlotte N.C. apparently!  Does anyone intend on following/supporting them?  They appear to be well committed for the foreseeable future from what I've heard, and pumping a fair amount of money into the project...  Has there been much hype about it on your side of the pond at all?

Theres an interview on f1.com with the sporting director if anyone is interested further:

http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2010/1/10320.html

I've been pondering (as you do on quiet winter nights) about what things the hurricanes might do soon to rectify our nice little basement position.  I think, as its been widely said here, the team should tank the rest of the season in order to get a nice high draft pick for next year and that if the team does indeed do this it would make sense to sell anyone and everyone of value in order to rebuild for next year.

But having considered all the names people keep suggesting to trade (I'm a great fan of the idea of whoring Whitney to another team for the playoff stretch and then resigning him in the summer) I have thought of another few people that may be a possibility for trading - our goalies!

I think we are quite strong on the goalie front - obviously we have a very good young starter who will hopefully be with us for a long time in Ward.  We have a good veteran backup in Legace who the team is obviously keen on keeping as backup and then we have two good young prospects - we have Peters who appears to coming into his own down in the AHL whilst putting up some very impressive numbers (11-5-2, 2.03 GAA, 0.931 SV%) as well as Mike Murphy who is making a name for himself with his unorthodox style.

I think that our young prospects could be very attractive to a team who are not so fortunate with their goalie situation (Philly comes to mind) and need someone for more of a long-term solution as opposed to a short-term playoff push.  It would also make sense on the Canes end as I think one of these young goalies are expendable - I would imagine front office wanting to keep Legace for another year next year in order to give Peters and/or Murphy enough experience in order to step up into being a full time backup to Cam... and since (hopefully) Cam won't be going anywhere we won't need more than one of these young 'uns.

What do people think?  Are there any teams around that you think may be in need of a goalie and who has something to give back in return - either player or picks?  Or maybe even think of an extravagant package trade, say a forward and goalie for a 1st round pick...  DISCUSS!

After all the talk and chatter about stripping Roddy of the C and giving it to someone else, I'm quite intrigued as to who everyone reckons will be following in his foot steps.

*Disclaimer* - I'm not saying Rod should be stripped at the mo to solve all these problems, this is purely just a seperate thought =P

I've listed the main people I remember all of us commented about being a possible captain, but please feel free to mention anyone I didn't add in the comments =D

Admitted, good ol' Winston probably did not have ice hockey in mind when he declared this, and, admitted, failures in sports leagues will land your team at the bottom of the league.  But I feel that without the continued support for our beloved 'canes things will only continue to look bleaker! 

We have a very promising future corps of skaters coming up and it may well prove to be in their best interests to let them develop as much as possible before sticking them in this disaster of a situation. 

This year is a write off.  Simple as.  Maurice will stay until at least Lavi's contract ends.  Rod will play to the end of the season.  A. Ward will not be sent down.  Its not going to get much better. Get used to it. 

Get used to it, realise teams cannot win all of the time and then embrace the fact that we have a lot to look forward to; Sutter continuing to improve, a nice selection of our promising rookies hopefully making it out of training camp next year after developing some nice chemistry in the A, some exciting trades that might bring some joy either with new faces or more picks, and most importantly a nice high draft pick *cough FIRST cough*

Lets not let other teams' fans continue to believe we only support our team when they're doing well... So please everyone, lets not lose our enthusiasm, keep cheering loudly! 

LETS GO CANES!!!!!

Just another topic to keep us all interested whilst waiting for opening night... hurrar!!

So who's going to be on which unit?

I think the PK was quite successful at the end of last year but with the additions of Tommy K and Yelle could we see them featured in there at all?

And what about the PP?  It seemed quite inactive particularly during the playoffs so do you think changes will be made?  Who do you think will be where?  We seem to have plenty of candidates for the forward roles but what about at the point?  Will those reponsibilites be down purely to Joni and Corvo now Babs will no longer be there to provide us with his banger of a shot?

Thoughts anyone? =D