He will be the Hurricanes backup netminder as Michael Leighton fills in for the injured Cam Ward. From AP-
The Carolina Hurricanes have signed veteran goaltender Manny Legace to a one-year, $500,000 deal, general manager Jim Rutherford said Monday.
The Hurricanes lost starting goalie Cam Ward to injury Saturday for at least a month.
Legace, a 10-year NHL veteran with the Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues, has played six games with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves this season, logging 317 minutes while going 2-2-1 with a 3.21 goals-against average.
He last played in the NHL for the Blues last season.
At this point in his life, Legace is a mediocre backup Goalie at best. The Canes better hope Leighton picks up the slack or this season will grow even worse than one that already features a eleven game streak without a win.
He was injured in tonight’s game against Columbus. From AP-
Carolina goalie Cam Ward remained in a hospital Saturday night after his leg was cut by a skate during the first period of the Hurricanes’ game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Ward didn’t fly home after the 3-2 loss because of concerns about the stress of the flight on his injury.
“It’s a significant injury and all I mean by that is I don’t have any timeline,” coach Paul Maurice said. “There was a fair amount of blood on the ice. All I know it was his leg; other than that I do not know any more.”
Hurricanes spokesman Kyle Hanlin said Ward, who was helped off the ice by two trainers, went to the hospital for further evaluation for a cut on his leg.
Ward stretched to make a save while Blue Jackets forward Rick Nash skated through the crease at 7:35. It appeared Nash or a defenseman nicked Ward in the leg with a skate.
Ward was on all fours for a couple of minutes on the ice before he was attended to by the trainers. As he was being helped off, drops of blood trailed him all the way to the dressing room.
This isn’t the first time Ward has been cut during a game. A similar incident happened two years ago when Carolina played the New York Islanders and the skate of Brad Isbister sliced Ward’s knee.
Anytime a Goalie gets cut and bleeds significantly, brings back memories of Buffalo Sabre Goalie Clint Malarchuk and what happened to him in 1989. Florida Panther Richard Zednik also suffered a severe neck wound two years ago. I was watching the game when it happened.
Lets pray Ward gets better and that he will be able to return to the ice soon.
Carolina’s 3-2 loss last night marked their 11th consecutive game without a win. At this point in the season it looks like the NHL’s Southeast Division has the two worst teams in the league.
7 points in 14 games to equals the worst previous start in Hurricane history previously set in 1993. From AP-
Tomas Vokoun made 31 saves for his second straight shutout, Steve Reinprecht opened the scoring early in the third period and the Florida Panthers extended the Carolina Hurricanes’ winless streak to 10 games with a 3-0 victory Wednesday night.
Vokoun beat the St. Louis Blues 4-0 on Saturday.
Cory Stillman added a power-play goal and an assist and Reinprecht also had an assist. Defenseman Bryan Allen scored an empty-net goal with 2:01 left.
Cam Ward stopped 22 shots for Carolina, 0-6-0 in the road.
The Panthers have won three straight after opening 2-7-1.
Carolina, 0-7-3 during its losing streak, hasn’t won since beating Florida 7-2 on Oct. 9 in its fourth game of the season.
The Hurricanes were shut out for the third time this season. They have scored two goals or less in 11 of their 14 games.
Reinprecht scored his ninth goal of the season when Stillman’s wrist shot bounced off his leg and through Ward’s pads. Stillman made it 2-0 at 13:46 when he tipped Bryan McCabe’s slap shot from the point.
Carolina dominated the first period, outshooting Florida 21-4. It was the Hurricanes’ most shots in any period this season.
This was a odd game in a few ways. No scoring for the first 44 plus minutes of play, then three goals in twelve minutes. Carolina had 4 power play chances in a row, then Florida got six man advantages in a row. The game ended with Carolina showing some anger, after the buzzer went off Hurricane and Panther players scuffled behind the Florida net.
After their blazing start to the game, Carolina played listlessly for much of the last two periods. I would have to think Carolina coach Paul Maurice’s job will be in jeopardy soon if a turnaround doesn’t take place soon.
Florida has now won 3 in a row. I’m not yet sold on the Panthers correcting their woeful start to the 2009-10 season. If they split or better their two games with Washington on Friday and Saturday, I might feel more confident about my favorite hockey team.
The Hurricanes haven’t won a game since October 9th. From AP-
Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn waited five years for his first two-goal game in the NHL. Then he took care of the feat in 1½ minutes.
Coburn scored twice and Scott Hartnell and Matt Carle each had a goal and two assists to help Philadelphia snap a two-game losing streak and send the Carolina Hurricanes to their eighth straight loss, 6-1 on Saturday.
“I’ve had a lot of close calls so far,” said Coburn, who has played in 227 career NHL games. “You just have to wait for your time.”
David Laliberte, playing in his first NHL game, and James Van Riemsdyk each had a goal and an assist for the Flyers, unbeaten in their past six regulation games at home against Carolina.
*****
Brandon Sutter scored for the Hurricanes (2-7-3), who are off to their worst start since 1997 — the franchise’s first season in Carolina — when they were 2-7-2. Carolina is winless on the road (0-5-2), and on an 0-5-3 skid overall.
Ray Emery, who stopped 28 shots in the Flyers’ season-opening, 2-0 win over Carolina on Oct.2, made 39 saves in the rematch.
Michael Leighton, making his first start for the Hurricanes, stopped 22 shots.
Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said he thought Leighton needed some game action. You think so? You’re team is 2-6-3 with one goalie who has played all 11 games you played this year. I think it is time to try option two if just for one game.
Even if it doesn’t work.
I’m amazed by Carolina’s start, which is worse than the Florida Panthers. Carolina went to the conference finals last year. Both the Panthers and Hurricanes have 7 pts at this point in the 2009-10 NHL season but Carolina has played one more game. I’m more optimistic about the Hurricanes turning around than Florida.
Another thug NHL player being wrist slapped by the league. From AP-
Carolina Hurricanes forward Tuomo Ruutu has been suspended three games by the NHL for a boarding of Darcy Tucker that knocked the Colorado Avalanche winger unconscious.
Ruutu was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding Tucker at 5:26 of the second period of Friday night’s game.
Ruutu will lose $56,067.36 in salary for the suspension, which was announced Saturday. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Here’s the video
The NHL will only get control of this violence by handing down suspensions for double digit amounts of games. I don’t see that happening any time soon. I think the NHL thinks violence like this and the Evgeny Artyukhin/Matt Niskanen incident appeal to a certain group of fans. They probably do, but I don’t know why a serious sports needs to satisfy the lowest common denominators among its fan base. The image of the NHL will always be dirtied by the thugs that play for them.
Did you know it is less than 3 weeks to the start of the 2009-10 NHL season? From the Miami Herald-
The Florida Panthers picked up some defensive help Monday after signing defenseman Dennis Seidenberg to a one-year deal.
Last season with Carolina, Seidenberg scored five goals and picked up 25 assists in 70 games.
He is a German citizen who still has to get a visa to play for Florida, but he is expected to join the team later this week — most likely Wednesday in Ottawa.
In six years, Seidenberg has 14 career goals and 70 assists while playing in 295 games.
Seidenberg, who played for Philadelphia and Phoenix before coming to Carolina, is a serviceable defensemen no more. If Florida management thinks this guy and Jordan Leopold will fill the void created by the departure of Jay Bouwmeester, this NHL will continue to miss the playoffs every year far into the future.
The upcoming schedule was released yesterday. Right away I noticed something interesting. Florida has a home and home series with Nashville.
Nov 28 and Mar 29 are when the Panthers and Predators play next season.
What I find interesting is- Florida is playing Nashville home and home for the second straight season. In 2008-09, the Panthers and Predators played on November 1st and December 23rd.
In light of the way the NHL season is set up, namely that any Eastern or Western conference team plays only play 3 home and homes in any season, Florida and Nashville shouldn’t meet home and home more than once every five years 15 western conference teams divided by 3 home and home series equals five.
Here’s a link to the 2009-10 schedule. Anyone have theories as to what happened here or am I off base?
Pittsburgh became the first NHL team in 25 years to make it to the Stanley Cup finals the year after being defeated in the finals. From AP-
The Penguins are headed back to the Stanley Cup finals, clinching a return trip with a 4-1 rout of the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night that finished off a sweep in the Eastern Conference finals. Pittsburgh lost to Detroit last year in a six-game final series.
“We didn’t touch [the trophy] last year, and things didn’t go the way we wanted,” Crosby said. “I thought we’d change it up this year.”
Max Talbot had a goal and an assist, Ruslan Fedotenko and Bill Guerin also scored, and Craig Adams added an empty-netter.
Crosby had two assists to extend his point streak to six games, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped the final 30 shots he faced in shutting down Carolina during the last 58 minutes.
The Penguins outscored the Hurricanes 20-9 in the series, netted at least three goals in each game, and trailed for a total of 20 minutes, 30 seconds, in advancing to the Cup finals for the fourth time.
No doubt, the Penguins were impressive in how they dismantled Carolina. I just don’t think they can beat Detroit. Admittedly, I never thought Penguin would get this far in the playoffs either.
As it stands now, hockey fans will see a repeat of the 2007-08 final. From AP-
According to multiple sources, if the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings can wrap up their respective Conference final series by Wednesday night, the Stanley Cup finals likely would start on Saturday, May 30 in Detroit. In this scenario, Game 2 would be played on Sunday, May 31.
This is a change from a May 22 press release from the league that indicated that the championship series would begin on Friday, June 5, if both Conference final series didn’t end in four-game sweeps.
The Penguins can close out their series with a victory over the Hurricanes in Raleigh on Tuesday night. The defending champion Red Wings, meanwhile, have positioned themselves to advance with a win over the Blackhawks on Wednesday in Detroit.
I think Chicago is more than capable of taking Detroit to Game six. On the other hand, Pittsburgh has so dominated Carolina, I would be surprised if the series don’t end in a sweep.
I think bumping up the schedule is a good idea if the semi-finals end early. Why wait a week to begin the final round?
The NHL may be making this schedule change to accomodate NBC’s programming more than to satisfy its fans need for closure to the 2008-09 hockey year.
For the past several days, the league has been working behind the scenes with NBC, which has limited prime time real estate to devote to the Cup finals due to important “sweeps” week programming and the Tonight Show re-launch with new host Conan O’Brien.
According to wikipedia, May sweeps are over and the next isn’t till July.
NBC concentrates on just a small handful of NHL teams for their broadcasts. Two of whom are Detroit and Pittsburgh. I’m sure network executives are delighted these teams will battle it out for the Stanley Cup.
The last two first round series concluded last night. First Washington rallied to eliminate the New York Rangers.
Fedorov beat Henrik Lundqvist with 4:59 left in the third period, rookie Simeon Varlamov was good in the net when he had to be, and the second-seeded Capitals edged the No. 7 New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal Tuesday night.
If Washington coach Bruce Boudreau had stuck with the veteran Theodore as Goalie, The Rangers would have advanced. It was a gutsy decision.
New Jersey was victimized by two late Carolina goals in their loss.
Jussi Jokinen and Eric Staal scored in a 48-second span late in the third period as the Hurricanes stunned the Devils 4-3 in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference series.
To me, Carolina’s win is more surprising than Anaheim knocking off San Jose.
The conference semi-finals are set. My predictions are-
Boston takes Carolina 4 games to 1. I think the Bruins are the best team still in the playoffs.
Washington beats Pittsburgh 4 games to 3. Can Varlamov stand the pressure of Crosby, Malkin, and company? He better, otherwise the Capitals will make mincemeat of Theodore.
