Game Thread ... Canes @ Buffalo ... 10/20

[jeffbear]

Carolina and Buffalo renew what will probably be a season long grudge match on Friday night in Buffalo ... round 2. The Sabres took the opener in Raleigh with a shootout win in what was a very evenly fought contest, and have been pillaging the rest of the NHL since then. They're 6-0-0 and are one of two unbeaten teams remaining ... along with the Wild, and their last win was the most convincing as they brutally humiliated the Flyers 9-1. Carolina went the other way after the opener, skidding to three more consecutive losses before snapping back to life with three straight road wins culminating in a 5-1 spanking of the Lightning on Monday. Buffalo leads the Northeast and the Eastern Conference with 12 points, while Carolina sits second in the Southeast and sixth in the East with 7 points.

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?service=p...=StandingsPage
http://www.sabres.com/
http://www.carolinahurricanes.com/

Co-Captain Chris Drury is off to a hot start for the Sabres as he leads them with 7 goals and 10 points. Afinogenov, Briere and Vanek are also going at better than a point a game clip so far. Jaro Spacek has meshed with his new team quickly and leads a re-worked Sabres blueline group that is also getting strong play from Henrik Tallinder and Tony Lydman. Ryan Miller has been very good in net early on, but really hasn't been asked to do a whole lot as Buffalo's possession time has been ridiculously high in most of their games. They are playing pretty much as well as they are capable of playing so far this season.

As mentioned, Carolina had to go to the kick start after a slow beginning, but their top players got into the mix in a big way after the first four games. Laviolette found something when he re-jiggered the lines after the opening four game skid, and even a new wave of injuries to defensemen hasn't been able to slow down the surge. Glen Wesley and Bret Hedican missed practice again on Wednesday after the Canes took Tuesday off. They are both questionable to unlikely to go on Friday night. With those two out on Monday, Carolina leaned heavily on Commodore, Gleason and Wallin to keep things calm in the defensive zone and they responded with strong efforts. Justin Williams is coming off of a hat trick, and has been dangerous on the top line with Eric Staal and Scott Walker. Erik Cole reunited with Rod Brind'Amour and while Cole hasn't found the back of the net since opening night, he has freed up Brindy for some recent goals. Goalie Cam Ward has posted three strong efforts in a row and is looking to be in a groove at this point. Recently concussed forward Trevor Letowski will be out for a couple of weeks.

So ... one white hot team, one red hot team, a little bit of bad blood and two VERY confident contenders. Looks like we've got the ingredients for a barn burner on Friday night. It's a late start at 8:00 on FSN ... but it's must see TV.

[polarbare]

We got a win last time I was 2nd in.. so ..

Go 'Canes!

[dwind]

The canes are best off missing the plane. The smart ones. Glen, Brett, Corey, Ladd, Kaberele will stay back and watch from the comfort of a small hidden room somewhere else. I heard about 18 other canes went to Pete complaining opf everything from hangnail to fractured skull trying to get out of the game. The halloween costume shops have been going great guns with MASH patient disguises for the players. But, Lavi wasn't fooled, nosiree. He had them on the ice, fake bandages and all.
But, after Friday night the bandages won't be fake. The blood will be real. The scoreboard will run out of numbers for the Buffons. The carnage will be gruesome. The canes have only 3 basic holes in their team. Offense, defense and goal tending. But, lets think of the positives. There is um and watch, well watch the commercials. That olar beep isn't around.
Better than watching the game, read a good book. How about Grims Fairy Tales? The canes winning would be another for Grimm to add to the collection.
B'loo 5 - 3

[caniac1021]

I say it's time the Canes snapped Buffalo back to reality.

[canesice]

Per the N&O:

CANES NOTE: Carolina defensemen Glen Wesley and Bret Hedican and forwards Trevor Letowski, Andrew Ladd and Keith Aucoin did not practice Wednesday due to injuries.

So now Aucoin has an issue also...

[dwind]

One thing I've heard inthe past - when a callup has an injury thy can't be resnt back to the AHL. They have to remain with the parent team and draw the nhl salary. I'm not saying it is this case but there have been oher cases wre an injury drags on just so the player can't be sent back.

[ChickenParm]

One thing I've heard inthe past - when a callup has an injury thy can't be resnt back to the AHL. They have to remain with the parent team and draw the nhl salary. I'm not saying it is this case but there have been oher cases wre an injury drags on just so the player can't be sent back.

So this really becomes a fascinating cap-related question... depending on the extent of the injury to Aucoin, do we call someone up as a quick fix - taking on a bit more salary - or do we just bite it and dress 19 tonight? (Unless my counting is off, not replacing Aucoin and assuming the two D aren't ready, we only have 19 healthy bodies.)

We could always have Grahame skate out too...

[vinniebagadonuts]

We don't have any cap issues. We could probably bring up all of Albany. Plus, the game isn't until tomorrow. I'm not worried about finding 20 bodies healthy enough to take on the Sabres in Buffalo. Hell, I'll play for nothing.

[ChickenParm]

We don't have any cap issues. We could probably bring up all of Albany. Plus, the game isn't until tomorrow. I'm not worried about finding 20 bodies healthy enough to take on the Sabres in Buffalo. Hell, I'll play for nothing.

I'll grant you, we could find an extra body, no problem. But more to the point, is it worth it? If you look at the shift charts for the season thus far, we've reliably got a guy up front who's taking 8 shifts or fewer. I know we're not up against the cap, but it's a cost-benefit analysis... can we double-shift enough to cover, let's say, 10 shifts on Friday (my bad on the game date), or is it worth it to call the likes of Gove up for what might be one night and 5 minutes of ice time?

It's a pretty trivial question in the grand scheme of things, but to me, it's an interesting and fun one to consider.

[dwind]

How far is Buffalo from Albany?

The thought on injuries - a callup can make more on ir in the nhl they they can playing in the ahl.