It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Yes the leaves are starting to change and that means one thing. HOCKEY SEASON! Last night I took my son (3 yo) to the opening night of the pre-season schedule for the Canes, and despite it being new season-same results it was still good to get back into our old seats again.  As usual, it was a good mix of starters and guys who will eventually be in Charlotte (AHL) and even some who will be sent back to their JR team. You saw the biggest test of the young guys up the middle. Maurice threw the kids into the fire by puttingDalpe, Skinner, and Nashat the Center position. I kinda liked that idea, throw them in see if the sink or swim. Some sank, some swam (more onthat later). The vets on the ice included LaRose, Kostopoulos, Ruutu, Gleason, Dwyer and Babcuk, as you can see a decent amount of the regulars missing but with this “youth movement” they have going on that’s to be expected. But now the re-cap.

Recap—> The Canes came out skating real well. They forced the play early and drew a nice penalty a little under 3 mins into the game.  Then just under a minute later the refs called the most questionable “ticky-tack” penalty of the game. They Called Tuomo Ruutu for an interference penalty when he was getting back out of the zone on an offside play. Normally eh no big deal, but this lead to a microcosm of the whole 09-10 season in the next span of 2 mins.  On the ensuing faceoff while 4 on 4 the Panthers MShawn Matthias won the draw back to 1st round pick (3rd overall) ,young gun D man Erik Gudbranson who  promptly unloaded a bomb of a slap shot right past Cam Ward for the opening goal.  One minute later when the Panthers went on the Power Play, Mike Santorelli took the puck on the left side and went around slow as dirt Anton Babcuk and ripped a laser wrist shot over the just as slow glove hand of Cam Ward (Who I love as a goalie but simply has the worst glove hand in the league)  for the 2-0 lead. Natrually the bleeding didn’t end there. With a scrum in front of Ward the Panthers were able to get the 3rd goal in 2 mins on a rolling puck that found it’s way inside the far post. BAM a good start turns into a 3-0 deficit and we aren’t even 6 mins into the game! But, the Canes would settle down. The rest of the 1st period was ugly and they pretty much just weathered the storm, but from then on out they controlled the play and really out played the Panthers out shooting them 23-11 the 2nd and 3rd periods but still only managing 1 goal each on the scoreboard.

   While the Canes were shorthanded, from a Riley Nash hooking call, Tom Kostopoulos fought hard on the boards and knocked the puck free to the center where newly acquired Patrick O’sullivan grabbed the loose puck and skated up the left side. Anton Babcuk was already a bit high in the zone so he had no problem charging up on the play for the 2 on 1 rush. O’Sullivan made a great pass thru the D-man and Babcuk put the gimme into the net for the lone Cane goal of the night.

My Toughts on the game and the players—> Well, it looks like a blowout on the scoreboard but honestly, that’s not what pre-season is all about. Sure I say it was the same old same old Canes but we can draw some good, some bad, and some ugly from the game.

The Good—> I was REAL impressed with Patrick O’Sullivan. I think this was a great pick up by Rutherford to get him, and get him so cheap (less then 1mil!) and he looks like he will contribute quite a bit in the low pressure environment. Think how Samsonov shined when he came here, not needing to be THE MAN by all the press findings etc. Also good was Zac Dalpe. He played a nice mobile center, showed some good hands and really looked like he belonged. A lot of hype is on this kid around here, and I for one love the kid, I hope he can stay with the club. Either way I think he will contribute in good time. As expected a couple of the vets on the team showed some good hustle in the 1st game. LaRose and Kostopoulos both had their game faces and hard working shoes on as they grinded and mucked it up. I liked the chemistry they showed and had some good PK time in there as well.

The Bad—> D- Play in front of the net. Boy this was brutal. The Canes just don’t have the grit or the fight infront of their own net. They are just too timid. When you are the overgrown Anton Babchuk at 6’5″ and 212 lbs, you just can’t be this much of a WUSS. He gets tossed around like he’s not even there. The other D (Borer, Sanguinetti, McBain) just looked out matched and out works in front of the net as well, and this lead to 2 of the goals last night. Gleason did do a good job holding his cool late in the game when Triston Grant a nobody just trying to make the team, tried to show something to the coaches by fighting him. Grant dropped the gloaves and Gleason didn’t take the bait behind the net. Good job Timmy nothing good could have come of that in this pre-season game. Regular season I know Gleason will be there to stick up for his teammates but this was not the time or place.

The Ugly—> I have 2 but they may both have some sort of explanation. First  the skating. Guys were falling all over the place. They just looked bad at times. No one looked worse then Jeff Skinnereither with his skating. He was pushed off the puck so easy and fell at even the slightest touch from a defender. This worries me a bit b/c the big knock on him at the draft was his skating was not up to NHL par. However, in the post game news conference Paul Maurice said the team did not have much legs but that’s a good thing. He said “if they did have a lot of legs then I am obviously not pushing them enough inthe first 3 days of training camp”. Good point Paul and ok I will buy it. I just hope the Skinner we keep hearing about (the MVP of all these tourneys and camps) comes thru and he is ready for the show or else it won’t be the minors (too young) it will be back to juniors for one more year for him. Also REAL ugly was Jamie McBain, Sanguinetti and Babchuk but for different reasons. McBain just couldn’t find the handle on the puck all night. He’s the new co-quarterback on the PP (Corvo or Pitkanen likely to be on the other side of the 1st unit when either are healthy) and he needs to be bringing the puck up and passing with authority. It was just not there. Sanguinetti and Babchuk were just shitty all night long. Both slow in feet, neither could pass or defend, and just looked bad. Sanguinetti is likely headed to the minors anyway to develop some more, and I hope he does b/c I like him as a skater and his make up, but he’s just not ready. As for Babchuk, he’s going to be my whipping boy all year. I hate him, I hate that he’s a giant but a giant WUSS on the ice. Sure a hammer of a slapper but he’s got an attitude problem and can’t check anyone. All he would need to do is put on some more weight and get a mean streak and I might change my tune but right now Anton you suck.

The thing to remember as usual, is it’s pre-season. Some guys looked like they are not ready for the show. Drayson Bowman, Casey Borer (coming off the injury after the bus accident a few years ago so we will give him a pass), Sanguinetti, Matsomoto all are likely to be Charlotte Checkers by the end of next week. But others like Dalpe and Nash made a good enough impression on me right now to say they could stick around some more.

Let’s go Canes.

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