If you're wondering why a Canadian team hasn't won the Stanley Cup in nearly three decades, one just hired Pierre McGuire for their front office and another is trading for the shambling corpse of Duncan Keith.
Fun Stat:
The Calgary Flames have drafted 29 players since 2017.
Those players have thus far combined for a total of 26 NHL games played.
24 of those were Jakob Pelletier.
When the NHLPA first published players salaries, Gordie Howe discovered that the Red Wings had been screwing him for years.
Not only was he not the highest paid player in the NHL, like the owners told him he was, he wasn't even the highest paid guy on his own team.
Next year the NHL will be able to host 16 games on the same night for the first time in history.
8 of these games will start at 7pm EST and 8 will start at 10pm EST.
This is now the 9th time in 43 years that the Hurricanes/Whalers franchise has hit the 40 win mark.
Rod Brind'amour has been the head coach for 4 of the 5 best seasons in franchise history.
He was the captain of the 5th team.
It is embarrassing how many US singers don’t know the words to O’Canada. Teams should be embarrassed trotting out people who don’t respect the country enough to learn the words. What a joke. Twice in a week.
Whatever happens next it's important to remember that Antti Raanta was a very good goaltender for a very long time and, by all accounts, one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
Antti Raanta is the best guy, ever. Two years ago, my son (who plays goalie) wrote Raanta a letter & drew him a picture…and Antti wrote him back.
My son has this letter framed in his room. Just felt like telling
@Canes
@corylav
@AGoldFan
and
@minter
for Antti’s good karma. 🥅
Let’s close this one out Canes fans. Incredible performance by your team here in the 3rd. Bring the boys home to Raleigh. You’d never boo them like this. You deserve game 6 and another fun tailgate. Ride or dies.
#causechaos
I don't think it can be overstated how much of an upgrade Brent Burns, Shayne Gostisbehere and Jalen Chatfield are over Tony DeAngelo, Ian Cole and Brendan Smith.
David Tepper bought the Carolina Panthers in May 2018. They've gone 31-68 since that time and have not made the playoffs once.
Tom Dundon bought the Carolina Hurricanes in January 2018. They've gone 248-120-42 in that time and have won at least one playoff round each year.
Three NHL teams have 3 forwards in the top 30 in Scoring:
Toronto: Matthews, Marner, Nylander
Tampa Bay: Kucherov, Stamkos, Point
Carolina: Teravainen, Svechnikov, Aho
Players acquired by Don Waddell via trade since Tom Dundon became the team owner include:
Dougie Hamilton
Brent Burns
Max Pacioretty
Jake Guentzel
Vincent Trochek
Nino Niederreiter
Brady Skjei
James Reimer
Erik Haula
Max Domi
Sami Vatanen
You know.... Nobodies.
Obviously Jesperi Kotkaniemi has always dreamed of playing for the storied Hurricanes in a true hockey market like Raleigh, rather than for a small time franchise like the Canadiens.
Hearing an 8 year extension for Sebastian Aho is all but finished, just needs the signature on the line July 1. Expect an announcement Saturday afternoon.
If you're upset that a Twitter account posted the word "CRY" you desperately need some thicker skin.
Go outside.
Experience the real world for a minute.
A fun thing about this upcoming Eastern Conference Final is that it's really going to expose just how little some of these writers and broadcasters pay attention to these teams.
I talked a lot of shit about Jordan Staal here recently so I gotta say that was one hell of a performance tonight. Willed that puck into the net when they needed it most.
The last game the Hurricanes played in the Eastern Conference Final their lines were:
Niederreiter-Aho-Teravainen
Svechnikov-Staal-Williams
Foegele-Wallmark-McGinn
Ferland-McKegg-Maenalanen
Slavin-Faulk
Pesce-Hamilton
De Haan-Fleury
Curtis McElhinney
Over the past three seasons, 16 NHL goaltenders have amassed 8 or more shutouts.
Pyotr Kochetkov is the only one to do it with fewer than 100 appearances.
Dear Canes fans over the age of 50 or under the age of 30, the lyrics are:
To the windooooooow
To the wall
Til the sweat drop down my balls
Til all these bitches crawl
Til all skeet-skeet mothafuckaaaaa
Til all skeet-skeet goddamn
Be ready.
A Guide for those new to the North Carolina spots scene:
"Triangle" = Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill
"North Carolina" = UNC
"State" = NC State
"Trust Fund Dbags" = Duke
When Don Waddell was hired as team President the Hurricanes were averaging about 12,000 fans per night, had missed the playoffs the previous 5 years and were more or less on the brink financially.
How things have changed.
With two assists tonight Teuvo Teravainen has surpassed Rod Brind'amour and tied Ron Francis for 3rd in playoff scoring in Franchise History.
Only Sebastian Aho and Eric Staal have more.
Everybody remembers the story about Jordan Staal getting traded on his wedding day but everybody forgets about the story of Jordan and Eric getting arrested before Eric's wedding.
Former Carolina Hurricanes with the Florida Panthers Organization:
Paul Maurice
Paul Krepelka
Rick Dudley
Jared Staal
Bobby Sanguinetti
Tuomo Ruutu
Eric Staal
Eetu Luostarinen
Zac Dalpe
Gustav Forsling
Scott Darling's cap hit
@imhatchc2
@OptimisticLoaf
"We don't know why it breaks everything when we get rid of it but it does so just make it invisible" is tried and true. Looking forward to this one.
People know Aho is good but I don't think they recognize HOW good of a goalscorer he actually is.
Over the past five years Sebastian Aho is 9th in goals in the NHL.
I hated it when they hired Rod Brind'amour to be the head coach.
He's leading the team to it's third straight playoff appearance.
I gave up on Alex Nedeljkovic.
He's the Canes' starting goalie in game one tonight.
I am an idiot. Do not listen to me.
I gotta bring it up:
Why has Freddie started every game so far despite looking a little shaky and alternating for weeks to end the year? Now you kind of HAVE to go to Kochetkov who hasn't played in about four weeks.