Now before I really get going into full-on rant mode, I should take time to acknowledge a few positive things. First off in non-game related news, a belated congrats goes out to Michael Leighton and his wife on the arrival of their newest mini-Hurricane. It’s now only a matter of time before we can set up a “dads vs. kids” tournament. Positive thing #2-Brandon scored his first goal of the season today!!! I feel pretty safe in saying it was the highlight of the game. So way to go Butter-make it impossible for them to send you back to Albany. Now if I could just find a photo of the post goal celebration...well maybe the actual video will just have to do.
And that’s pretty much the end of the positive things. Well wait, hang on. Scotty had a good game. And Joni had some nice defensive moments. And Cam looked really nice while he chilled on the bench basking in his good fortune to not have to deal with the sucktastic game taking place out on the ice. And…yes that’s about it.
I feel that with what I am about to say, I need to make a declaration first. For the record, I really like Leights; he is ten times better than Crumbs was and he has the added bonus of not being nearly as creepy. Ok now that that’s been cleared up…
My god, man what was that? 6 goals against? I mean seriously, at least half of them were stoppable and you looked shaky on every save. Some of it was your team playing figure skater in front of you, some of it was rust, and some of it was distraction I am sure.
But still, you have to admit, things did not go well for you this afternoon. In fact, maybe Philly just isn’t a place you should play; you don’t have a good track record there. Actually, I don’t anticipate you playing much of anywhere for quite some time. It’s not you, it’s…no now that I think about it, some of it was definitely you. Now as for the rest of the team, they don’t get off scot free either. Boys, I understand this isn’t how you wanted to start the season and things are tough for you right now. But for the love of the hockey gods, PULL YOURSELVES TOGETHER!! Learn each others’ names and numbers, maybe spend some time together. You play like you’ve never even met each other before and that’s just unacceptable. You’re getting better, but at this rate, we’re going to need an 882 game season to get where we need to be. Please figure this whole thing out quickly no matter how you have to do it (yes hot tubs may need to be involved and you know what-fans won’t question things that bring about results). Because if you don’t, big changes are going to happen and you may wake up one morning to find that your BFF is now rocking another jersey. And no one wants to break up friendships, least of all JR.
Ok so what are the positives here? Well the month of October is officially over for the Hurricanes and if things go according to plan, they may be able to get a fresh start tomorrow. Players, and fans, can all just pretend that the season starts on November 1st and we can put this whole mess behind us. Doesn’t that sound good? Tomorrow marks the return of Ruu from his 3 game timeout. That, coupled with the return of Tim “I’m going to expletive deleted you up” Gleason, may not be enough to right the ship on its own, but it sure will make watching them lose less painful for the ladies in the house.
But what may be most important to the direction of this hockey club is the return of E.Staal’s human security blanket. Binky…errr…I mean E.Cole may be the spark our franchise player needs to show up on a semi-regular basis and start earning that ridiculously large paycheck. If the Canes are to even sniff the playoffs this season, changes need to be made; whether those come from the players themselves or from the man holding the reigns in the front office remains to be seen. All I know is that this cannot continue, if only for the sake of my emotional and mental health.