SWAK: Happy Valentine's Day from Your Carolina Hurricanes!

Love is in the air in the Carolina Hurricanes' locker room; well that may just be hockey stench...but I digress. You see the team operates under a variation of the "the team that plays together, stays together" motto, in their case insert the word "crafts" for "plays" and you have a winner.  The boys love to spend their spare time showing just how much they appreciate each other and with Monday being Valentines Day, there was a lot of "appreciation" being shown in the Canes locker room recently. 

The boys took advantage of some recent down time to decorate some paper bags with cut out hearts and glitter glue, eat some conversation hearts and give thoughtful and personalized Valentines to their nearest and dearest teammates. We here at the Siren have a mole in the locker room who made sure to send us copies of all of these completely fake works of art to share with our readers.  So pop in some Barry White, dim the lights and break out the chocolate because your Valentine's Day edition of the Hurricane Siren is not just signed, sealed and delivered...it's yours!

Much like that super cute boy in the 4th grade, Jeff's Valentine mailbox was filled to overflowing with lots of "we heart you" and "you're great!" messages. Let's take a peek at some of the special treats Jeff found: 

I wonder which prank happy NHL pro stood in line at the CVS to buy these...

But don't think for a second Jeff was just receiving messages of affection from his teammates. He was giving them out too. And once again he decided handmade was the best way to go: 

I do sense a pattern developing here. He's going to have to give out a lot of friendship bracelets at the end of the season.

Speaking of friendships, fans may have noticed the development of quite a few bromances throughout the season. Our boys like each other a lot. And they like touching each other even more. Here are some Valentines that represent that. 

Those two are just precious aren't they?

Oh dear. I'm not sure I have words. Especially about the hidden tawdriness that seems to be the Cole-Gleason relationship.  I wonder what Corvo would have to say about this:

Oh Erik...you double timer you. I do very much appreciate the fact that Emo Joe bought Cole a big, fluffy teddy bear. 

I know what you're thinking. Where does Eric fall into this love...one...two...square? Well based on this Valentine he seems to be on the outside looking in...tapping pitifully on the glass. 

You know Eric I am sure someone still cares deeply about you:

Whoa. That's...whoa. Apparently that is called a candygram and, much like calling BINGO at Tripp Tracy Bingo, I'm pretty sure it's something you don't actually want. 

Something else you don't want? A goalie that's mad at you on Valentine's Day. 

Yeah this team may have bonded just a tad too well earlier this season. 

Oh Petey. You are so optimistic. 

Hear that noise? That's me sidestepping this one altogether.

Ahhh...nothing like family is there?

Sometimes we find that on the surface a couple doesn't seem like they fit, but for whatever reason they work.  @ZachBoychuk and @TroyBodie seem to be one of those couples. 

Oh dear....some people never learn from their mistakes do they?

He's a mystery wrapped in an enigma shrouded in a puzzle. 

For the record, I believe that is a chocolate lab. Why? I don't know. 

Somewhere a printing press shuddered to a halt. 

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Carson's Valentine!

Wooo woooo! I love that our vets encourage our rookies' little quirks. 

Coming up we have yet another example of that proverbial odd couple we talked about earlier: 

Now, I have to say that I was very, very impressed by the Finns' Valentines. Especially considering it's not really one of their holidays. But they are game for anything and went all out making Valentines for each other. Naturally the messages are in Finnish, but our mole was able to piece together a translation of them for us based on the guys' reactions. 

Joni, 

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Your dog is ditzy 

And so are you!

Tuomo

Gee someone must be reading the fan blogs eh?

Tuomo, 

Roses are red

Violets are blue

You love  hockey sticks

Women love your Sisu!

Jussi

Yup. They are SO reading fan blogs. 

Jussi, 

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Pumpkin is sexy

Ooooo...shiny!

Joni

Happy Valentine's Day Caniacs from your Carolina Hurricanes and me! 

Surviving Russia and Praying to the Hockey Gods

As has been tweeted, retweeted, blogged, Facebooked and live streamed (gotta love the internet), the Canes lost their final preseason game to SKA St. Petersburg today/tonight/last night (I still haven't quite gotten the hang of the time difference). I could go on and on about how this was an insanely chippy game (one could probably toss around the word "dirty" without much argument), but instead of a recap filled with quotes and stats, I'm going to let the photos do the talking (with some added commentary).

I sure am glad Eric Stall and Jossi Jokonen were able to make the trip. I hear they're great players!

All of the hope and promise of a great game is present at warm-ups.

The in-arena accomodations are clearly a little different than those in the NHL.

You know, it's a shame the team missed out on the Olympic Opening Ceremonies...I mean pre-game festivities. How often do you get to see violin players rocking out and flying acrobats at hockey games?

Here are the aforementioned acrobats. Yes one of them is wearing a Staal jersey. No that's not some sort of crack at his manhood.

Each player got All-Star treatment as they were introduced individually. Babs got the loudest round of applause (possibly the only time I'll ever type that sentence).

The team stands at attention for the USA national anthem. Fun note, it's only the national anthem for 8 of the Hurricanes (and that counts Brandon Sutter who would probably pick the Canadian anthem if given a choice).

Speaking of Americans...here's Bainer looking...well I'll let you fill in the blank.

See how lovely it is? Such international friendliness-all of these guys coming together to play the sport they love. This is going to be GREAT!

After the ceremonial face-off (I'll give you one guess on who won), the game can finally begin!

Dalpe had some nice chances this afternoon/evening/yesterday.
Someone help me out with this please.

Clearly the friendliness and coming together has ended and an all-out brawl has begun. Before the end of the game we'd lose Gleason (fighting), Corvo (to injury), Staal (safety), Ward (safety), Pitkanen (spearing), and Harrison (fighting). That's in addition to all of the time we spent in the penalty box.

For the record, it took Tim landing about 2 punches (with his gloves still on mind you) before this joker was on the ice bleeding. Gleason for Emperor indeed.

And a gratuitous Tim Gleason shot. Just because.

Skinner (completely obstructed by the beastliness of Jussi) scored a goal and had some very pretty plays throughout the game.

This is a nice shot of the players left on the bench by the time we got to the third period.

And Jay Harrison managed to win a fight. I'd be ashamed if I were Golovkov.
No one loses to Jay Harrison. NO ONE.

Joni has forgotten that in order for his "sneaky nasty" to be effective, it has to oh I don't know actually be sneaky.

Jeff Skinner (who is a hockey playing doll) received a bright, shiny trophy for being the Hurricanes' player of the game (or Man of the Match). I'm not sure if they do this for every game in Russia or if this was special just for us.

Clearly the game did not go as planned (unless of course "play dirty as all heck" was your gameplan; in which case, congrats Russia), but all of our guys made it on the plane and to Finland in what I can assume to be one piece. Now they can rest and focus on what really matters: hitting the saunas! Oh and bringing home 4 points.