Game On!

Picture Source: hurricanes.nhl.com

Well Caniacs it's the most wonderful time of the year again.  No it's not Christmas, but it is hockey season.  It's time to brush up on our "Let's Go Canes!" chants and find where we hung our jerseys at the end of last season (which unfortunately was some time ago).  That's right, tomorrow night begins the 2013-2014 regular season with our Hurricanes hosting the Red Wings.

The Canes finished the preseason with a record of 3-3.  Given the competition within our division these numbers may be less than desirable.  I, being the optimist I am, would like to say that the positive in this was the fact that the final 3 games were wins.  The most important thing I saw in these final 3 games was Cam Ward looked like the goaltender we need.  Ward looked more confident in those 3 games than he has in a long time.  Hopefully Khudobin can start more games than our backup goaltenders have in the past.  That might give Ward the rest he needs to help push us into the postseason.  The preseason also introduced us to the small, medium, and large line.  This is the line of Nathan Gerbe (small), Patrick Dwyer (medium), and Jordan Staal (large).  This line for some unexplained reason seemed to generate a lot of chemistry on the ice.  We saw this line dominate the fifth game, and also show that it wasn't a fluke in the sixth game.  Hopefully this line can produce so we don't have to heavily rely on the Staal, Semin, and Tlusty line.  Our new defensive acquisitions Hainsey and Komisarek appear to be one of Muller's defensive pairings.  I feel like this will provide the defense with some much needed grit, not to mention the shot blocking. We were also plagued with a slew of injuries in the preseason.  Among those injured were; Tim Gleason, Alexander Semin, Jeff Skinner, and Elias Lindholm.  Since then all but Gleason have returned to practice, Gleason being sidelined (so to speak) with a concussion.  Like most years the expectations are not high from the outside world, but from our hearts and the locker room they are.

Time to get out the corn hole and pack up the beer, because tomorrow we tailgate at PNC Arena ready to cheer on a win.  We wear our jerseys with pride and be thankful that we can call ourselves Caniacs.  I look forward to seeing you all at the game. Unless you are a Red Wings fan.  In that case the game is postponed until Saturday.  GO CANES!