If It Were December...

This past weekend brought us another round of Carolina Hurricanes hockey. Friday night the Canes took on the New York Rangers, and Saturday night made a trip to New Jersey to face the Devils. Carolina lost both games 4-2 and 5-4 respectively. More of the same sad results for an otherwise promising team.

Getting that all important first goal was something that pundits stressed the Canes had to do, but alas it was not enough against the Rangers. Allowing them to tally 4 goals in the 3rd was probably not in the pundits' "Keys to the Game" analysis. If it matters, Jordan Staal did score, lending an air of credence to Jim Rutherford's statements earlier in the day that, "Jordan's had a better season than it looks like."

Saturday night, the Hurricanes showed great resolve, fighting and scratching their way to a 4-4 tie in the 3rd against the Devils. Having run Anton Khudobin at 12:51 in the 2nd, the Devils were unable to get past Cam Ward until late in the 3rd period. Suddenly, it was the Tuomo Ruutu show. I don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said I heard John Forslund and Tripp Tracy say "Tuomo Ruutu" 12-15 times in the space of about 5 minutes. As a Canes fan, I was thrilled that the trade made a few days prior was working so well. Not only did the recently departed Hurricane score the winning goal, but he was everywhere, checking and passing and cutting off passes. It was his time on the ice, confirming yet again that the front office is on its game.

With 18 games remaining, it is a shame it is not December. The Canes showed flashes of some really good game this weekend, something that could have been built on early in the season. The type of game they actually did have earlier. They even scored on the power play. But now it is too little too late.

It's that time of year that has been all too familiar for the past several years for hockey fans in Carolina, playing out the schedule and hoping that next year will be different. At least if it were December we'd have Christmas to look forward to. In JR's world, that's known as the upcoming draft...Christmas is June.