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Difficult decisions and an early summer for Hurricanes

By George Cosmo | April 6th, 2008

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Hurricanes sticks before the contest against the Capitals Tuesday night. No longer any need for these sticks in April. Tami Goodstein file photo

Caniac fans were so excited about the play offs, the Hurricanes despite a plethora of injuries had held onto first place with a mixture of graceful offense supported by a new found toughness and powered with youthful energy. During warm up before the game on Tuesday night I saw Ray Whitney and Justin Williams taking shots, this could only be good news for the Canes as they prepared for the biggest game of the season, or could it? Caniacs will debate over the summer whether or not Peter Laviolette made the right call in rushing Chad LaRose, Justin Williams, and Ray Whitney back into the lineup. How would you not want the aforementioned Stanley Cup vets back in your lineup? But on Tuesday the Caniacs looked out of synch against the Capitals, while lacking the energy and toughness that they had in previous games. More simply put they appeared to lack the things that Wade Brookbank and Tim Conboy had brought to the Canes, both benched so the veterans could return. Should Laviolette have made these changes to the Hurricanes when the team was playing so well? Two years in a row now the Carolina Hurricanes have just missed the Stanley Cup play offs; this makes them the first team in NHL history to fail to reach the play offs two seasons in a row following a Cup win. Failure to reach the play offs this year frustrated fans more than the previous year because of how well the team played since Rod Brind’Amour injured his knee. Luke Decock of the Raleigh News & Observer stated:

At the All-Star break in January, with 30 games to play, Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said the Canes would need 20 wins to make the playoffs. They won 19.

Had the Canes made the play offs, I that believe Peter Laviolette should have been the winner of the Jack Adams Trophy, but after the final two games of the season I question the lineup changes Laviolette made, changes to a team that was running so well.

Chad LaRose’s return to the team I believe was a great move, he had enough time and the team had enough time to adjust to his return to play. Whitney, Williams, and the team did not have time to adjust as they had with LaRose; regardless Whitney, Williams and LaRose had little impact on the outcome of the game against the Capitals. Despite the fact that the Hurricanes are not in the play offs it certainly was an exciting and interesting season. Caniacs witnessed the growth of Eric Staal into a real team leader. With all the injuries fans watched the team get younger and tougher; these changes combined with the likes of Staal and Cole made the Hurricanes not only a smooth passing team but also a hard hitting team. Now the Hurricanes have to decide what kind of team they want next season.

My hope is that Glen Wesley and Bret Hedican will retire so that the Hurricanes can build in the direction they were moving from the All Star game, younger and tougher. Signing Samsonov Aucoin, Bayda, Brookbank would be good and affordable moves. But we have a long off season to muse on what the Hurricanes should look like. In the meantime enjoy the play offs and your summer.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Chad LaRose, Cam Ward, Bret Hedican, Carolina Hurricanes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.