Hurricanes end season

The Carolina Hurricanes ended their season on Friday night. DH and I were in attendance. Had the Hurricanes defeated the Florida Panthers, they would have gone on to the playoffs. As it turned out, they are on the outside looking in.

Tuomo Ruutu during the pregame skate


Just before the opening face off


DH and me after the second period.

Giant cookies! Oh my!

This weekend I tried out the Super Small Batch Extra Large Chunk Cookies posted in Cookie Madness. They were huge and very yummy! I've never made cookies before where cookies were one of the ingredients! I've never had Selma's cookies so I don't know how these compare but they were a hit at our house. I made them on Saturday afternoon when I got back from my regular bike ride and we ate them at the Carolina Hurricanes game on Saturday night.

I also tried Mark Bittman's Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread posted in the New York Times' Bitten blog.

Thoughts on the season opener

I was disappointed in last night's game but not surprised, really. Cam Ward looked good as did Mike Commodore. Unfortunately, Commodore was one of the few players making hits -- along with Cullen and Ladd. Hedican had his good and bad moments. He seemed a bit, well, old. Early in the game I turned to DH and said, "This is his last season." He made a few really smart plays and then he scored. After that, he really had a fire lit under him.

I think that the team needs a few games under their collective belts to get some communication issues worked out. The passing was kind of bad.

Thanks to Cam Ward's excellent goaltending, the Canes came out of the game with a point.

Opening Night

Tonight, the Carolina Hurricane's are hosting the Montreal Canadiens to open their NHL season.
I'm really looking forward to the game. To say that last season was a bit if a disappointment after winning the Stanley Cup in 2006 would be an understatement.

Matt Cullen is back after a year that I choose to view as a sabbatical, Cam Ward seems to be on track and I'm excited about some of the new players that have joined the team. I'm also glad that we kept Spock, aka Scott Walker!

Go Canes!

Hannah's Carolina Hurricanes story

(imported from FB, used original posting date)

9:58pm Tuesday, Jul 10

Hannah is a big Carolina Hurricanes fan. Hannah's interest in the
team goes way back. In 2002, the Hurricanes made it to the Stanley Cup Finals where they played the Detroit Red Wings.

Kevin with Hannah and Emma in 2006. We were out of town for the (away) Sabres game that could have ended the 2006 run.

This was the spring that Marvin was with us. This was the spring after Penny had passed to the Bridge. Hannah took Penny's passing badly. She had always dreamed of being an only dog but when push came to shove, she really wanted her sister to be around. She was sad and lonely. We adopted Marvin.

As many of you recall, Marvin had kidney issues from the time that we adopted him. As the Hurricanes went further and further into the playoffs, Marvin got sicker and sicker. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad were yelling at the TV. From Hannah's point of view, this was not good.

Then our vet gave us the bad news. Marvin was not going to get better. We were out of treatment options. Our sweet, clownish boy needed to follow Penny to the Bridge. Hannah took this really hard. What was she doing wrong that her brother and sister had both gone to the Bridge? Why were Mom and Dad still yelling at the TV?

We could see that Hannah was having a hard time with all of this. Either she was home alone while we were at the game or we were at home tensely watching the game. We hit upon an idea. Every time the Hurricanes scored a goal, we would give Hannah a treat. This should
help her have a little bit of fun with hockey. Hannah started watching the games. She learned what the crowd reaction was to a goal scored and how the announcers presented this news. She learned the phrase "wrong team" and that Kevin throws his hands above his head when the Hurricanes score. She knows John Forslund's voice. When the announcers sound excited, she hops up and starts to stare at us in anticipation of her treat.

Since 2002 we have gotten a golden retriever, Emma. The golden has picked up on the hockey rules as well.

Emma is also a fan but Hannah gets much more into the games.

If only we could find Hurricanes bandannas for our dogs...