nccanes
05-24-2003, 07:52 PM
Okay, a little late - but here goes....
Canes lose Game 1 at home. This was the only game at the ESA where the Maple Leaf Blue was just a smattering here and there. Game 2 and 5 were on the weekend when 1000s of Leaf fans poured into the ESA.
I remember Game 1, a beautiful warm weeknight evening. I met some nice Leafs fans that I think were part of the organization, they flew down that morning and were flying back on a charter after the game. They sat on the lawn in front of the live band and couldn't believe how much fun everyone was having. They asked if we did this for every game and talked about how cold it was in Toronto still. They also talked about the ACC being smack down in the middle of downtown with no ability to host something like the pregame party outside the ESA.
The News & Observer
May 17, 2002
Canes lose their edge
Author: Luke DeCock; Staff Writer
Article Text:
RALEIGH -- At this point, it's easy to say the Toronto Maple Leafs have proven themselves consummate playoff thieves.
Or, to hew to Toronto grammar, thiefs.
But if they stole Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals with a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, it's only because the Canes left the door unlocked and the safe open.
The Canes went 1-for-8 on the power play, squandering more chances than any team could rightfully expect in the playoffs.
They had home-ice advantage in this series, but in front of the quietest Entertainment and Sports Arena crowd of the postseason -- allegedly a sellout despite plenty of empty seats -- they played listlessly.
The Leafs were playing what was basically a Game 8, only 48 hours removed from their second straight seven-game series and missing seven key regulars from their lineup.
The Canes even scored first, a scenario which had seen them previously unbeaten in the postseason.
All opportunities to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
All carelessly, wastefully squandered.
"When you look at the end of the game, given the opportunities that we got, we have to capitalize on those chances," Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley said. "Unfortunately, those things happen and we have to find a way to be better and make sure we capitalize next time."
Even the Canes' vaunted BBC line of Rod Brind'Amour, Bates Battaglia and Erik Cole was shut down for the first time in seven games.
The Leafs won in spite of themselves as they played with the hearts that have carried them through the postseason -- but clearly without their heads.
Some of their appalling lack of discipline bordered on the silly. Bryan McCabe dumped Cole on his posterior at the end of the first period for a needless penalty.
Even goalie Curtis Joseph, who made 31 saves, was whistled after he dove way out of his net in an attempt to cover the puck, getting called for delay of game.
"We don't want to take those penalties, but you can't say we got any help, as usual," McCabe said.
But thanks to some resolute penalty-killing and timely, if not pretty, goaltending from Joseph, the Leafs got away with it.
With McCabe and Tomas Kaberle logging heavy minutes on the Toronto blue line -- the Leafs, quite frankly, have few other options -- Toronto scraped out an improbable win.
"We were lucky tonight," Toronto forward Alexander Mogilny said, "to steal this game."
The Canes scored a little more than three minutes into the game. It was the only stroke of good luck they'd see.
On the Canes' first power play -- which included 38 seconds of wasted five-on-three -- Cory Cross' backhanded clear out of the crease hit Jeff O'Neill's glove and bounced in to give the Canes a 1-0 lead 3:23 into the game.
The Canes had seven power plays after that but seemed to get worse on each one. Collapsed in front of Joseph, the Leafs didn't clear the puck often but they were able to disrupt the Canes' passing game down low.
"We still had opportunities," Carolina captain Ron Francis said. "We just couldn't get it past [Joseph]. Our power play has been good all season. We're not going to start questioning it at this point."
On the rare occasions the Leafs weren't short-handed, they generated enough to win.
Mogilny tied the score less than four minutes later when Aaron Ward and Bret Hedican let him first walk in to shoot, then get to his own rebound.
The Leafs got the game-winner on a second-period power play of their own when Jonas Hoglund deflected a high Nathan Dempsey shot past Arturs Irbe.
Irbe immediately complained to referee Dan Marouelli that Hoglund's stick had been above the crossbar, but a video review was inconclusive.
"It was right around the crossbar," Irbe said. "It's a judgment call. It went against us and I'm not going to complain about it."
It was the kind of break Toronto got Thursday and the Canes did not.
What the Canes had instead were chances. What they did with them was nothing.
The News & Observer
May 17, 2002
Newfound respect
Author: Ned Barnett; Staff Writer
Article Text:
Not long ago, many wondered whether the National Hockey League could survive in Raleigh, but Thursday night, it was the only city in North America where the NHL was alive.
The hockey arenas were dark in Boston, Montreal and Ottawa, but North Carolina's capital glowed with newfound hockey fever as the Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in the first game of the Stanley Cup semifinals. Colorado and Detroit, the other two teams still playing, open their series Saturday.
For a few hours, the hockey world turned to a place it barely noticed -- and, to read some Canadian newspaper references to NASCAR and Mayberry, barely knows. On radios and televisions across Canada and the American snowbelt, traditional fans discovered something about this nontraditional market -- they play good hockey here. And the fans are pretty good, too.
The ESA drew a record, standing-room only crowd of 18,853 for Game 5 against the Montreal Canadiens, but no-shows dotted the stands for the opener Thursday against Toronto despite an announced sellout. Against Montreal, Canes fans drowned the Canadiens in noise, but the crowd was a less powerful seventh man in the tense and frustrating game against the Leafs.
One fan whose support never wavers is Ken Whichard, 63, of Goldsboro, who came Thursday in a Canes sweater autographed by several players. He has been a season ticket holder since the Canes played in Greensboro while waiting for the Entertainment and Sports Arena to be built. Before that, he was a loyal fan of Raleigh's former minor league hockey team, the IceCaps.
Now Whichard is surrounded in his once-lonely pursuit. He had to wait an hour-and-a-half to buy extra tickets Tuesday morning. That made him happy.
"Ninety percent of these people have to be new hockey fans," Whichard said as the crowd flowed around him on the ESA concourse. "Because there weren't this many at the old IceCap games, I can tell you that."
Even fans who have watched the Canes progress over the years were surprised to find themselves into Round 3. In December, the Canes were slumping, and there was talk of firing Coach Paul Maurice, a man now being praised for his shrewd use of goalies Arturs Irbe and Kevin Weekes.
"Three months ago, who would have thought it?" Whichard said. "I don't want to use the word 'miracle,' but they sure have come a long way."
The outcome Thursday supported the consensus among hockey analysts that this will be a long, tight series that will take at least six games to be decided. The teams matched each other perfectly during the regular season. In four meetings, they each won twice, once on the road and once at home. They both scored a total of 12 goals.
But Thursday night, the two came to hockey's center stage from different directions. The Maple Leafs have been playing in Toronto since 1917. The Canes are marking their third year in Raleigh and five years in North Carolina. The Leafs have won 13 Stanley Cups. The Canes, including their previous life as the Hartford Whalers, have never made it this far in their 23-year history.
The big game Thursday -- perhaps the biggest professional sporting event in the region's history -- turned Tobacco Road into a hockey town at least for a week. But outside the ESA, the place still had the feel of what it has always been: a Southern town where fans don't hustle into the arena in parkas. They hang around outside, tailgating, grilling, drinking cold beverages.
Outside the arena's main entrance, a large white tent welcomed fans in an environment that seemed more lawn party than ice hockey. Fans wore hockey sweaters in May and milled about under the tent drinking beer. There seemed to be hundreds named O'Neill or Francis. Many were Hill and Brind'Amour. A band, The Amazing Lounge Lizards, played rock 'n' roll.
Into this new hockey Mecca came three young men from the old country. Ted Mukhar, Robert Mansour and Nahed Haifa wore the blue and white of the Maple Leafs and carried a Leafs flag. They had driven 16 hours from the Kitchener-Waterloo area near Toronto and arrived at 11 a.m. They came because the games in Toronto are sold out, while tickets were still on sale here an hour before the 7 p.m. game.
This was their first visit to North Carolina, and they hadn't seen much. They said the locals were nice, if a bit naive. Some saw their Leafs sweaters and thought they played for the team.
When they approached the ESA, they got a round of taunts from a tailgating crew. But they didn't mind. In Toronto, they said, a fan in a Canes sweater would get worse.
They were glad to see a Stanley Cup playoff game here, but they didn't feel as if North Carolina's capital was a hockey town.
"No, not yet," Haifa said. "Not if you can still get tickets."
But a few more Canes wins could change that, too.
Canes lose Game 1 at home. This was the only game at the ESA where the Maple Leaf Blue was just a smattering here and there. Game 2 and 5 were on the weekend when 1000s of Leaf fans poured into the ESA.
I remember Game 1, a beautiful warm weeknight evening. I met some nice Leafs fans that I think were part of the organization, they flew down that morning and were flying back on a charter after the game. They sat on the lawn in front of the live band and couldn't believe how much fun everyone was having. They asked if we did this for every game and talked about how cold it was in Toronto still. They also talked about the ACC being smack down in the middle of downtown with no ability to host something like the pregame party outside the ESA.
The News & Observer
May 17, 2002
Canes lose their edge
Author: Luke DeCock; Staff Writer
Article Text:
RALEIGH -- At this point, it's easy to say the Toronto Maple Leafs have proven themselves consummate playoff thieves.
Or, to hew to Toronto grammar, thiefs.
But if they stole Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals with a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, it's only because the Canes left the door unlocked and the safe open.
The Canes went 1-for-8 on the power play, squandering more chances than any team could rightfully expect in the playoffs.
They had home-ice advantage in this series, but in front of the quietest Entertainment and Sports Arena crowd of the postseason -- allegedly a sellout despite plenty of empty seats -- they played listlessly.
The Leafs were playing what was basically a Game 8, only 48 hours removed from their second straight seven-game series and missing seven key regulars from their lineup.
The Canes even scored first, a scenario which had seen them previously unbeaten in the postseason.
All opportunities to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
All carelessly, wastefully squandered.
"When you look at the end of the game, given the opportunities that we got, we have to capitalize on those chances," Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley said. "Unfortunately, those things happen and we have to find a way to be better and make sure we capitalize next time."
Even the Canes' vaunted BBC line of Rod Brind'Amour, Bates Battaglia and Erik Cole was shut down for the first time in seven games.
The Leafs won in spite of themselves as they played with the hearts that have carried them through the postseason -- but clearly without their heads.
Some of their appalling lack of discipline bordered on the silly. Bryan McCabe dumped Cole on his posterior at the end of the first period for a needless penalty.
Even goalie Curtis Joseph, who made 31 saves, was whistled after he dove way out of his net in an attempt to cover the puck, getting called for delay of game.
"We don't want to take those penalties, but you can't say we got any help, as usual," McCabe said.
But thanks to some resolute penalty-killing and timely, if not pretty, goaltending from Joseph, the Leafs got away with it.
With McCabe and Tomas Kaberle logging heavy minutes on the Toronto blue line -- the Leafs, quite frankly, have few other options -- Toronto scraped out an improbable win.
"We were lucky tonight," Toronto forward Alexander Mogilny said, "to steal this game."
The Canes scored a little more than three minutes into the game. It was the only stroke of good luck they'd see.
On the Canes' first power play -- which included 38 seconds of wasted five-on-three -- Cory Cross' backhanded clear out of the crease hit Jeff O'Neill's glove and bounced in to give the Canes a 1-0 lead 3:23 into the game.
The Canes had seven power plays after that but seemed to get worse on each one. Collapsed in front of Joseph, the Leafs didn't clear the puck often but they were able to disrupt the Canes' passing game down low.
"We still had opportunities," Carolina captain Ron Francis said. "We just couldn't get it past [Joseph]. Our power play has been good all season. We're not going to start questioning it at this point."
On the rare occasions the Leafs weren't short-handed, they generated enough to win.
Mogilny tied the score less than four minutes later when Aaron Ward and Bret Hedican let him first walk in to shoot, then get to his own rebound.
The Leafs got the game-winner on a second-period power play of their own when Jonas Hoglund deflected a high Nathan Dempsey shot past Arturs Irbe.
Irbe immediately complained to referee Dan Marouelli that Hoglund's stick had been above the crossbar, but a video review was inconclusive.
"It was right around the crossbar," Irbe said. "It's a judgment call. It went against us and I'm not going to complain about it."
It was the kind of break Toronto got Thursday and the Canes did not.
What the Canes had instead were chances. What they did with them was nothing.
The News & Observer
May 17, 2002
Newfound respect
Author: Ned Barnett; Staff Writer
Article Text:
Not long ago, many wondered whether the National Hockey League could survive in Raleigh, but Thursday night, it was the only city in North America where the NHL was alive.
The hockey arenas were dark in Boston, Montreal and Ottawa, but North Carolina's capital glowed with newfound hockey fever as the Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 in the first game of the Stanley Cup semifinals. Colorado and Detroit, the other two teams still playing, open their series Saturday.
For a few hours, the hockey world turned to a place it barely noticed -- and, to read some Canadian newspaper references to NASCAR and Mayberry, barely knows. On radios and televisions across Canada and the American snowbelt, traditional fans discovered something about this nontraditional market -- they play good hockey here. And the fans are pretty good, too.
The ESA drew a record, standing-room only crowd of 18,853 for Game 5 against the Montreal Canadiens, but no-shows dotted the stands for the opener Thursday against Toronto despite an announced sellout. Against Montreal, Canes fans drowned the Canadiens in noise, but the crowd was a less powerful seventh man in the tense and frustrating game against the Leafs.
One fan whose support never wavers is Ken Whichard, 63, of Goldsboro, who came Thursday in a Canes sweater autographed by several players. He has been a season ticket holder since the Canes played in Greensboro while waiting for the Entertainment and Sports Arena to be built. Before that, he was a loyal fan of Raleigh's former minor league hockey team, the IceCaps.
Now Whichard is surrounded in his once-lonely pursuit. He had to wait an hour-and-a-half to buy extra tickets Tuesday morning. That made him happy.
"Ninety percent of these people have to be new hockey fans," Whichard said as the crowd flowed around him on the ESA concourse. "Because there weren't this many at the old IceCap games, I can tell you that."
Even fans who have watched the Canes progress over the years were surprised to find themselves into Round 3. In December, the Canes were slumping, and there was talk of firing Coach Paul Maurice, a man now being praised for his shrewd use of goalies Arturs Irbe and Kevin Weekes.
"Three months ago, who would have thought it?" Whichard said. "I don't want to use the word 'miracle,' but they sure have come a long way."
The outcome Thursday supported the consensus among hockey analysts that this will be a long, tight series that will take at least six games to be decided. The teams matched each other perfectly during the regular season. In four meetings, they each won twice, once on the road and once at home. They both scored a total of 12 goals.
But Thursday night, the two came to hockey's center stage from different directions. The Maple Leafs have been playing in Toronto since 1917. The Canes are marking their third year in Raleigh and five years in North Carolina. The Leafs have won 13 Stanley Cups. The Canes, including their previous life as the Hartford Whalers, have never made it this far in their 23-year history.
The big game Thursday -- perhaps the biggest professional sporting event in the region's history -- turned Tobacco Road into a hockey town at least for a week. But outside the ESA, the place still had the feel of what it has always been: a Southern town where fans don't hustle into the arena in parkas. They hang around outside, tailgating, grilling, drinking cold beverages.
Outside the arena's main entrance, a large white tent welcomed fans in an environment that seemed more lawn party than ice hockey. Fans wore hockey sweaters in May and milled about under the tent drinking beer. There seemed to be hundreds named O'Neill or Francis. Many were Hill and Brind'Amour. A band, The Amazing Lounge Lizards, played rock 'n' roll.
Into this new hockey Mecca came three young men from the old country. Ted Mukhar, Robert Mansour and Nahed Haifa wore the blue and white of the Maple Leafs and carried a Leafs flag. They had driven 16 hours from the Kitchener-Waterloo area near Toronto and arrived at 11 a.m. They came because the games in Toronto are sold out, while tickets were still on sale here an hour before the 7 p.m. game.
This was their first visit to North Carolina, and they hadn't seen much. They said the locals were nice, if a bit naive. Some saw their Leafs sweaters and thought they played for the team.
When they approached the ESA, they got a round of taunts from a tailgating crew. But they didn't mind. In Toronto, they said, a fan in a Canes sweater would get worse.
They were glad to see a Stanley Cup playoff game here, but they didn't feel as if North Carolina's capital was a hockey town.
"No, not yet," Haifa said. "Not if you can still get tickets."
But a few more Canes wins could change that, too.