LetsGoCanes.com

It's a New Year and the Canes are trying to put the 2011 part of this season behind them. After a mixed start to 2012, the New Year's Eve loss in Tampa, and losing the lead against the Islanders with a 1:30 left on Tuesday night and ultimately losing in the shootout, the Canes have had a couple of days to work on some of the fundamentals that Coach Muller is looking for from all of them. Notes from Canes practice: Jokinen & Ruutu practiced with Staal on Thursday. Look for Coach Kirk to continue to tweak the lineup.

The Canes take on Buffalo on Friday night at the RBC, then hit the road to Nashville for a Saturday night Western Conference game.

Meanwhile some Canes news and notes:

Jeff Skinner returned to practice in a non contact yellow jersey. He's not ready to return to the lineup quite yet, but it's a good step forward for young Skinner.

Zac Dalpe and Derek Joslin have been assigned to Charlotte; Joslin accepted a conditioning assignment in order to get sent down. Dalpe was the emergency call up for Patrick Dwyer who also returned to practice in non contact yellow, but is not yet ready to return to game action.

Meanwhile, Brett Sutter has been recalled from the Checkers and will be in Friday's lineup vs Buffalo.

Another player note- Joni Pitkanen, still recovering from his concussion, had knee surgery this week; he's expected to have a 4 week recovery time on the surgery.

Meanwhile, much chatter about trades and players who could be on the move all around the league. Chat here in the forums.

Next week's games: vs PHI on 1/10, @ TBL on 1/12 and the Stanley Cup Champion Bruins on Saturday 1/14. Yep, no easy games.

See you at the rink Caniacs!

We're right in the thick of the holiday season, and there is plenty going on; Much going on in addition to two home games this week:

• Canes vs Phoenix 7pm RBC Center 12/21  (no TV! Get your tickets) Ray Whitney returns - you know you want to see him! You can also pick up your Canes Holiday Puck - makes a great stocking stuffer and has a very pretty holiday design too.
• Canes vs Ottawa 7pm RBC Center Friday 12/23
• Canes Corner at Backyard Bistro returns and the guest is our Coach Kirk. The event starts at 7pm at Backyard Bistro and steams live on 99.9 the fan. Listen live here
• On Monday 12/19, Canes players will do their annual tour of area hospitals spreading holiday cheer to so many who will be in the hospital during Christmas. Check out the Kids N Community Twitter feed for updates and pictures.

Happy Holidays Caniacs!

It's been a busy day in the NHL. In a span of about 90 minutes two head coaches lost their jobs; First, Bruce Boudreau in Washington, then Paul Maurice. WIth horrible losing streaks and poor play from both teams all around, and particularly for the Canes, the deed had to be done.

In comes a breath of coaching fresh air, the highly touted and up and coming Kirk Muller, who was coaching the Milwaukee Admirals, Nashville's farm team this weekend in Charlotte. (what a coincidence!) Muller spend 5 yrs as assistant coach in Montreal and talk in all NHL circles was he would be the next in line for an NHL coaching gig, he just needed head coaching experience, thus the reason for taking the job in Milwaukee. Muller is credited with being a players coach, one of the hardest workers when he played, and many accolades for the job he did with Montreal's powerplay during that whole time he was there.

When a coach gets fired it's news everywhere- today was unique in that there were two firings- there's no shortage on coverage- read it all here:

Fox Sports Carolinas: Culture Change

Puck Daddy Blog: Canes hire Muller It's ok to be jealous of Carolina

Hurricanesbeat.com: Kirk Muller's coaching style

Dave Lozo from NHL.com : Six challenges facing Canes coach Muller

John Manasso NHL.com: AHL gamble pays handsomely for Kirk Muller

A piece on putting the hockey puzzle together:

Kirk Muller is more familiar with Carolina than you think - From Pro Hockey Talk.com

An outstanding piece from N&O's Luke DeCock on the end of Maurice's tenure, which isn't only about the failings of the Coach, but the organization as a whole. In the words of the new head coach: Holding people accountable:

Canes Now: Second Mo dynasty fails

Lots of good reading here. A page has turned Caniacs, the Kirk Muller era is about to begin. See you at the rink!

Heading into the holiday season; wishing Caniac Nation all the best for the Thanksgiving holidays!

The Hurricanes remain in a very busy stretch of their schedule for November, December brings a Canadian roadtrip East & West. Here are some things to mark on the calendar:

Black Friday: Canes vs Winnepeg Jets - 7pm RBC Center; It's Family Night at the RBC Center & that means $1.00 hot dogs all night. Bring the family and visiting guests out for a fun time. Get tickets here.

Two big events popular with Caniacs are coming up: Skate with the Canes, the annual event will be held on February 5th; Tickets are on sale now and are $75 each; proceeds to benefit Kids N Community. Also on the calendar and tickets on sale, Casino Night, which will take place on Sunday February 26th. Full details are available here.  Tickets for both events can be purchased at the Box Office or Ticketmaster.

If the Canes are ever going to get of out the mess they've created, sweeping change has to be on the horizon.

Wednesday's 4-0 loss in Montreal, was easily one of the worst defensive performances by a Hurricanes team in years. Besides the defensive blunders, and the myriad of chances the Habs had on Cam Ward, the Canes at one point had only 6 SOG on Carey Price going into the 2nd period. The Canes woes are numerous but there was never a question on work ethic until Wednesday night. That this game was broadcast on Canadian National TV: TSN's broadcast team of Gord Miller and Ray Ferraro nailed every conceiveable issue related to the current Canes roster. It was refreshing to see and hear a broadcast that stated plain facts. It's difficult for the FS-Carolinas to do that since the broadcasters are paid by the club. Ferraro and Miller were spot on in analysis that s now shining a huge light on all things related to the Canes.

Everyone has some sort of solution or is speculating on what is next.

 So far, for fans who were expecting the firing of Paul Maurice, they were sorely disappointed when GM Jim Rutherford let everyone know that wasn't happening today.

Other media chatter from the loss last night:

• Canes Now: Canes Facing Moment of Decision - From Chip Alexander speaks to the decisions to be made or not made regarding personnel and of course the coaching.
• Puck Daddy Blog was more blunt in his piece on Yahoo: It's time for Paul Maurice to exit the Hurricanes
• From NHL.com & The Canadian Press have a feature on Eric Staal and his hopes of getting out of the scoring slump of his life.
• Pierre LeBrun at ESPN talks about the Canes free fall in the Crosschecks blog
• and finally, the always insightful Darren Dreger has a feature on his TSN blog on what possibly is going on behind the scenes: Kaberle is being shopped for scoring as well as Bryan Allen.

So back to what is going on now: Zac Dalpe has been sent down to Charlotte, while Justin Faulk has been called up. Clearly there will be other things that need to happen, and we can all hope Faulk actually makes it into the lineup.

After a long day of being kicked around after easily the worst loss of this season, The Hurricanes Michael Smith's Tracking the Storm Blog says the Canes are Down but not out

Now the only thing that matters is that the proverbial next game. That means Oh No, Buffalo. From Canes Now Blog: Canes can only focus on Sabres game

See you on Friday at the game Caniacs. Stay storng!