And wouldn't you know.....

...that the time I forget to set the DVR, the Canes wtfpwn their opponent.

Bloody 'ell--but hey, I am NOT complaining at all. I'll take it. No really, I'll take it...especially given some of the comments I'm reading about the anti-Canes bias of the NBC announcerdroids (and yes, I'm taking those comments with a grain of salt).

In other news....

Raleigh sports talk "personality" *snort* Joe Ovies decided that he just had to take a swipe at the fans that are screaming because of the suddenness of the Hurricanes' price-increase announcement--and why? Because some of the complainers have been fans since the transition years in Greensboro (or further back).

Wow, now that's class. Let's go ahead and piss off a chunk of the long-time fanbase for the sake of trying to look cute--not that it's anything out of the ordinary for you. Good job, Joe. Go back to prattling mindlessly about college ball or something, and stay away from hockey before you make yourself look like an even bigger toolbag.

I'm sorry, but the Greensboro-era fans (of which, by the way, I am one) have a point: they've been with this team since Day One here in the Carolinas (and a handful down here have been fans since the days in Hartford), and I think they're more than a little right to feel like they've been buggered sin lubricante by the front office with this one. So gimme my Purple Heart and STFU.

Then Numbnut goes on to say:

Most importantly, if one fan balks at the price there are 10 more right behind him more than happy whip out their credit cards for some Stanley Cup action.

Really? Got something to back that up do you? More importantly, where will those fans be come November when the Blackhawks are in town?

Memo to Joe Ovies: It's not the increase itself that has people screaming--it's the fact that it was so suddenly announced and that the organization hemmed and hawed even while people were asking them DURING ROUND ONE how much Rounds 3 and 4 would be so that they could budget. Principle, not object. I realize that's a hard concept for you to wrap your brain around--but it would be nice if you tried, yeah?

(I tell you, right now I'm kinda glad that I don't have a working radio in my house, so I don't have to actually listen to the garbage that tends to pass for "sports talk radio" here in the Triangle.)

Now that the shock has passed....

...I'm over the increase--what I'm not over, however, is the suddenness of the announcement. It would have been nice if the entire pricing structure for the playoffs had been announced at least a couple months ago (kinda like the Sens did), so that people could at least prepare/plan/budget for it.

Would have saved a lot of ire and hurt feelings, that's for sure--now I feel like I should send my ticket rep some flowers or something to let him know that I don't hold his overlings' shortsightedness against him (because you KNOW the ticket reps are getting hammered for this).

What the hell are they thinking?!

The Hurricanes have decided that they're going to jack the ticket prices for any later rounds that the team might make--and oh, are the fans screaming. And I can't say that I blame them, either.

Y'see kids, even though I love this team I am well aware that their sins are many and that they are pretty great--being out-of-touch with the market is one of those great sins, and this latest "surprise" price increase pretty much shows it. I mean, dude. I realize that it's the playoffs and whatnot--but I don't want to see MY house loaded down with THEIR fans because OUR fans got priced out of their own seats!

I would hope that the Hurricanes reconsider this, because the backlash from it will completely and utterly--correction, HAS completely and utterly destroyed the buzz started in the first round.

Good job, Canes. Hope you're happy.

Five years ago today...

...in the wee hours of the morning after the Hurricanes had been eliminated from the playoffs by the Boston Bruins, the Hurricanes lost defenseman Steve Chiasson in a one-car accident near the water treatment plant on Falls of the Neuse Road.

I could write a long eulogistic post about how much he meant to the fans in Hartford and how devoted he had become to the fans here, or a rambly reminiscence about the virtual wake that was held by all of us on the old Penalty Box message board (a wake that was crashed by MADD trolls hell-bent on telling us all what a horrible evil person Chase was because of one moment of terminal stupidity), but I won't.

Instead I give to you, my readers--my friends (even though I haven't met but maybe 3 of you)--this word of advice:

Call a cab, call a friend, hell--call ME. But please don't get behind the wheel if you've been drinking, because it's a crapshoot whose odds do not favor you.

Rest well, Steve. We miss you.

Wow.

I'm a little speechless after last night's game. In a flash, I saw 1986 all over again, except that it would be somebody like Steve Begin playing the part of Kevin Dineen to Bret Hedican's Larry Robinson.

And then, in a flash, it was over on a shot from Cory Stillman that may or may not have been tipped by Craig Rivet--and it was made clear that that part of history wouldn't be repeated.

Wow. Just wow.

Now I can play World of Warcraft again--for a couple days. I can play DDO again--for a couple days. I can even watch Hurricanes games--on the DVR.

For a couple days.

And then on Saturday, it starts all over again with those dirty diving damn Devils.

I swear, this team is going to kill me.

(Aside to Tom L: If you still play WoW, gimme a holler. We'll get together and go hassle the Chinese for a while. For a couple days.)

Damn.

No Schadenfreude here.

Just...huh.

More commentary in the morning.

edit: OK, I promised no Schadenfreude, and I'm going to hold to that--but if anything this shows what a curse that President's Trophy is.

...and my inner child is very happy right now.

When your team is on the brink....

....do your best to be a dink.

I'm surprised that Monsieur Draft Dodger Deserter didn't brag about pissing on Peter Laviolette's shoes, accuse each and every citizen of the Caniac Nation (est. 1997) of having some kind of lobotomy that renders them incapable of understanding hockey, or something equally idiotic and classless.

Not only that, but his writing is some of most gard-arful bulldada that I've ever read--perhaps instead of fleeing the country like the coward that he is, he should have stayed and gotten a university exemption from the Draft (so he could take some journalism and composition courses).

But that could just be me.