Meet the new blog, not the same as the old blog.

I've moved the Virtual 'Cue Shack to new digs:

http://acidqueen.projectremains.com/

Adjust your bookmarks accordingly, peeps.

Doin' the Apocalypso

Happy First Day of Free Agency, hockey fans--and for our Canadian brethren, a very happy Canada Day. I'll be sure to light off some firecrackers in your honoUr after I get off work tonight.

Soanyway.

Here's how it stands right now for the Hurricanes:

Matt Cullen and Aaron Ward are more than likely gonzo--which is sad, but we have to look at the hard reality of things. Cully, when he was on, was a scoring machine. Unfortunately, he tended to be off more than he was on. AWard, meh. Good, but worth the large payday he's looking for? I don't think so. (I note, btw, that in my previous post about our defense, I said nothing about AWard staying or leaving. So don't go thinking I'm suddenly turning on the guy because he might be leaving us). If he wants to go back to Detroit, so be it. Good luck, Wardo.

Erik Cole wants a one-year deal from the 'Canes, ostensibly so he can test the UFA market after this coming season. Personally? I think it's so that he can see how much he might command if he shows that he's definitely come back from his injury--so it's more than simply wanting to see if he can cash in. He just wants to show that he can still bring the heat, and there's no crime in that.

Eric Staal's going to be signed today (if he hasn't been signed by the time I get this posted). All signs point to a three-year deal.

Next up: trying to find a backup.

How can somebody be so stupid?

So on teh LGC, there was a thread about a third jersey (I say "was", because it's locked now). In response to a couple posts, I chimed in with the reasons why the franchise can't incorporate anything from the Hartford days, and got this response (which IMO was a very good one, and in response to a Whale-bashing post from a fellow fan):

I don't think we should incorporate Hartford colors, ect., into a third jersey ... but I really don't grasp the hatred toward what the Canes used to be. Any time Hartford comes up, EpiK feels the need to totally bash the concept that this team was once in Hartford.

Some people grew up Whalers fans and came on board with the Canes (Aaryn, most noticeably). It's not "ours" (as in Raleigh's) ... it's everyone who loves the team, and some of those people have been on board since Hartford.

As someone who grew up 30 minutes outside Hartford, went to my first NHL game there and, while the Whale was never my favorite team, enjoyed the team, it's insulting to me for you to decide what the legacy of the franchise is. Look up our record books ... it incorporates our time in Hartford.

The guy that he's referring to that just HAS to bash Hartford all the time goes by the name EpiK-KA14--and yes, he is a douche.

So this douche comes back with this gem:

I don't bash the fact that this team used to be in Hartford. However, what does get under my skin are those people who continue to treat us as the Whalers in different colors. And I do believe that people who wear Whaler jerseys to the RBC just perpetuate that.

It peeves me (and many others) that we are still referred to as "the Former Hartford Whalers" like Raleigh just happens to be a temporary stop for this franchise. No other relocated team is shown that kind of disrespect.

I will also disagree with you on the fact that the team is not "ours". The Rangers belong to New York. The Red Wings belong to Detroit. They may have fans everywhere, but the team belongs to their city. And the Hurricanes belong here. There are Hurricanes fans in other parts of this country too. But they are just that, HURRICANE fans. Not Whaler fans. This team is not and will never again be the Whalers.

I also do believe that all Hartford Whalers records should be saved for the city of Hartford, and only statistics that have been accrued in Raleigh should be counted for the 'Canes. I don't push that fact because I'm sure I'm in a small minority in that regard.

The bottom line is that I have no animosity toward the Whalers, or their fans, or Hartford itself. But this isn't their team anymore. This isn't a temporary move. Anyway, I hope that explains things a bit better.

OK, so by this idiot's logic (for example) Ron Francis should not be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, because the only numbers he put up were in Pittsburgh and Carolina. Granted, he had some impressive years in the 'Burgh, but there were those nine-odd seasons in Hartford that we should just throw away because the Hartford Whalers no longer exist. Oh yeah, and we shouldn't have retired Ronnie's jersey either, because he didn't do much worth having his jersey retired by us for.

What a fucking toolbag.

And then there's ausoleil, who decided to 1) bash everyone in Hartford because of the actions of a handful of bittermen that haven't gotten over the move and 2) perpetuate the totally wrong-ass belief that Bristol were all Whalers fans because of the douchebaggery of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann on ESPN Radio.

People's Exhibit A:

A quick trip to Hartford at the end of last week was enough for me to not only drop any love I have for the Whalers but also to hope that those people never, ever, ever get an NHL team ever again.

I wore a new SC Champions golf shirt up there, and was cursed at three times -- as though I had personally stolen their team. I never taunted anyone up there; I was just proud of the team, and having been a part of the season from my seats in the arena. Made no difference to them.

The third time was in a sports bar, and I had had my fill of the lot. I said to the guy is a raised voice: "How come you people have never bought another franchise and moved it here? Doesn't the shopping mall want to have an NHL team in their arena there? You'd think that the Bruins and the Rags fans here would want to come to their home away from home again. The CANES are our team -- so get the @#$% over yourself."

I honestly think that the gentle citizens of Buffalo would have been kinder.

From now on, I no longer feel bad for Hartford people, generally.

So let's see--because of three idiots (who I probably know from message-board wars that marked the early years of post-move existence), it's okay to bash an entire town? Apparently so:

Well, to the Hartford fans who stayed with the team after the move, I obviously do not throw them under the bus.

Heck, guys like Aaryn are a lot more loyal and "true" fans than the tears-in-their-beers people I met who loathe Karmonos, loathe the Hurricanes and the NHL generally for not doing what the NFL did for Cleveland. And it was more than three. In our offices up there, a general sense of anger at the Hurricanes SCC seemed to be prevalent.

I asked some of the guys, and they said that it was not just me. Go figure.

OK, so which is it? Your original post on the matter implied rather heavily that you got jumped on by three idiots--and now you change your tune. What, did the entire city of Hartford get together and sign a "We Don't Want Any Caniacs Here" petition or something?

People's Exhibit B:

Two prominent and eloquent Whaler fans recently added their 2 cents.

From USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-06-27-hiestand_x.htm

Quote:
Eloquence: While it's hard to argue that sports talk radio adds to the sum of human knowledge, you can at least argue that the genre allows males to get in touch with their inner seventh-grader. But sometimes that virtue is made too explicit, like when Dan Patrick, on ESPN Radio, recently referred to Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos as a "scumbag" and partner Keith Olbermann, a Cornell alum, cleverly deemed the NHL owner a "douche bag." Presumably, ESPN sent notes home to each of their guardians. But Tuesday, ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz would only say reprimands, if any, are "an internal matter."

I'll say again--neither of those two wanks were Whalers fans. In fact, very few of the Bristoleros were ever Whalers fans. It's still greatly in vogue in Bristol to curry favor with the high-ups by taking shots at the Hurricanes and anything connected to them (including the owner), so seeing garbage like that from Bristol is nothing new....especially now that the Hurricanes have pretty much put the "Forever .500 Whalers" to rest.

But anyway. Do people in Hartford have a right to still be upset about the move? Sure they do. There are people in Minnesota that are still upset about the North Stars moving--and they've got a new team playing in the Cities now. There are still people in Winnipeg that are still upset about the Jets moving, and there are still people in Quebec City that are still upset about the Nordiques moving. I don't begrudge them that. They have a right to be upset--but that's no reason to lower yourself to the level of, say, Mike Glasson and wish the the whole town to get the Black Death or something just because they're feeling the sting of pride fuckin' with 'em.

Sheesh.

I don't know what has me more worked up....

The fact that Chris got to go to Origins, or this wicked cool-looking game that he discovered there.

I've got my own idea for a game, but somehow I don't think the NHL will allow it to be licensed--which is really too bad, because it would really be even more fun than the Charge of the Rubbermaid Brigade that I used to run every March up in Virginia.

/geek

Who put drugs in my drugs?!

I've been studiously avoiding talking about the seedier side of the Chris Pronger affair, in a shocking departure from my usual willingness to get down and dirty with the crassest of 'em.

Until now.

I just have to laugh, at this point. I mean, really--if this is true (and we'll never find out the real tr00f, no matter how many e-mails some random mediot at TSN sends out about it), can you just...

I'm just speechless about this, really. I mean, what can you say to something that is so surreal and comedy-of-errorsesque that it's just writing itself?

What's next, a blue dress with incriminating stains is going to surface?

Dude, just STFU already will you?

Jeremy Roenick wants to play in Canada, claims he's given up the party-boy life and become a "kinder, gentler player".

In other news, the City of New York has announced the impending sale of a quaint little bridge and a copper-plated statue to a Floridian developer of swampland.

It's a New Year's toast, grab your list to conspire

When I read in the paper at work this morning that Mark Cuban joined a group trying to buy the Pens from Mario Lemieux and his group, I almost exploded with glee.

Friends and neighbours, if it happens this is possibly the best thing that could happen to the NHL ever in terms of getting the League back on the map here in the States. Mark Cuban may be annoying (if you're not a Mavs fan--and sometimes he's annoying even if you are a Mavs fan), but the man can do one thing better than anyone in the NHL can do:

He can market a team.

I always joked with my friends that if I ever landed a billion or so dollars and were able to buy the 'Canes, I'd want to be an owner like Mark Cuban (only without the constant fanboyish pissing-off of League high-ups).

I really hope for all our sakes that this bid goes through, because finally the NHL will have somebody in its ownership ranks with the vision, the drive, and the charisma to help get this sport out of its doldrums of obscurity.

Go Mark Go!

(post title courtesy Carbon Leaf)

Welcome to Reality, PanthersFan.

I was dinkin' around teh intarnet today, and came across this little gem on a hockey board from some random Florida bitterman:

Good Luck you fans in Vancouver. Luongo was a great goalie here in Fla but the incessant whining about his contract grew quite old!! He got bad advice from his agent and now he has to deal with it. He and his agent thought they could milk the Panthers out of millions he didn't deserve having NEVER played a playoff game. You will see what you are getting and wait until he has to sign a contract. he will ask for the moon with nothing to show behind him

It was all I could do to keep from pointing and laughing at this guy--I mean, hello? Luongo's the only friggin' reason the Panthers stayed one step above the basement the last three seasons! Nothing to show? You're kidding, right? Your top defensive pairing consists of Mike Van Ryn and the bastard lovechild of Henry Rollins and Huey Lewis Sean Hill, and you talk about how Luongo is no good?

Excuse me for a moment, I think I'm about to lose bladder control from laughing so hard.

Give it up, Florida fans. Roberto Luongo is a franchise goaltender, and Keenan just threw him to a team with some actual talent (and Nolan Baumgartner) to put in front of him--and you have the bollocks to bash the guy?

I hope the 'Canes give every season-ticket holder a replica Cup ring, just so I can wave mine in your faces and say "SEE WHAT YOU WON'T BE GETTING FOR A GOOD LONG WHILE?" I mean, seriously.

It would be so fitting--so very very fitting--to have a Panthers-Canucks Final, with a Luongo-backstopped Canucks team beating the crap out of the Panthers. Then we'd see who has "nothing to show behind him".

Frankie Stays In Raleighwood....

...for four more years

At least, until they decide to trade him at the Kalends of November--not that I'm still a teensy bit bitter about Black Friday or anything.

Anyway. The length isn't so bad, but the money is kinda stupid for a defenseman--just in me opinion. And before ANY of you mooks say anything, I did make a similar comment about another defenseman's contract back last summer (in a post that, for some reason, Blogger's decided to eat).

The 'Canes also made qualifying offers to some core young guys on the team. Some folks aren't really thrilled about Chad LaRose getting a QO, but really? He's one of those energy guys that you kinda need to have on your team. Never going to be a huge scorer, but you need him to help keep things loose.

OBTW: This blog's going to be moving soon. Will post new URL when I get everything set up and ready to go.

My Golden Bitch is being a bitch.

Back in December 2000, I was watching Sportscenter--back when they actually gave ten minutes a show to hockey. You know, the high and far-off times when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Anyway. They showed a highlight from a Nashville-Detroit game; specifically, a fan in the stands who had a sign that said "Dear Santa, for Christmas all I want is to beat the Red Wings".

Nashville won that game, by the way.

That night, I was yakkin' with some of my gaming buddies on IRC--and I set the topic of the channel we were on to "Dear Santa, for Christmas all I want is for Marek Malik to make Chris Pronger his bitch."

I was, of course, joking.

One of the guys on the channel said "Uhhh, AQ? I don't think Malik will be making anyone his bitch."

My retort: "Well then, Pronger can be MY bitch."

And we laughed. Ever since then, Chris Pronger has been known as My Bitch. When he won in Salt Lake City in 2002, he became My Golden Bitch.

Which brings me to...now.

Mrs. Bitch has decided that she doesn't like Edmonton (despite the fact that it has the world's largest shopping mall), and so she's told hubby "Ask for a trade, or I walk." And My Golden Bitch has decided to be Lauren's Golden Bitch and say "Yes dear."

This is what you get when you marry a puckbunny, kids. And this is why the Whalers shipped him out for what wound up turning into Rod Brind'amour years ago--BAD. DECISION-MAKING. SKILLS.

I don't understand what his damn issue is, anyway. If I were a player, I would feel HONORED to play in the Northlands Coliseum 41 (or more) nights a season. HONORED, I tell you--if I couldn't play for the 'Canes, I'd definitely want to play in the City of Champions. And if I were My Golden Bitch (hereinafter shortened to MGB), I'd tell the wife "I'll send you back to Missouri where you can see all your friends and old boyfriends and daddy and mummy and whatnot, and I'll fly you up here once a month for conjugal visits."

If she doesn't like that, then I'd just divorce the little trollop, sue for custody of the kids, and ask Mom to come out from Dryden to help with the child-care, and find somebody better.

But then, I'm not MGB. If I were, I'd be smarter than to marry some whiny little bimbette who's just out for a meal ticket--and I'd certainly have more balls than to abscond to Mexico like some armored-car robber and have my agent do all the talking for me. That was even more spineless than letting the wife drag him around by his junk, and it makes me want to buy a McFarlane figure of the guy just so I can take it out to the range and use it for target practice.

If I were Kevin Lowe, I'd trade MGB to Minnesota for a bag of pucks and a used jockstrap (i.e. Filip Kuba and Andrei Zyuzin) and then use the freed-up cap room to sign somebody who actually WANTS to play in Edmonton. Sure, Minnesota has shopping--but it's also balls cold in the wintertime, smells like lutefisk, and is full of Norwegians that say "Ya sure, you betcha!" (and I should know about that, cos I've lived there.)

Let's hear Lauren whine about THAT one. She'll wish she'd never left Edmonchuk after a nice Minnesota winter (and a trip or two down Hennepin Avenue after dark).

For Whom The Bridge Burns

So I got the following comment on me previous post:

I am all for honoring the Whale part of the team's history...something I wish the Canes would do more [of]...

There's actually a two-word answer to this:

They can't.

They can't honor the team's history very much, because of Pete Karmanos and that wonderful temper of his. The guy was in such a hurry to flee Hartford that he signed an exit agreement that not only dinged him to the tune of a few bills, but also gave up all rights to everything to do with the Whalers--the logo, the uniform designs, the 1986 Adams Division banner, and pretty much everything else (except, I think for "Brass Bonanza"). Everything Whalers that's been shown by the team has been stuff that's owned by the NHL--old video clips, file photos, and so on.

Does Uncle Pete regret it? I think so. He's commented that he liked the old Whalers color scheme (and, frankly, so did I--green is one of my favourite colours), and hinted that he didn't like having to give it all up--of course, my question is "If you didn't like giving it up, then why did you?"

In a nutshell, there's no going home again for this team--which makes me sad, because if there's one thing I hate it's a needlessly burned bridge.

Odds and Sods -- Draft, Canes Party, etc.

After many trials and travails, I finally got my CAMEDIA camera to cough up the pictures that I took at Tuesday's celebration in the RBC Parking Lot.

It was balls hot that day, by the way.

So I get this call from my pal Brian, who says "Get some clothes on, you're going to the party." (I'd just gotten out of a post-work shower)

I said "What?" Because a mild hangover plus still being in shock from Monday night = hazy AQ

Brian replied, "I'll be there in 10 minutes" and hung up. So I went and got dry clothes on (because not only was it balls hot outside, it was bloody humid, too) and found this waiting for me in the bedroom:


Merlin

Otto


AND Maximilian--all looking at me like "what the hell makes you think you're leaving without feeding us?"

And when little Merlin glares at you, you know you're in trouble. So I had to feed the Chancellors before I hied off to the RBC.

On the way, Brian and I listened to XM in the car, and got a real treat:



Aaron Ward is always a great interview--very articulate, very smart. He's got a hell of a future in broadcasting whenever he decides to retire. He sounded really hoarse that day, though, because of all the hootin' and hollerin' from the other night.

Got to the RBC, and the place was already crazy. Some folks have tried to make an issue of there being "only" 30,000 people showing up for the Hurricanes' victory party--but it was covered live on WRAL-TV and other local news outlets. If nobody cared about the Hurricanes here, don't you think it'd have been ignored by everyone (including Tom "Douchebag" Sorenson of the Charlotte Observer)? I sure do. But what do I know, I've only lived here for years and know how things work here better than somebody north of the 49th Parallel (or, for that matter, the Virginia state line).

Anyway.

Most of my pictures of the players came out rather craptacular because my camera is an old Olympus D-360L (and because I had a metric assload of people in front of me that got hands and stuff in front of the viewfinder), so I decided to take random shots and comment on those.



I had to take this picture on the sly, because these people did NOT want to be photographed at all. It was so funny--they've got little airline bottles of Jim Beam (which is what Laughing Boy on the right is untwisting with his teeth), and they're putting the contents in cups of Coke and trying to do it on the sly so that nobody will see them and either 1) say something or 2) take their Beam away.

Because, you know, I'm all about some Beam and Coke with a side of sarcasm.

And then we have these two chaps, who just amused the piss out of me.




They were standing on a Coleman cooler so they could see over the rest of the crowd, and every time a player would go by they'd holler at him like they'd known him for years--which greatly amused the players (but annoyed a few of the people around them). I wish I'd gotten a picture of the two of them hugging each other atop their perch (because they weren't feeling very stable for a moment or two), but at that point I was feeling the onset of heatsickness and had to retire to the Rex Healthcare tent.



Here's a fan kickin' it old-school. There were a surprising number of people wandering around wearing Whalers gear, which made me happy.



Here's a shot of the people that were lined up all along the "media access" area near the stage, where the parade vehicles lined up and the players went meandering over to the stage. Bret Hedican had the most fun with the crowd in this area, trotting along and high-fiving everybody that had their hands out. He was one happy-happy elf, I tellyer.



This shot is from earlier in the day. On the left we have Brian, wearing a shirt that I and another friend printed up four years ago for the Great Run of 2002 (the graphic was done up for us by a Canadiens fan, btw). On the right is another guy wearing one of the new Champs t-shirts, with the roster on the back.

The speech that the Warchief gave was great--very much from the heart, and I don't think anyone around me had dry eyes when he was done. I honestly don't know that I've ever been prouder of this team than I am right now.

The Draft was kinda meh, as far as the 'Canes were concerned--word's come out that Ray Shero had told JimR that any deal involving Jack Johnson for the number 2 pick would have to have Andrew Ladd thrown in with it.

Pardon me while I fall down laughing at that.

I wasn't expecting a lot to come out of this season's Draft, from the Hurricanes' end--everything outside the Top 10 was more of a crapshoot than in most Draft years, so there you go.

So, about that glossary that was suggested to me by a couple folks: If I tried to explain every little reference I make, it would possibly be the longest post in the history of blogs. I reference a lot of movies, TV shows, and so on. I can try to make it simple, but that insults your intelligence--and I'd like to think that hockey fans are smart people.

But I'll try to think of something to at least explain the nicknames for some players (like "Joe, Lord of Evil")--which will probably be a collection of nutbar stories from my season ticket holder days.

Just sayin'.