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.
Rants about hockey (especially the Carolina Hurricanes) from an Adopted Southerner.
I've moved the Virtual 'Cue Shack to new digs:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
The fact that Chris got to go to Origins, or this wicked cool-looking game that he discovered there.
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.
Jeremy Roenick wants to play in Canada, claims he's given up the party-boy life and become a "kinder, gentler player".
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.
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
...for four more years
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.
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]...
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.
This was posted on teh LGC by MeanGene (who, for the folks outside the Caniac Nation, is the big black dude on the Storm Squad), and is posted here with his permission:
I talked to [Georges Laraque] during the Finals after just about every game. Mainly by email, but also in person. Anyway I thought it would be good to get some pictures of a black hockey player becasue I am hoping to start an inner-city street hockey clinic/league hopefully this summer or fall. I am thinking in the downtown housing projects, or in Durham at possibly the YMCA, which is probably my best bet. laraque gave me 10 autographed 8x10 pictures and personalized one to me.
After game 5, he told me that they would beat us in 7, and I told the Canes would win. He jokingly asked me if I wanted to place a bet on the rest of the series. I said sure, if the Oilers win, I will paint Oilers are #1 on the back of my car with glass paint and drive around with it on. If the Canes won, he could help me start up my league. He said either way, he would love to help me out.
After game 7, I went and talked to him and he told me to jsut contact him when I was ready. At the time, he was talking to Cuba, so I should have hit him up too!!
I think with the Stanley Cup victory and the enthusiasm for hockey, it should go pretty well.
Just wanted to share a good guy NHL story!
I go to work, and everything goes about 10 different kinds of crazy.
...please hush about Lavi not getting the Jack Adams.
Carolina Residents Confused, Terrified As Victorious Hurricane Players Riot In Streets
Alanah at VCOE sent me this link yesterday evening. I just now stopped laughing.
Before I wrestle with my digital camera to get the pictures from yesterday's parade and party (I missed today's celebration because I got called in to work), it's time to take a look at who goes and who stays for next season.
I was at work this morning, still kind of in a state of numbed shock. I was in the middle of counting up the previous day's safe drops when I turned and asked my boss "Did the Hurricanes really win?"