Your doors are locked for saftey.

Time to breath is a funny yet neccissary thing. Trina and I have been burning the candle at both ends and it has been showing.

As we get closer to September 9th, I hope to post a bit more about what we are up too and where we are going.

Got to see Ashley, Chris and Jens new spawn. She is a cute in all the usual baby ways. Always incredible to see the early stages of our progeny.

I'm battling a rough case of food poisoning. Always a fun thing. Lets just say I will not be getting any pineapple fried rice at our local Tia restaurant again.

On the wedding front, We registered at Target and Macy's yesterday and the invitations are addressed stamped and ready to fly. Now we have to get the music list up. This will be tough. I just don't see people doing the electric slide to "Mary was an Anarchist" and I believe it will be only appropriate for me to not play "American Jesus." So my favorite tunes are basically out of the rotation.

Sure, they are great now but what about next year.

I guess to preface this post I will say that today it is important to remember this game I hold so dear is essentially a kids game. In the grand scheme of things it is largely unimportant.

That being said, lets talk hockey. I had planned to type this up Thursday but situations dictated my writing this today. I was thinking about this before my beloved Canes dropped the first three games to the Pens. To stave off the folks who will say this is a defeatist post I believe the canes can take the current series to a game seven. Lets all hope they do.

Today I'm looking at the question of where the canes go from here. What happens next year?

The best site I've found for the info I will be using is at nhlnumbers.com

The Canes will need twelve forwards, six defense men, and two goalies for next year.

Returning forwards:

Staal, Brind'Amoure, Whitney, Cullen, Samsanov, Walker, Eaves, Sutter, and Boychuck

We have a bit of a glut at center with Staal, Brindy, Cullen, Sutter and Boychuck Listed as such. This leaves us a lot of room to work with on the wings. I'm going to assume we sign our restricted FA's so lets add Jokinen and Ruutu into this mix.

So right now we sit with

1st line - Staal, Whitney, Ruutu
2nd line - Cullen, Walker, Samsanov
3rd line - Brindy, Eaves
4th line - Sutter/Boychuck

Can we sign or will we sign Cole or LaRose? Personally I think LaRose can get more money elsewhere. He is probably at his peak and he needs to make all he can while he can. Cole may give us a hometown discount. So I'm going to say we get Cole back and Rosey signs in New York or Washington ;)

So now we probably look more like

1st line - Staal, Cole, Whitney
2nd line - Cullen, Walker, Ruutu
3rd line - Brindy, Eaves, Samsanov
4th - Sutter and some new FA's or younguns

Returning Defense:

Pitkanen, Gleason, Corvo, Kaberla, Wallin, and Conboy.

I think we need to sign just one more body here, preferably Babchuck. That would move Conboy back to the tough guy role and I like that. We will not keep Siedenberg, we will not want to pay him what he can get elsewhere.

Goalies:

Ward and Leighton

We are set here.

What do you think?

The moment was ripe for my rage. I knew anger would get the jump on me. *

Well sometimes you wake up on the right side of the bed and really you should have woken up on the wrong side.

Things that bug me today.

networks
coworkers
Rip Torn
U2
kittens
.
.
.

Whaaaaaaaaaa!

Oh and now we have lost another pioneer in geekdome. (Thanks Bryant)

Anyway, Just wanted to share. Stupid kittens.

31.44 Miles on the elliptical so far.

* "Chopstick Bridge" by Avoid One Thing

The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club

Last night the Hurricanes finally clinched a playoff spot. Superstitions prevail against logic when it comes to hockey for me. I will probably not go see the canes play in the Verizon center again. The hurricanes do not win when I attend games. You would thin my friends would catch on and just give me tickets to games. Anyway I just did not want to jinx it by doing my usual run down. Since the season is almost over and the spot is clinched I will give you another run down.

• The Hurricanes have 95 points of a possible 158 for around 60% of the possible points they could have attained so far.
• The maximum number of points the Hurricanes can obtain now is 101.
• The total number of goals allowed this season is 218 which yields an average of 2.76 goals a night which is pretty decent. I think over the last ten games Ward has been averaging around 1.9 goals a game which is pretty good stuff.
  
• The total number of goals scored is 227 which yields an average of 2.8 goals a night.
  
• The Hurricanes will finish in second place in the South East Division behind the Washington Capitals and ahead of the Florida Panthers.
  
• The Hurricanes are in fifth place in the conference tied with the Philadelphia Flyers and two points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It has been a fun run at the end of the season. Lets hope it keeps going into the first round.

26.44 Miles on the elliptical.

Wet and Wild weekend.

Well Shamrock Fest '09 was very soggy this weekend. I got to see some really fun bands, buy a T-Shirt that further highlighted my need to lose weight and fast, and buy a CD of a band I've never heard. It was good to see the Morgans and good to get out of the house for a day. And the beer though green was far from Irish and far from drinkable.

Dogs were ready for crazy go nuts university after we left them at home for a day. Augie was particularly feisty Sunday. The world was certainly his chew toy.

20.98 Miles on the elliptical. Back on the horse. Yeeeee Haaaaaaawww.

Hockey ... some teams are playing that game I hear.

Hey man, Nice Shot.

Your DC Gladiators got another win on Saturday night. I was responsible for none of the scoring. My Line tended to be scrappy but we never really capitalized on it. But winning a game in the last 50 seconds is a pretty exciting experience, D level hockey or no. Gotta say thanks to Greg, Mark, and Matt for putting that one home.

I'm enjoying my first Hard Case Crime Novel. I've never read any Donald E. Westlake but I'm enjoying what I have read so far.

Well this has been an up and down stretch for the Hurricanes and my diet. OK more down for the diet than the hurricanes.

Stats of interest.

• The Hurricanes have 67 points of a possible 122 for around 54% of the possible points they could have attained.
• The maximum number of points the Hurricanes can obtain now is 109.
• The total number of goals allowed this season is 176 which yields an average of 2.8 goals a night.
  
• The total number of goals scored is 162 which yields an average of 2.6 goals a night.
  
• The Hurricanes are in third place in the South East Division behind the Florida Panthers by one point and ahead of the Tampa Bay Lighting by fifteen points.
• The Hurricanes are in ninth place in the conference one point behind the Buffalo Sabers and three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I'm up to 18.81 Miles on the elliptical. The last two weeks have pwn3d me.

Here it is again yet it stings like the first time. *

The Hurricanes are slowly moving back into lovable loser mode. I should be used to this by now. My affection towards teams desperate to capture their once but fleeting glory is steeped in history. There was the New York Mets whose futility was capped by trading it's last remnant of success for Jeff Kent. There was Baseball in general whose post canceled world series steroid fueled home run derby was not enough to fully reengage my interest. There were the cubs, who were always one Vance Law hit away from undeniable joy. And now for the second time in a row the canes experience famine for several years following a feast at the contest for lord Stanley's Cup.

I saw the Hurricanes lose to the NY Rangers Tuesday. I wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Well, here it go.

The Good:

• Hmmm ... brief signs of life scattered through skating in quicksand.
• Ruutu continues to impress. I hope he can do this with the canes for more than one season.
  

The Bad:

• Staal is getting bottled up. We need another scoring threat on his line or teams will just key their defensive efforts toward shutting him down.
  

Stats of interest.

• The Hurricanes have 51 points of a possible 98 for around 52% of the possible points they could have attained.
• The maximum number of points the Hurricanes can obtain now is 117.
• The total number of goals allowed this season is 145 which yields an average of 2.9 goals a night.
  
• The total number of goals scored is 123 which yields an average of 2.5 goals a night.
  
• The Hurricanes are in third place in the South East Division behind the Florida Panthers by one point and ahead of the Tampa Bay Lighting by seven points.
• The Hurricanes are in tenth place in the conference one point behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and seven points ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I'm up to 15.02 Miles on the elliptical. w00t!

* "Calling all Skeletons" by Alkaline Trio