ACC Country

94 year old Glen Wesley was manning the point on the power play. Rookie Casey Borer was killing penalties. Yes, it’s come to that for the Carolina Hurricanes. The good news is that the Canes rallied from a 2-1 second period deficit with some of their most inspired play of the season to defeat the Atlantic division leading Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 Thursday night at the RBC Center. The bad news is that Carolina lost captain Rod Brind’Amour two shifts into the game, and #17 will be out the remainder of the season with a torn ACL.

If there’s any room left on the proverbial shelf, Brind’Amour can heal up there, right alongside teammates Justin Williams (torn ACL), Chad LaRose (broken leg), and Matt Cullen (don’t call it post-concussion syndrome). Figure in defensemen Dennis Seidenberg (ankle), Bret Hedican (the mysterious lower body injury), and another bout of the flu that saw Tim Gleason and recently acquired Joe Corvo scratched last night, and Carolina has quite the M*A*S*H unit assembled here in mid-February. Williams and Brind’Amour are done for the year, LaRose likely as well. There is no set timetable for Cullen’s return. Once you start doing the complicated math, figuring in the first flu invasion last month, as well as Erik Cole, Scott Walker and the rest of the early season injury woes, the man games lost for this Canes team has got to be approaching 300.

Yet, the Canes still sit atop the Southeast Division. Granted that’s not saying much given that Carolina’s point total would place them ninth in the Eastern Conference, but the division crown would assure the Canes of a playoff slot. And anything can happen in the Stanley Cup Playoffs; the 2002 Hurricanes are a testament to that. Carolina’s two points up on the Thrashers and Capitals, but Atlanta has a game in hand, and Washington has two. However, the Canes close out their schedule with 14 of 22 games in Raleigh, including what should be a dramatic final two and a half weeks that features EIGHT divisional games. The table is set up for the Canes to control their own destiny and take the Southeast Division.

The question is whether they can persevere and work through the mounting injuries. Despite the long list of medical issues, Carolina still has the talent to not only compete for the division, but to factor in among the contenders to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. With Brind’Amour out, the team will need to find leadership elsewhere. On the ice, this starts with Eric Staal. The All-Star Game MVP has developed a more rounded game this season. He’s become more vocal, more physical, and is chipping in regularly on the defensive end, heading up a penalty kill unit while traditional power play busters Brind’Amour, Williams, and LaRose are out hurt. He scored his team-leading 28th goal of the season last night and is the future of the franchise. For Eric Staal, the future starts now.

Couple the emergence of Staal with proven scorers Ray Whitney and Erik Cole and the impressive efforts of mid-season pickup Sergei Samsonov, as well as what most believe will be the return of Cullen, and despite the injury problems, Carolina still has the offensive firepower to compete night in and night out. Two wild cards in the Canes playoff push will be Andrew Ladd and Patrick Eaves. Ladd, the Hurricanes’ first round draft choice (4th overall) in 2004, has shown hints of excellence. He now has an opportunity to move up into the scoring lines and prove himself to be a physical presence in front of the net and be a valuable asset to this club. 23 year old Eaves, just acquired from Ottawa in the Cory Stillman/Mike Commodore trade, has been nursing a bum shoulder, but was a 20 goal scorer (in only 58 games) his rookie season and has the tools to make major contributions to the scoresheet, too.

Holding up the defensive end of things, as well as locker room leadership, will be Glen Wesley. Despite his age – he’ll be 40 in October – Wesley has appeared to have regained a step or two and has been the most consistent performer for an otherwise below average defense corps and knows what it takes both physically and mentally to win the Stanley Cup, having played in three Finals over his 20 year NHL career. Hedican, when healthy, has proven he can still skate with anybody in the league, but isn’t quite the solid defender he was earlier in his career. Joe Corvo will bring a much needed offensive edge to the blue line, and both Gleason and Seidenberg have made improvements over the course of the season. The question mark with this defense, as it has been all year, is whether they can play smart and as a unit. Thus far, the answer to that question has been no more often than not. That will need to change.

In net, head coach Peter Laviolette has obviously made the decision to ride Cam Ward as far as he will take this team. Ward has started 12 straight games, giving up two or fewer goals in eight of them and, for all intents and purposes, is two shaky periods of hockey (in Pittsburgh and Jersey) from perhaps being better than that. Ward has shown signs of brilliance this season, both before and since a mid-season slump, and we know what he can do in the spotlight of the playoffs.

The Hurricanes play again Saturday night, hosting the hated Florida Panthers – only four points back – in another big divisional game.