Carolina's Cup flies high

Thanks to David, I managed a ticket to last night’s sold-out NHL season opener in Raleigh, where the Carolina Hurricanes raised their 2005-06 Stanley Cup banner before falling 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout. Doing ten hours of driving in a twenty-four hour span becomes a worse idea every time I try it, but some things are worth the misery afterwards.

It’s the beginning of the season, and both teams’ play reflected that. Carolina was moving pretty quickly at the beginning of the first, and registered an 11-1 shot disparity early, but didn’t have many good chances out of that flurry; when they did, Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller stood tall. Though neither team was in midseason technical form, the competitive level picked up where the Eastern Conference finals left off just four months ago.

Of Carolina’s new acquisitions:

• Tim Gleason earned the second star, and justifiably so. He was all over the ice with speed and didn’t look out-of-sync with this teammates even on four days’ practice. I’m still hesitant on the Jack Johnson trade, but if Gleason becomes a key to this team making another deep playoff run, Jim Rutherford will look pretty smart again.
• Eric Belanger will take more time to evaluate. Fast forwards tend to look bad early in their tenure with a new team, because their excess speed puts them further out of position before they understand what their teammates are doing; Justin Williams had this problem for several months in 2003-04. Style-wise, he fits this club, but he needs to find a steady line and learn his wingers’ tendencies.
• Scott Walker came advertised as a heart-and-soul guy, and two high-defensive-zone blocks did nothing to shake that reputation.
• Trevor Letowski looked like the generic third-line forward he is. I suspect either he or Walker will be trade bait when Cory Stillman returns in December.
• David Tanabe has been a polarizing figure on the message boards, and Wednesday night won’t change that. Positionally he was OK, but I counted at least three times in his zone when he dodged contact. I’m going to pay close attention to him on Saturday night in Washington against a harder-hitting team; how he handles the Caps will help me decide whether, like David, I’d rather give Anton Babchuk the slot.

Finally, general arena notes: - If I were a Buffalo fan, I’d have skipped this one. As hockey goes, I understand their bitterness over the Eastern Conference Finals; seeing the conference and Cup banners had to hurt. Regarding heckling: during that series, Sabre fans set RBC Center records for visiting fan mayhem — fights, arrests, and the like. Did they think they’d get a free pass from the Caniacs so soon after that performance, on the night we celebrated a Cup we took from them? - That said, the banner hoisting was exceptionally slow. - The Buffalo fans near me got quite worked up about empty seats in the third period, and started cracking on us supposedly not selling this game out. Apparently, during the pregame ceremony they were blinded by the reflection off our Cup and missed the slam-packed arena; the bugouts started at the first intermission, when quite a large chunk of the lower bowl went to club level to stand in line to see Lord Stanley and the other trophies. - Please tell me I’m not the only Caniac to hesitate before cheering Peter Karmanos. - Speaking of Hartford: during the second intermission, the Jumbotron ran a montage of fans and local celebrities singing along to the “Let’s Go Canes” promo song (Roy Williams got booed both times he appeared; Chuck Amato, surprisingly, did not). At the end, ESPN’s Chris Berman appeared; the camera was zoomed in tight enough to show only a bottom sliver of the Whalers logo on his cap as he said “Let’s Go…” but then hesitated and mouthed something that I think ended with “the Whale.” Did anyone catch exactly what that was? - Out in the parking lot pregame, the Lego Cup was a big hit with the kids.

Check out the Flickr set from Raleigh, and watch Sunday for a report from Verizon Center as the Capitals open their home schedule Saturday night against the Canes.