Carolina All-Star Roundup
For those of you that didn't fall asleep during the Backstreet
Boys' endless rendition of the National Anthem, you got to see a
pretty good All-Star game.
The two Hurricane representatives, goalie Arturs Irbe and center
Keith Primeau, made a pretty good showing for themselves,
especially in the skills competition on Saturday night.
Irbe, who isn't really know as a stick-handling netminder, hit
the post twice in an "offensive" contest for the goaltenders.
Irbe cleared the small barrier before hitting the right post on
both his attempts.
The Canes goaltender wasn't done there, though, as he stole the
show in what was an offensive attack by two separate players.
Both Theo Fleury and hometown hero Wendel Clark took turns
bombing Irbe with pucks. Fleury and Clark had 12 seconds each to
shoot five pucks at the goaltender. Only Clark was able to get
one by as Irbe made nine saves in all, tying him with Martin
Brodeur for the best mark in the event.
Finally, it was a breakaway contest in which six skaters came one
after another. Irbe stoned Larry Murphy, Luc Robitaille and
Wendel Clark to start things off. If that wasn't difficult
enough, Clark ended up knocking Irbe's goal stick out of his
hand, but Irbe was unfazed as he proceeded to stone Keith
Tkachuk. Unfortunately, Mark Recchi took advantage of the
misfortune and was able to score, but Irbe did rebound, after
getting his stick back from Dominik Hasek, to stop Wayne Gretzky
on the final shot.
In the same competition, Primeau beat Nikolai Khabibulin stick-
side for a goal.
During the actual game, Irbe saw action in the second period and
didn't fare too badly, allowing three goals on 15 shots. More
importantly, Irbe showed that his offensive skills from the night
before weren't a fluke as he became the first goaltender in
All-Star history to earn an assist. Irbe passed the puck to
Alexei Yashin before the Ottawa star gave it to Teemu Selanne who
eventually scored.
Irbe allowed goals to future Hall-of-Famers Ray Bourque and Wayne
Gretzky (the MVP of the game) as well as Los Angeles' Rob Blake.
Primeau, meanwhile, didn't tally a point in the contest. He
mostly saw action on a line with Jeremy Roenick and Tkachuk.
Look Out Behind You
It's no secret that Pavel Bure is now a Florida Panther. If
you're a Carolina Hurricane fan and you haven't exactly thought
about this whole deal, let me just summarize for you - this isn't
good.
Remember a few issues ago when the Canes had close to a
double-digit lead in points in the Southeast Division? Well,
that's no longer the case. As of the beginning of this week, the
Hurricanes led the Panthers by just four points.
I'm one of those people that likes to make a big deal out of
"what if the playoffs started now?" So, let's take a look since
we are at the midway point of the season:
The Flyers would be first with 58 points, the Maple Leafs second
with 57 and the Hurricanes third with 47...thanks to being the
division leader. Falling all the way to fourth are the Senators
(56), the Devils are fifth (55), the Sabres sixth (53), followed
by Boston with 47 and Pittsburgh, also with 47. Just missing the
playoffs would be the Panthers who now have 45 points.
It doesn't take a math major to see that there is a pretty good
chance there is only one playoff team coming out of the Southeast
Division. Bure alone has made a very average team an above
average team. A pure goal scorer like the Russian Rocket can make
a difference between lots of wins and losses at the end of the
year. Considering Bure has scored three goals in two games, it's
not going to take that long for him to get back into the groove.
That just may mean April tee times again for the Hurricanes.
