Canes raise the Stanley Cup banner tonight!

[Playa]

http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20060620/rod_11252.jpg

And the division banner.


And the Conference title banner.

7pm on Versus (formerly OLN)

BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) - A banner Opening Night is on tap when the NHL season gets underway on Wednesday.

The Carolina Hurricanes will kick off the league's 89th season in style when they raise their Stanley Cup championship banner prior to squaring off against the Buffalo Sabres. It is a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference finals, which the Hurricanes won at home in Game Seven before dispatching of surprising Edmonton in another seven-game series to capture the Cup.

Two other games will be played on Wednesday, with the Ottawa Senators visiting the rival Toronto Maple Leafs and the Colorado Avalanche hosting the Dallas Stars.

The season opens on a decidedly more upbeat note than a year ago, when the league was coming off a missed season due to the lockout of 2004-05. It also has given teams a full year to adjust to the rule changes aimed at eradicating clutching and grabbing and emphasizing skating and scoring.

Carolina got off to a fast start last season and ran away with the Southeast Division crown, posting a 52-22-8 mark and amassing 112 points to outdistance second-place Tampa Bay by 20 points. But the team hasn't had much first-game success, going just 6-15-5 in season openers.

[The_professor]

http://www.carolinahurricanes.com/images/wallpaper/MyCup800x600.jpg

[Playa]

Where are you watching it?

[The_professor]

hlg's lap

[The_professor]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1571706239959646320&q=ric+flair&hl=en

[PantherPaul]

Just got home. No Cleveland Couty fair. GO CANES!!

[The_professor]

the ceremony was fuckering beautiful

[49erpi]

http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/20060620/rod_11252.jpg

And the division banner.


And the Conference title banner.

7pm on Versus (formerly OLN)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

[gottalaff]

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Playa's gonna give you a BM

[49erpi]

I'll post a pic of the last chick I know Playa banged. That should be entertainment for everyone. Right Playa?

[The_professor]

do it.

[49erpi]

do it.

He would have to fuck with me pretty bad for me to do a thing like that to him. In his defense he was pretty drunk and went through the trouble of staging a cover up that would have made Bill Clinton proud.

[PantherPaul]

NUTS

[gridfaniker]

.

[solarte1969]

Awesome game (in spite of the outcome), but BUFs uni's still look horrifying to me.

[gottalaff]

Awesome game (in spite of the outcome), but BUFs uni's still look horrifying to me.

I take it your team lost.

[gridfaniker]

Awesome game (in spite of the outcome), but BUFs uni's still look horrifying to me.


the unis aren't so bad, it's the logo that's terrible. when I was growing up, they were blue and gold. It'd been better if they'd taken the classic logo and put it on the unis they have now.

that said, the sabres unis look great compared to the Hurricanes' all-red pajama-looking outfits

[blue_steele]

Old but still meaningful. That Tom Sorenson is a real rascal!



If our Carolina Hurricanes beat Buffalo tonight in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, they'll play for the Stanley Cup, and we loyal Canes fans will get to go Cup Crazy for the first time since 2002. So let's get behind our guys, eh.


Some of you have never seen an NHL game. But that's OK. There's still time to get on the Hurricane bandwagon, which is called a Zamboni.


Before we start, let me offer a hockey primer and explain why I am qualified to deliver it. Some people have ice water in their veins. I have ice.


I grew up in Minneapolis, and we had a rink in our back yard. My brother turned on the hose one December and the ice didn't thaw until March.


My high school won the state tournament, which is to hockey what the Indiana prep tournament is to basketball. And my college, Minnesota, won the NCAA hockey tournament, which insiders call the Frozen Four. At least the Gophers might have won it. I was more into basketball.


But so what? People can change. I didn't really become a Cane Crazy until I discovered the OLN cable network. Let the four major sports, the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball and NASCAR, have the major networks.


We hockey fans have OLN all to ourselves. OLN, incidentally, stands for Oh (what) Little Numbers.


Ratings for regular-season NHL games are comparable to reruns of "All in the Family." But when the playoffs begin, buddy, you better buckle up. In the playoffs, our ratings are up there with reruns of "Full House."


Of course, we hard-core Caniacs don't watch the Canes on OLN. We drive from Charlotte to the RBC. You haven't seen playoff hockey live until you have seen playoff hockey live.


Tonight's game is the biggest game in Raleigh that has not involved two ACC teams since football season, when N.C. State played Eastern Kentucky, Southern Mississippi and Middle Tennessee State.


Getting a ticket to Game 7 probably is impossible. But I went to the Hurricanes' Web site at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to try.


The worst that can happen is you'll be rejected, and I've had lots of experience with that, although never at 11:30 a.m.


I was directed to Ticketmaster and tried to buy one ticket in every price range. I started with the most expensive ticket, $220, and of course all the tickets were sold. But what's this? I could buy a ticket for $195, $175, $160, $150, $120, $90, $75 and $70.


It's just like when the Carolina Panthers make the playoffs, except every Panthers ticket is sold.

[The_professor]

you're just a bad bad person....

[blue_steele]

Have you found a job yet?

[The_professor]

i just started my vacation.


Dad

[blue_steele]

Just trying to prevent you from resorting to a steady diet of corn beef hash. And we all know there was a time when you were on such a diet.

[The_professor]

i've never recovered

[blue_steele]

Your a real patriot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eYxpKJY-8o

[The_professor]

lol