The New York Islanders stole the holiday spirit from the Carolina Hurricanes

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See amazon.com slash amazon prime for details. Carolina Hurricanes are struggling. And if you were listening before the last break, Graham mentioned that Peter Kuchekoff could have you could use the night off and definitely so.

It was a shooting gallery prior to the Christmas break. 5-4, they took one on the chin to the Islanders, in which the Islanders pretty much had control of this one the entire time. Scored early, scored often, of which if you're in attendance at PNC Arena in Raleigh, of which I was there sitting behind Peter Kuchekoff in period number one, there were a lot of Islander fans there.

Oh yeah. It was some serious flip the ice advantage kind of thing and it only got worse as they kept scoring and the Islanders kept scoring and scoring and scoring to where the gentleman sitting behind me in my family was using words that most people shouldn't be using in public company yet the majority of the people that were sitting in our section were using those same words to where it was kind of common household English. Did they have the rallies section up in 315?

Yes. Last month when I went on November 30th around this or around that time yeah it was it was a monster of Islanders fans up there. They tried. There was no doubt that the Canes fans that were in attendance and it was you know clear everyone had come home from school and vacations hadn't quite hadn't quite started.

Concourses were full. It was a fun night of professional hockey if you were fans of the other team there. The Hurricanes put up the fight that they could fight. They scored four goals but they gave up five and that is a challenge for this team. You know now Adam Gold got word about a week or so ago that Freddy Anderson is cleared to practice again.

They could use his help. Yeah the Canes four and nine in their last 13 games. Four and nine and one and four in their last five so the recent record isn't even that great. You go you go back into November around Thanksgiving time is when the tide started shifting so to speak for this team and it's not for lack of production from the stars. I mean you look at Sebastian Ajo's line he's got 31 points. It's 13 goals 18 assists three of those goals in the power play.

He's been effective but it's the help perhaps that's around him that needs more help. Now Rod Brindamore talked about where he feels this team is as they rolled into this break. I think we've played better than our record. I think probably deserved more points out of some of this stuff but we haven't we haven't done it so we're in a tough spot. Deserving of points and then the reality of the points that they have. This team right now if the season ended today which used to be a favorite phrase of mine until I pointed out to a former colleague that if the season ended today you could do that after game one.

You could do this every time you turn on the microphone. Well if the season ended today they would be in the playoffs. Well if the season ended today Carolina Hurricanes are on summer vacation.

Oh they're hitting the links. They're ninth in the conference right now by one point. It's not even a tie. It's not like we're in a tie for like there's a bunch of teams clogged in there and they just have to be nine because there's five through nine are all the same. No they're ninth. They are ninth and again four and nine in their last 13 games one and four in their last five with those games at home.

There's the other issue. The home ice is tilted the other way and they can't figure out a way to get it going the other way. A 500 team doesn't cut it anymore in the Eastern Conference based on how everything went in the off season. The Eastern Conference got better.

There's no doubt about it and the idea that there is a little bit more air between them and the top teams. The Rangers have 47 points 23 wins. Carolina has 38 points 17 wins. Boston Bruins are still Boston Bruining.

You know we say the Panthers keep panthering right? The Boston Bruins are playing Boston Bruins hockey still. They keep doing it with the team that they have and the Maple Leafs are trying to figure it out and the Florida Panthers are trying to figure it out and we all despise the Tampa Bay Lightning how they manage just to always keep playing very good hockey constantly but the Islanders came here and took a game from them.

I mean they took it from them. There wasn't any monster like one silly play or whatnot. I think Jack Drury gave up one kind of deep on kind of a flailing stick playing defense when he was trying to get a back check.

There wasn't one like bad bad way to go. I mean they closed things they kept things close but close doesn't win you the games right? It doesn't get you the points. At least you get to overtime you get a point but losses especially at home are way too tough to handle and Piotr Kuchikov had no help like he's got no help right now like it's him he is he is the last line of defense. If you play those like those zombie games and stuff those little tap games on your phone you understand like when you're a last your your heart's beating and you've you know you had five hearts and now you got one heart left and it's you and all you've got is like this like bow and arrow and there's like a hundred zombies coming at you and all you're doing is just flinging arrows and whatnot.

At a certain point like you gotta stop flinging arrows it's just coming. Piotr Kuchikov right now is just coming at him like he's he's putting up a fight he's trying to make it work he's trying to make trying to get this team in position to win but if you give up five goals and you're not seeing the puck and you're just running out of gas and your coach knows you're running out of gas what do you do? Well the team who sent Auntie Ronta down to Chicago who gave up six goals and two starts in Chicago is now back with this team because there is a back-to-back coming up with Nashville tomorrow night that is tomorrow night on the road and then they have to travel not this is some big travel day but they got to come back and play Montreal the next night so they got back-to-back coming up so Auntie Ronta probably going to get one of those starts because Kuchikov's out of gas like and it's not like you see it on the ice with him it's he's not oh man I'm drinking more water and I got to stretch out a little bit more rub a little bit more mentholate him on the quads and he's doing what he can. This team though for some reason and Rod is right in those aspects like they're playing the games these close losses and close wins again there's no I'm trying to find silver lining here I love to find the silver lining in things one goal games when it's two to one when you lose it means the other team was playing just as tight as you were and they just managed to get some puck luck yeah that's what it is I mean puck luck is real you know something bangs off the pipes and we love it when we hear a shot go off the pipes like ting we loves hearing that but sometimes you don't hear that ting like there was a shot then I can't remember who took it for the canes on Saturday that hit the pipe it hit it it rung the bell but it didn't ring the bell like you didn't hear the big clang it may have been deflected or something like that maybe off pads off the Islanders goalie Sorokin but we didn't get to hear the ting and we're not hearing enough of the ting from the hurricanes like you know when you are getting the puck luck you hear more the pings and you see that aggression deep in your own deep in your own zone like you're just firing and you can see when the the hornets are buzzing so to speak like if you can imagine just just going in a circle around the net and just keep just going in this circle and orbit the net with your your top line or maybe your second line and they're just firing away fire away and the pucks just keep bouncing back to them and they clear for another shot and get another shot that's what other teams are doing right now to the carolina hurricanes the hurricanes aren't seeing that kind of puck luck they aren't able to generate that kind of energy or they haven't been able to and yeah it didn't help like we know the hurricanes at home normally the crowd is all about the hurricanes but when the Islanders are in town when the Black Hawks are floating around when you get some of the some of the Canadian teams Rangers Bruins yeah you can list off these teams those fans invade the building and it's almost a shame because when you want to feed off a home crowd you're almost waiting till the postseason and it's you don't want to have that expectation of every year yep we're just going to get to the postseason we're going to start caring about them we'll we'll start lining up again get out there in front get out in front of things I bet you a ton of people over the holidays got a bunch of gifts whether they were white elephant gifts or whether they were intentional gifts they got some new hurricane stuff got a new car flag got a new alternative hat grabbed a new hoodie I know I got a sweatshirt for my son for him because I was like yeah let's do this let's get into this early let's make sure that we're there thick and thin because they're in ninth right now in the conference looking at ninth in the conference and it's fifth in the metro so we don't even have to color it differently it's the same spot outside looking in this below this is also another kind of totem point in the season game because I know we just felt like after the Vegas Golden Knights game the 6-3 win we were riding the high of the season and thinking this could be a motivational change and win for the remainder of the season and then you lose to the New York Islanders 5-4 game which a reminder they just played them less than a month prior to this while it's 5-4 again Sebastian Ira even said that it's disappointing because he felt like they had not played their best hockey that night now it feels like we're back to square one before the Vegas Golden Knights game that's Graham Hill producing I'm Paul Ihander in for Adam Gold today you know I had a conversation about that Golden Knights game with a colleague and I and the the lean was and their lean was oh this is the pillow just like you were saying this is a pivotal game it's going to turn the season around it's a big momentum game and I remind myself upsets happen all the time like teams get beat on a night-by-night basis it is a long season for them to continue that momentum meant certain things had to happen yeah you beat the best team in the league you beat the Golden Knights were they up for that game were you getting the puck luck I was just referring to yeah some of it was that the big turning point for this clearly it wasn't and I remember having I remember saying it to him I was like dude it's one game I'm like you can say it's a turning point and we all want it to be as fans of the team that is here in North Carolina we want them to be successful we do not root for their demise I don't want to root for their demise I'm not sure how many people want you want the good vibes you want the good community feeling that comes with a winner come win come lose yes when they lose yeah we even come closer because it gives us a gripe and complain about something but when they win it means just a little bit more and we all wanted it to be that turning point and it turned out not to be that point so we see this team struggling up and down left and right and you get those games where you want to feel good and you want to get you want to get the good vibes you want to be that way Rob Brindemore talked about and I hate flashing back to these kinds of things but he has one goalie right now like one real goalie let's all be honest the Jana Peretz was not going to play between that he's not he's not ready but he's there and I'm sure they could have put him in for a spot start but he's not going to be the guy they paid Piotr Kacekoff to be the guy they paid Aunty Ronta seven figures to be the guy right now he's not the guy and he still hasn't figured it out he went to Chicago still hasn't figured out and the AHL is a shooting gallery of shooting galleries still hasn't figured it out and if Freddy comes back he comes back but Rod was asked about after the loss to the Islanders and I'm saying this louder for all to hear not because of Christmas cheer but for all to hear the team lost five to four Piotr Kacekoff is the guy so what do you tell Kacekoff after a loss like that? Not much you know probably riding him a little too much and probably he could tell he would you know he wasn't as good as obviously he's been that was probably the difference right? He wasn't as good as he could have been I'm not sure that all rides on him anymore you've got paid for defense you have Brent Burns and Jacob Slavin and Brady Shea and Brett Pesci I can list the entire defense this is my job I'll tell you who all is on defense they let him down they let him down they weren't out there on every play doing everything they needed to do is it unfair that they took a loss sorry it's a loss it's sports did we play as good as we possibly could have you put in four biscuits but the other team did five it's the simplicity of sports the team that scores the most wins those are sports this is what happens Carolina Hurricanes fans you're gonna have to suck this one up for a bit because I'm not sure there's a quick fix and it's we could speculate all we want about what needs to be done if if Don Waddell needs to make some trades if the goalies need to go get their eyes checked a la Charlie Sheen in major league or whatever happens the team's got a game tomorrow night on the road I'm not sure they're gonna be able to turn around Nashville game a 6-5 game about a week and a half ago but keep feeding those good vibes cash prizes every day adds up when you play at pulse casino faults.com over 700 casino style games and counting and no terrible lounge singer promise hey that's pretty mean there's always a new reason to play cash prices every day of the week p-u-l-s-z.com Pulse in your pocket you can play anywhere p-u-l-s-z.com