Hurricanes are a disaster
In the words of that great musical icon of our age, Shaggy: Oh Carolina, prowl off, jump and prance.
I have no idea what that means, but it sounds a lot like what is happening in the NHL?s Eastern Conference finals. The Carolina Hurricanes are in danger of prowling off to the golf course at the behest of the Buffalo Sabres, who have jumped and pranced their way to a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. Game 4 goes Friday night at Buffalo?s HSBC Arena.
It would be far too easy to lump these two clubs into the same category. Both the ?Canes and Sabres missed the playoffs the past two seasons, only to bounce back with 52 wins apiece in the first year of the ?new NHL.? Both teams took a while to settle on their No. 1 goaltenders, but their choices have proven wise ? Buffalo?s Ryan Miller has a .917 save percentage, a shade ahead of Cam Ward?s .914 mark.
One look at the puckline suggests there is something fundamentally different about Carolina and Buffalo. Including the postseason, the ?Canes are 45-51 against the spread, while the Sabres are a moneymaking colossus at 59-37 ATS. The difference is even more dramatic when the moneyline is taken into account. Carolina is 2.3 units in the red, driven by their 5.6-unit deficit playing in what should be the friendly confines of the RBC Center. Buffalo, on the other hand, is raking in the dough hand over fist ? a full 24 units in total.
It should be noted that the Carolina Hurricanes roster changed significantly as the season wore on and it became clear the ?Canes were a legitimate playoff threat. The two most prominent trades saw center Doug Weight join the club at the end of January, followed by right winger Mark Recchi at the Mar. 9 trade deadline. Grabbing those two veterans in time for a playoff run would have been a coup in any other year. In 2006? Perhaps not. Weight has just one goal after 14 postseason games and is a team-worst minus-6. Recchi is somewhat better at three goals and minus-3.
Carolina is also desperately missing Erik Cole, who you may recall from the 2002 Stanley Cup finals as one-third of the ?BBC? line with Rod Brind?Amour (still playoff-ready with seven goals thus far) and the departed Bates Battaglia. Cole hasn?t played a game since suffering a compression fracture in his neck on Mar. 4. Carolina was 42-14-4 with him in the lineup, but after his injury finished the season at 10-8-4 and looked in serious trouble in the first round against the Montreal Canadiens before Ward took over the No. 1 goaltender reins.
Of more immediate concern to ?Canes supporters is the way the Sabres are slicing and dicing their way to the pay window. Both of Carolina?s playoff opponents, Montreal and the New Jersey Devils, were money-losing teams during the regular season, coughing up over 18 units between them. Buffalo?s first-round opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers, lost that much money all by themselves, but the Sabres? destruction of the Ottawa Senators ? winners of 16.4 units on the way to earning the top seed in the East ? was a textbook illustration of Buffalo?s supremacy in a league where speed now trumps size.
Nobody personifies the new Sabres more than Daniel Briere. At 5-foot-10 and 178 pounds, the zippy Briere leads the Sabres with seven goals and 10 assists after 14 games. In the year before the lockout, Briere had 28 goals in a full 82-game season; this year, the Gatineau, Quebec native had 25 goals in just 48 games after missing much of the season with a sports hernia.
Briere is healthy and in fine form, but Buffalo?s injury situation behind the blueline is now cause for concern. Henrik Tallinder is out for the rest of the postseason after breaking his left arm late in Game 3. Tallinder and defense partner Toni Lydman lead all playoff performers at plus-14; it?ll be up to Lydman to hold down the fort in Game 4, since both Teppo Numminen (hip flexor, day-to-day) and Dmitri Kalinin (ankle) are on the mend. The Sabres have managed to overcome injuries all season, which points to both their depth of talent and the coaching savvy of Lindy Ruff. He?s contemplating shifting Jason Pominville, another swift Quebecois skater, from right wing to defense to fill the void. Pominville already mans the point on the power play, a role common to blueliners.
Buffalo is listed at ?1?, +200 on the puckline for Friday night. The total is six, with the UNDER priced at ?115.
----Perry
BetWWTS
In the words of that great musical icon of our age, Shaggy: Oh Carolina, prowl off, jump and prance.
I have no idea what that means, but it sounds a lot like what is happening in the NHL?s Eastern Conference finals. The Carolina Hurricanes are in danger of prowling off to the golf course at the behest of the Buffalo Sabres, who have jumped and pranced their way to a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. Game 4 goes Friday night at Buffalo?s HSBC Arena.
It would be far too easy to lump these two clubs into the same category. Both the ?Canes and Sabres missed the playoffs the past two seasons, only to bounce back with 52 wins apiece in the first year of the ?new NHL.? Both teams took a while to settle on their No. 1 goaltenders, but their choices have proven wise ? Buffalo?s Ryan Miller has a .917 save percentage, a shade ahead of Cam Ward?s .914 mark.
One look at the puckline suggests there is something fundamentally different about Carolina and Buffalo. Including the postseason, the ?Canes are 45-51 against the spread, while the Sabres are a moneymaking colossus at 59-37 ATS. The difference is even more dramatic when the moneyline is taken into account. Carolina is 2.3 units in the red, driven by their 5.6-unit deficit playing in what should be the friendly confines of the RBC Center. Buffalo, on the other hand, is raking in the dough hand over fist ? a full 24 units in total.
It should be noted that the Carolina Hurricanes roster changed significantly as the season wore on and it became clear the ?Canes were a legitimate playoff threat. The two most prominent trades saw center Doug Weight join the club at the end of January, followed by right winger Mark Recchi at the Mar. 9 trade deadline. Grabbing those two veterans in time for a playoff run would have been a coup in any other year. In 2006? Perhaps not. Weight has just one goal after 14 postseason games and is a team-worst minus-6. Recchi is somewhat better at three goals and minus-3.
Carolina is also desperately missing Erik Cole, who you may recall from the 2002 Stanley Cup finals as one-third of the ?BBC? line with Rod Brind?Amour (still playoff-ready with seven goals thus far) and the departed Bates Battaglia. Cole hasn?t played a game since suffering a compression fracture in his neck on Mar. 4. Carolina was 42-14-4 with him in the lineup, but after his injury finished the season at 10-8-4 and looked in serious trouble in the first round against the Montreal Canadiens before Ward took over the No. 1 goaltender reins.
Of more immediate concern to ?Canes supporters is the way the Sabres are slicing and dicing their way to the pay window. Both of Carolina?s playoff opponents, Montreal and the New Jersey Devils, were money-losing teams during the regular season, coughing up over 18 units between them. Buffalo?s first-round opponent, the Philadelphia Flyers, lost that much money all by themselves, but the Sabres? destruction of the Ottawa Senators ? winners of 16.4 units on the way to earning the top seed in the East ? was a textbook illustration of Buffalo?s supremacy in a league where speed now trumps size.
Nobody personifies the new Sabres more than Daniel Briere. At 5-foot-10 and 178 pounds, the zippy Briere leads the Sabres with seven goals and 10 assists after 14 games. In the year before the lockout, Briere had 28 goals in a full 82-game season; this year, the Gatineau, Quebec native had 25 goals in just 48 games after missing much of the season with a sports hernia.
Briere is healthy and in fine form, but Buffalo?s injury situation behind the blueline is now cause for concern. Henrik Tallinder is out for the rest of the postseason after breaking his left arm late in Game 3. Tallinder and defense partner Toni Lydman lead all playoff performers at plus-14; it?ll be up to Lydman to hold down the fort in Game 4, since both Teppo Numminen (hip flexor, day-to-day) and Dmitri Kalinin (ankle) are on the mend. The Sabres have managed to overcome injuries all season, which points to both their depth of talent and the coaching savvy of Lindy Ruff. He?s contemplating shifting Jason Pominville, another swift Quebecois skater, from right wing to defense to fill the void. Pominville already mans the point on the power play, a role common to blueliners.
Buffalo is listed at ?1?, +200 on the puckline for Friday night. The total is six, with the UNDER priced at ?115.
----Perry
BetWWTS
