Carolina Hurricanes ‘Around the Boards’ – Kris Versteeg, the Playoffs and John Scott

Carolina Hurricanes ‘Around the Boards’ brings you the hot Canes players of the week, roster questions, John Scott in Nashville and a meathead running over a linesman.

Welcome to the weekly round-up of Hurricanes and NHL news for the week of January 24th-30th. As usual, we will start with what our great staff writers and editors produced over the last seven days.

‘The Best of The Best from Cardiac Cane’

• Regardless of what the “Negative Nancys” in the press try to tell you, there’s no reason to worry yourselves about the Hurricanes attendance numbers this season. We explained why this week.
• It’s clear that Kris Versteeg wants to stay with the Carolina Hurricanes and is really enjoying his new teammates and the Triangle area.
• As the NHL and hockey world focuses on Nashville and the All Star weekend, the Canes face some tough roster decisions as the February 29th trade deadline gets closer and closer.
• We made the case (with statistics, history and trends) that Carolina will make the playoffs this season. Let us know if you agree.
• Of course, to make the playoffs, every team needs a hot goalie. We analyzed the Canes current situation between the pipes.
• In player moves, the Canes activated Cam Ward off IR, and sent DiGiuseppe to Charlotte for some ice time while the big team is taking an All Star break. They also sent goalie Daniel Altshuller back to the Checkers after he filled in as a backup in Ward’s absence.
• And finally, Cardiac Cane started a weekly news round-up called ‘Checkin’ in with the Checkers’. Considering that the Hurricanes AHL affiliate is responsible for grooming the next generation of players for Raleigh, we thought it would be good to bring you some news from Charlotte.

‘Hurricanes Around the Boards’

• MyNHLTradeRumors.com released it’s power rankings from Week 16 of the season, and the Carolina Hurricanes moved up from 23rd to 20th on the list. Their list is a compilation of nine power rankings from the top NHL news sources.
• Mark Shiver of The Hockey Writers put out a good piece about Eric Staal’s past struggles, and his current situation leading up to the trade deadline.
• As we wrote about the need for the Hurricanes to find their #1 goalie for the playoff stretch run, the NHL.com Fantasy team highlighted Eddie Lack’s recent play and his push for that top spot in the crease.
• Matt Karash of Canes and Coffee took a look at the financial situation that the Hurricanes could be in this summer.

NHL stories you may have missed

• If you haven’t read it yet, you need to check out John Scott’s open letter about his experience with the All Star Game controversy and how the NHL handled it. If you watch the All Star game, you will be cheering for Scott’s team after you read it.
• AND it appears from the USA Today coverage of John Scott at the All Star festivities this weekend, ALL the others players are also cheering him on. You have to read some of their quotes.
• We have been following former-Cane Andrew Ladd’s contract negotiations with the Winnipeg Jets. It had been reported that talks had broken off. Ladd clarified the situation this week.
• Some high profile NHL All Stars backed out of playing in the All Star game due to ‘injuries and illness’.  Alexander Ovechkin andJonathan Toews will sit out their first games after the break because of their absences. Oh, and Jaromir Jagr said he was honored to be voted in, but would rather skip the game this time. We wonder of Commissioner Bettman could use some ideas on how to improve the All Star Game so players will want to come next year.

‘NHL Odds and Ends’

• If you haven’t seen the video yet, check out this Si.com clip.  Wideman has been suspended indefinitely (very well-deserved) and will have a disciplinary hearing on Monday. My opinion…it was intentional and he should be gone for the rest of the season, if not longer.

Go Canes!