CANES NEW TANDEM SET FOR PLAYOFF PUSH
Carolina
The Hurricanes made a deal on Friday and the notables were super star forward Henrik Zetterberg and 23 year old phenom Kari Lehtonen. What a lot of people missed was an acquisition of veteran netminder Patrick Lalime.
Lalime was pushed on the Canes by the Coyotes, mainly to get Lehtonen in their lineup, losing the salary and the older of the duo. Lalime, however, comes to the Canes as a probable starter on several teams and has put up some steady numbers this season already, actually comparable to the Canes current number 1 Manny Legace.
“A little healthy competition between goalies never hurt,” said head coach Joel Quenneville. “Manny came here from Washington after having no competition for the starting job and came here only to see the starting spot also handed to him. Lalime is going to want the job. It is his nature and we will give him the opportunity to prove it.”
Legace, who has started since the acquisition, is apparently only holding it right now due to a fatigued Lalime, but the coaches in Carolina are not concerned.
“He is a competitive son of a gun. He wants in but we will give him his shot when we feel Legace needs a break, or loses. Until that happens, we won’t change much.”
The Canes felt the newly formed top line of Tim Connolly, Henrik Zetterberg and Dany Heatley had a lot of chances and just a couple misreads and in the end, may just need more adjustment time. The consensus on the trio is they are all capable of putting up better numbers and they will play through this current funk.
Since his return from suspension, Chris Pronger has been reunited with his old defense partner Phillipe Boucher. This has opened the door to having a speed duo in Jordan Leopold and Brad Stuart. The tandem looked good in their first game together.
Canes are home versus Toronto tonight.
The Hurricanes made a deal on Friday and the notables were super star forward Henrik Zetterberg and 23 year old phenom Kari Lehtonen. What a lot of people missed was an acquisition of veteran netminder Patrick Lalime.
Lalime was pushed on the Canes by the Coyotes, mainly to get Lehtonen in their lineup, losing the salary and the older of the duo. Lalime, however, comes to the Canes as a probable starter on several teams and has put up some steady numbers this season already, actually comparable to the Canes current number 1 Manny Legace.“A little healthy competition between goalies never hurt,” said head coach Joel Quenneville. “Manny came here from Washington after having no competition for the starting job and came here only to see the starting spot also handed to him. Lalime is going to want the job. It is his nature and we will give him the opportunity to prove it.”
Legace, who has started since the acquisition, is apparently only holding it right now due to a fatigued Lalime, but the coaches in Carolina are not concerned.
“He is a competitive son of a gun. He wants in but we will give him his shot when we feel Legace needs a break, or loses. Until that happens, we won’t change much.”
The Canes felt the newly formed top line of Tim Connolly, Henrik Zetterberg and Dany Heatley had a lot of chances and just a couple misreads and in the end, may just need more adjustment time. The consensus on the trio is they are all capable of putting up better numbers and they will play through this current funk.
Since his return from suspension, Chris Pronger has been reunited with his old defense partner Phillipe Boucher. This has opened the door to having a speed duo in Jordan Leopold and Brad Stuart. The tandem looked good in their first game together.
Canes are home versus Toronto tonight.
posted by Lohaus at 6:56 PM
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