With the early season movements of Tomas Kaberle and Alexei Ponikarovsky and the Hurricanes placing Anthony Stewart on waivers Monday, all signs point to the Hurricanes making noise at the trade deadline at the end of February. Jim Rutherford has already set the bar high on the price tag for forward Tuomo Ruutu and plenty of teams are biting at the offers. Here is some early expectations...

It hasn’t been since 2006 when the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup that the Hurricanes have won the Southeast Division. In arguably one of the easiest divisions in hockey in the past five seasons the Hurricanes have completely struggled. There have been a few seasons where the Hurricanes will muster out hope in the last two months of the season but there have been numerous in...

from Joe Haggerty of CSNNE, The question was never whether Thomas HAD the right to skip the White House visit, but SHOULD he simply have stifled his personal interests for the betterment of a team celebrating their win one last time. Many will applaud the B’s goaltender for damning the torpedoes and simply doing what he felt was right in his world view. That is the kind of...

Within the past calendar year, Tomas Kaberle has played for four teams and six coaches. After leaving Toronto, he was generally pretty ineffective in Boston, failing to ignite their powerplay. But he still managed to help the Bruins win a Stanley Cup (however non-consequential his contribution may have been). This season he continued his disappointing play in Carolina before finding...

By: Aadil Nanji The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Ron Wilson to a one-year contract extension on Christmas Day. This move was predicated on the teams improved performance, leaving them in playoff contention almost halfway through the season. The underlying question is whether Wilson is deserved of this extension and if Leafs improved performance is based on Wilson’s coaching. During...

One of the inevitable results of a season like this one unless things turn abruptly and greatly in a hurry is a shakeup in the lineup. You get 2 varieties of this. First is doing deals trying to change the personnel, chemistry, coaching, whatever else trying to build a better team. Enter Kirk Muller and subtract Tomas Kaberle. The second is doing deals to collect futures for...

The Jets visit Montreal for the first time in their new form tonight. While most of the mainstream media is indicating that the Habs are entering a make-or-break stretch, I’m more than comfortable with declaring that the season has been broken. Its over. Its time for Montreal to make some smart management decisions for once in 20 years. Montreal trails 8th place New Jersey...

The Montreal Canadiens played, and lost to, the Tampa Bay Lightning last night. It was yet another game where Montreal let a third period lead slip away, a disturbing trend that is the prime suspect in the Canadiens woes this season. I remember when the Habs made the trade for Tomas Kaberle, that I was embroiled in an argument on Twitter about how the Canadiens were just not a...

The Montreal Canadiens played, and lost to, the Tampa Bay Lightning last night. It was yet another game where Montreal let a third period lead slip away, a disturbing trend that is the prime suspect in the Canadiens woes this season. I remember when the Habs made the trade for Tomas Kaberle, that I was embroiled in an argument on Twitter about how the Canadiens were just not a...

Montreal Canadiens interim head coach Randy Cunneyworth is at the center of controvery surrounding the plunge the Habs have taken, with the Canadiens' losing streak now reaching five games. Many in Habs Nation point the finger at Cunneyworth for his inability to speak French as the root of the problem, but Jack Edwards does not agree. French or English, it doesn't matter...

Ok, that may be overstating it, but it’s 3-0 after two. PK Subban is a healthy scratch. Mike Cammalleri is taking shifts with the fourth line. Randy Cunneyworth looks lost, coaching a team that has given up 16 goals over 11 periods. Magic solution Tomas Kaberle is, er, not a magic solution. When was the last time the Canadiens were in this much of a state of flux? How did...

Many have lamented the lost art of the NHL trade in the salary cap era, but 2011 was a sign that wheeling and/or dealing remain valuable ways to build a hockey team, either long or short-term, as well as a prime source of entertainment. It was a year that saw Tomas Kaberle get traded twice, once for a hefty return, and once for Jaroslav Spacek. A year that saw Dustin Penner get...

I want to begin my position with ProSportsBlogging.com by touching upon a few topics with the Hurricanes that leads us to this point in the season. Justin Faulk to WJC?           Jim Rutherford has stated today that Faulk is staying on with the Hurricanes and not going to WJC.  Rutherford stated “We believe it is in the best interest of our organization and his development...

After sending the overpaid underacheiverto Ottawa, the Coyotes understood whatit felt like to be a Canadian voterThe Phoenix Coyotes finally made the long-awaited Kyle Turris trade over the weekend, dealing the disgruntled center to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for young defenceman David Rundblad and a draft pick. The trade was a rare early-season blockbuster in a league where...

Tomas Kaberle returned to the Garden last night for the second time this season, with his third team in seven months. Kaberle,...

Let's get this straight, Montreal: you're OK with taking on Tomas Kaberle's huge contract, but not OK with an English-speaking head coach? NESN Nation's Dan Duquette is a little confused by the priorities the Habs seem to be focusing on as they travel to Boston. Then again, if the B's can teach new Habs coach Randy Cunneyworth how to apologize for losing to the...

BOSTON -- Tomas Kaberle may have finally found a home. The veteran puck-moving defenseman has been doing more moving away from the rink in the past year. After being traded from Toronto to Boston last February and winning a Cup with the Bruins, Kaberle cashed in this summer as a free agent with a three-year, $12.75-million deal in Carolina. It was a deal that raised plenty of eyebrows...

Canadiens general manager Pierre "The Ghost" Gauthier proved his desperation when he fired respected assistant coach Perry Pearn. That sent a message to head coach Jacques Martin that he would be next. Montreal kept lumbering along at a .500 pace, so Gauthier fired Martin, too. He installed English-speaking Randy Cunneyworth as the next coach -- put him in an almost impossible situation...

If you grab a microscope and use the 100x zoom, you'll be able to see the Canadiens sitting in the basement of the Northeast division. That joke works in two different ways as they suck and they're short! But inall seriousness, the Canadiens have some major issues this season. On Saturday the organization fired Jaques Martin and gave assistant coach Randy Cunneyworth a shot...

Well, Christmas seems to have come early for many Habs fans as we woke up to the news that Jacques Martin had been canned by General Manager Pierre Gauthier. For now, Randy Cunnyworth has been promoted to Head Coach, although I’m sure a search is already underway to find Martin’s successor. The move comes in advance of a rather important hockey game for the Canadiens...

Last week's trade of defenseman Tomas Kaberle was the first sign that salary issues are going to matter as the Hurricanes go through what appears to be a dead-end season. That means more deals are bound to be in the works. General manager Jim Rutherford made it clear that dumping salary was the main reason that Kaberle needed to go. The Hurricanes picked up a fill-in with defenseman...

The Carolina Hurricanes were hit hard with injuries the past week as it was announced last night that both Joni Pitkanen and Jeff Skinner will be out indefinitely after sustaining concussions. I don't even need to tell you how critical of a loss Jeff Skinner is, so I'll save the statistical mumbo jumbo for him. However, I do want to touch on how the injury to Joni Pitkanen...

There was a surprising trade in the NHL on Dec. 9 when the Carolina Hurricanes sent defenseman Tomas Kaberle over to the Montreal Canadiens in return for fellow Czech Republic defenseman Jaroslav Spacek. The deal came as a bit of a shock to many fans and Kaberle himself since he was signed by Carolina as a free agent just a few months ago. Kaberle was in the first year of a three...

The Canadiens won their second in a row, blowing a 3-1 lead but eventually beating the Islanders 5-3. Isles’ goaltender Al Montoya wasn’t particularly sharp on this night, and the difference for the Canadiens was largely the fourth line, but a wins a win and Montreal will take it. Quick highlights: Tomas Kaberle notched an assist, he now has three in two games as a Hab...

Since I lost found time to blog, the Canes got back to their losing ways on Saturday and more significantly, they shed a big salary that just was not working in Tomas Kaberle. On the Kaberle thing...Here is a painful blast from the past for you - Sandis Ozolinsh. High-end puck-moving defensemen have been few and far between for the Canes. Most would put Joni Pitkanen in this...