RedStorm

Bad reporting and headline, Peel was not “fired”... The NHL said he will not be calling anymore games. He remains on payroll, will retire on time, and keeps his pension.

Agree...I have nightmares that I’ll flip on NHL Network and see something crazy like “Breaking News: The Carolina Hurricanes trade Sebastian Aho and a second round pick to Buffalo for Eric Staal...”

It was interesting being at the Cane’s (first fan attending) Home Opener. Some random notes and observations from the arena experience (instead of the on-ice game itself) for those not there: Wearing a mask the whole game was harder than i thought it would be, enjoyed being back for live hockey, but not sure I’d want to attend again until masks are no longer required. Concourse was set-up for one way traffic, though several ignored the signage. Food options were very limited, three vendors on first floor and one on the third. All offering the same limited options. The pumped in crowd noise was not very noticeable from my upper level seats, but understand it was louder and somewhat distracting down low. The Eye, mini Eye, and Market shops all had signage limiting the number of patrons and 6 foot spaced queuing lines at the doors. Parking was open, no one checked that you had tickets entering the lot and you could park in the normally reserved STM lot if you wished (which we did) Some fans missed the email that they needed to do a Covid check-in pre-game. Showing your certification was required in the ticket line, some delays and confusion from fans that didn’t do that ahead of time. Arena announcer was funny at the first intermission saying excitedly, “And coming up for your intermission entertainment—ice resurfacing!” Relatedly, there were no fan promotions, no extra in arena cameras, etc. The feed on the video board was basically the TV broadcast. All-in-all, pretty bare bones. Fans did their best to make it a real game, cheering, booing, taunting the refs, the random wooing, chanting ‘Let’s Go Canes’ with the guy blowing the horn—which someone in my section amusingly yelled “hey, blow that Covid spreader again! Let’s Go Canes!” There were PNC Arena ‘mask police’ monitoring the seating and I noticed them admonishing some fans for non-compliance but no major issues, fans generally complied with the rules. An interesting benefit of the limited attendance was lack of other team’s fans. Normally for a Red Wings game, you might expect up to 10% or more of the fans to be there for the Wheel. I think the number at this game was only about 1%. I only noticed two Wings fans across the three or four sections near me. Be interested to hear from any other fans that were there and what they thought. Go Canes!

Ned had a .913 save percentage in the third period...and gave up 2 goals! That does not compute, lol. Great effort by Ned to keep things close with Florida dominating the period, don’t know how he wasn’t first star of the game?!

Canes played a much better game than the last two lackluster efforts, but it didn’t change the outcome. Pity. Curtis Mc was solid.

First game I didn’t get to watch all year. I guess this loss is on me? Give me all the poop emojis you want...apparently I, and the team, deserve them after this stinker!

Canes 2, Post 2, and Blackhawks 1...

I didn’t notice it live, but to Ned’s credit, when I saw the replay, he did poke check the puck...unfortunately it bounced right back on Huberdeau’s stick...

Those aren’t your grandmother’s Florida Panthers, what a good looking team game they have.

Zinger had a pretty solid start to the season, interesting move.

Good stuff! Thanks for posting.

Good stuff!

You’re correct, they were speculating during the broadcast that it could have been a disciplinary sitting. It wasn’t known until after the game when Rod confirmed Turbo was nursing an injury was the reason for the bench-ride

FoeGoal

Svech!

Dallas hasn’t had a shot yet this period...keep it rollin’ boys!

Canes dropping like flies... bad hit

Trocheck PP goal

Another goal for #16

Thought Petr might have been cut by a blade the way he reacted, but it didn’t look like it on the replay. Hopefully just some sort of painful ‘stinger’ would be the best case scenario.

Nice, gutty win and big shutout!

Pretty good looking Canes power play...everything but a goal

Crazy number of games to cram into so few days and the season is just starting! Realistically, for the health of the players and competitiveness of the games, the NHL better be looking at adding a week or two or scaling games back. More COVID positives are bound to impact the same or different teams in the coming weeks...