Carolina Hurricanes 2007-2008 Season Wrap-Up 1: Awards

Here are the awards for the Carolina Hurricanes for the 2007-2008 season.

• Most Unsung Guy: The candidates are Trevor Letowski, Chad LaRose, and Tim Conboy. LaRose was one of those grit players who seemed to be acquiring a scoring touch when he went down with a devastating injury about halfway through the season. Conboy was a mid-season call-up who played the tough guy role and added a couple assists along the way. But the winner is the guy who stepped into the No. 2 center role when Rod Brind’Amour and Matt Cullen were down simultanteously and played stellarly and great on the penalty kill. Winner: Trevor Letowski
• Glen Wesley Trophy (Best Defenseman): The candidates are Glen Wesley (haha), Bret Hedican, and Tim Gleason. Glen Wesley, in possibly his last season, was a solid option on the back end all year. Bret Hedican, also in possibly his last season, as often out against the other team’s top line and was +17. But the winner is a guy who often joined Hedican, fought, put points on the board, and made the defense more respectable in his second season with the Hurricanes. Winner: Tim Gleason
• Other Trophy (Most impact as a non-player): The candidates are Tom Barasso (Goalie coach), Pete Friesen (Head trainer), and Ron Francis (Asst. GM). Ron Francis was instrumental in welcoming guys to the ‘Canes, like meeting them at the airport. Tom Barasso helped Cam Ward improve greatly this year. But the winner had to deal with multiple injuries and helped a couple guys get back before expected. Winner: Pete Friesen
• Tom Rowe Trophy (Best Callup): The candidates for the award named after the head coach of the ‘Canes AHL affiliate in Albany, NY, are Keith Aucoin, Ryan Bayda and Wade Brookbank. Brookbank made an immediate impact as an enforcer. Keith Aucoin centered a good energy line including Scott Walker and our winner, who had the most points and a lot of energy and crashed the net a lot more than I expected. Winner: Ryan Bayda
• Doug Weight Trophy (Best Acquistion, pre- or mid-season): The candidates for the award are Sergei Samsonov, Jeff Hamilton, and Joe Corvo. Jeff Hamilton, before his send-down to Albany, helped the power-play in the beginning of the season. Joe Corvo gave us a puck-moving defenseman and a hat trick one game. But the winner scored goals and formed chemistry with a couple guys that made an impact on the scoreboard. Winner: Sergei Samsonov
• Jeff O’Neill Trophy (Best Forward): The candidates for the award are Eric Staal, Scott Walker, and Erik Cole. First off, honorable mention goes to Rod Brind’Amour, who didn’t play enough games to get consideration. Erik Cole played well, with another 50-point season. Eric Staal clearly had a good season, the leading scorer on the ‘Canes. But the winner brought grit and 32 points in 58 games. Winner: Scott Walker
• Ron Francis Trophy (MVP): The candidates are Eric Staal, Cam Ward, and Ray Whitney. Cam Ward played solid goal in the early months, but was found letting in soft goals when it counted the most. Ray Whitney, if he was healthy all season, would have made a big impact (61 points in 66 points). But the winner grew more as the season went on and led the team in scoring. With 82 points in 82 games, the winner is Eric Staal.

Carolina Hurricanes End of Season Awards

At the end of the season, I will give out the following awards: MVP, Best Acquisition, Best Forward, Best Defenseman, and Best Other. There may be some more that I haven’t thought of, but if you have any suggestions for awards or nominees for these awards, let me know in the comments section.I’m also adding the Most Unsung Guy, Best Call-Up, and maybe another. 

Joe Corvo: The Steal of the Trade Deadline

Hey everybody!I know that I haven’t written in a while, but I’d like to take the time to tell you why the Hurricanes made the trade of the deadline period when they acquired Joe Corvo along with Patrick Eaves from the Ottawa Senators for Mike Commodore and Cory Stillman. As of March 28, 2008, Joe Corvo has 43 points this season. Through 51 games, he had 27 points with the Senators. Through 18 games in Carolina, he has 16 points. Hmm…. Mike Commodore, after leading the Hurricanes in defense scoring last year, is struggling in Ottawa. Corvo was underappreciated in Ottawa. Players such as Wade Redden, Christoph Schubert, and Andrei Meszaros made Corvo expendable. His 27 points with Ottawa in those 51 games was more than all but 10 of the Hurricanes (of which he is one) at this point in the season. The closest at this point is Jeff Hamilton, with 22 through 55 games (remember Hamilton was sent down earlier this season).Corvo provides something more than just points overall. He makes the power play much better. Carolina’s power play is currently 10th in the NHL with 18.3%. Since the trade, in 97 chances, the Hurricanes converted on 20.6% of their chances, including 6 straight games from Feb.28 to Mar.12 when the ‘Canes scored at least 1 power play goal and one game where they scored 4 out of 7.The Hurricanes have definitely benefitted from the play of Corvo. In those 51 games in Ottawa, he was +13, while most likely playing 2nd or 3rd pair. Now, in a more open role in Carolina, he’s +7 in 18 games. He “leads” the Hurricanes with +20, if you can call it that. Based on his time with the Hurricanes, he’s tied with Dennis Seidenberg at +7. Dennis has played only 44 games and acheived that. Joe did that in 18.Well, I know that there have been better players who have done well. Brian Campbell is averaging almost a point a game in San Jose since the trade. Much has been made about Brad Richards and Marian Hossa’s success in Dallas and Pittsburgh, respectively. But it is hard to see that any one player has made an impact on a team like number 77, Joe Corvo.Oh, by the way, he was only the third Whaler/Hurricane defenseman to score a hat trick in a game. This happened March 16. And he was the subject of the Forslund Focus, a segment in the in-game presentation at the RBC Center where TV play-by-play guy John Forslund highlights players making a difference on the team.I’m surprised we don’t have him in the shootout yet. Just look at his hat-trick sealing goal on the 16th against former ‘Cane Martin Gerber. Great move.

Update on My DEAD ON ARRIVAL Bracket

Going into Sunday’s games, I feel pretty confident. I currently have 320 points in ESPN points. I only have 2 Sweet 16 picks wrong so far: USC and Duke. Duke is also one of my Final Four teams, so my bracket’s already dead. BTW, my brother picked Siena. He said he analyzed their strengths and weaknesses based on what ESPN said and he picked Siena. Too bad I didn’t and chose American over Tennessee. Stanford almost killed me last night. That almost completely destroyed my bracket. I have all the top seeds winning today: Memphis, Carolina, Texas, G-town, Louisville. If Butler pulls off the upset and beats Tennessee then my pick of American isn’t too killer. About my first round losses, I feel pretty good about myself. No one saw the Tampa Torrent coming, so I’m just like everyone else. My upset picks (American over Tennessee, G. Mason over Notre Dame, and Oral Roberts over Pitt) were all not well-founded. The Indiana-Arkansas was, well, i don’t know. St. Mary’s over Miami didn’t happen like I thought. Miami was looking shaky to me after a 5th place finish in the ACC tourney (they got in over Virginia Tech, which I thought was robbery).

My Bracket Is DEAD ON ARRIVAL

You know NCAA Brackets? You try to pick upsets but they don’t happen. Well, that happened to me. I had American over Tennessee. I figured, “Hey, Tenn just got beat by Georgia in the BE tourney. They could be vulnerable.” Hmm… . I picked the “experienced” George Mason over Notre Dame. Hmm… . I guess it’s my UNC fandom thing. OR a reverse. IDK. I got hit by the string of upsets like everyone else, but Duke’s to West Virginia today and Drake’s last second loss to Western Kentucky on Friday killed me. I had them in that region’s championship game! Gosh. 1 of my Final Four is already out, Duke. At least my two championship game teams are in: Carolina and…. (you’ll never have guessed it) Stanford. I figured the Lopez’s will do better there than in Atlanta (i.e. Javy Lopez got sent to the Braves’ minor league camp today).

Classy Move by Yanks

I have never really been a huge fan of the New York Yankees. I never truly hated them. I’m more a Red Sox fan than a Yankees fan. (In truth, my team is the Los Angeles Angels). But I have been changed by an exhibition game that took place on March 18th, 2008. It was a blowout, 11-0. But the Virginia Tech Hokies couldn’t have been more happy to see the pinstripes than on the 18th. The New York Yankees took on Virginia Tech in an exhibition game on Tuesday. It was something that made me think a little different about George “The Boss” Steinbrenner (I think that’s how you spell it). Before the game, the Yankees visited the memorial of the victims of that attack on April 18th. Just 11 months after the shooting, Derek Jeter said, “People always ask, ‘Well, what can you do? How does this help?’ I really don’t know. If it just makes people smile or enjoy themselves for the three hours that we’re here, it’s all worthwhile.”

 So, let’s all look at the Yankees with a good heart for a little bit. VT head coach Peter Hughes said, “It’s going to be hard to root against the Yankees ever again.” Here here Mr. Hughes, here here.

State v UNC quick 2

I got it, I got it, oh, oh, I almost got it. 84-70 UNC. 7 points off the UNC score. That’s it.

Corvo and Eaves are the newest Hurricanes

Patrick Eaves and Joe Corvo were traded to the Carolina Hurricanes today for Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore. I’m going to line up Eaves and Stillman (forwards) and Corvo and Commodore (defensemen) in my next two blogs.

Morgenstern scores 40

Ray Morgenstern seems like the typical high school senior. He dresses in collared shirt under black North Face, baggy jeans and flat-billed cap. But Ray Morgenstern has a skill that many high-school seniors don’t. He can score 40 points in a basketball game. On Thursday night against the Oak Ridge Military Academy Cadets, Ray Morgenstern did just that. He shot 15-21 (71%) from the field and missed 1 out of 8 free throws. It took a last second 3 to get the 40, but he got it. O’Neal won the game 65-43, but the story was Morgenstern. He scored 16 points in the 1st half and 24 in the second, leading a comeback from being 7 points down after 2 quarters. Look for Ray to be a D-1 player when he graduates. I’ve already had people come up and ask me about him. 

I C-A-L-L-E-D IT

I called it right here on this blog. One of the few and of the brave, I said that the New York Football Giants (see Chris Berman) were going to win Super Bowl XLII. And I was right. Eli showed that he could possibly be better than his brother (hard to tell now). Eli took over the game for the Giants and showed what he was made of. 19-34, 225 yards, 2 4th quarter TDs. Talk about playing well when it counts. He outplayed Tom Brady, who, despite completing 29 out of 48 passes for 266 yards, looked shaky. One of my classmates said he had been sacked 21 times during the regular season and 5 last night. The 5 stat is true and I don’t know if I believe the 21. But the Giants D allowed only 45 rushing yards on 16 carriesin a game dominated by passing (Btw, New York rushed for 91 on 26). So, just remember who said it, right here on ericnovak21.wordpress.com. Me.