The Luney Bin: H. Wade Minter

It’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. With Carolina up 3-2, they can close it out tonight.

Period 1

Carolina registered the first shot on goal. And that’s about all you can say about us. Aside from Cam Ward, this was one of the most uninspired, whipped periods of hockey I’ve seen out of the team. I don’t know if they’re flat, Buffalo is inspired, or both, but the play has been in our end for 3/4 of the period, with Buffalo teeing up shot after shot after shot on us. Ward let one in that just snuck inside the post, and has made a bunch of phenominal saves.

On offense, Carolina can’t get any sort of flow. We’re lucky if we make it past the blue line at all, and when we try to dump it in, Buffalo usually regains control quickly. Miller hasn’t been tested, aside from one moderately hard save that the announcers wet themselves over. It only looked good because he hasn’t had to make many.

It’s extremely lucky it’s only 1-0 at this point – with the way we’ve been playing, it’d be 4-0 with anyone besides Ward in goal for us. Laviolette better slap some players in the dressing room, or we’re looking at Game 7 in Raleigh on Thursday.

Period 2

A slightly better period for Carolina, if only by comparison. We still spent a large portion of the time trying to get the puck out of our own end, but did manage a few sustained offensive pushes. Justin Williams had a wide-open net in front of him at one point, but couldn’t bury it. That may come back to haunt us.

Cam Ward continues to amaze.

Carolina is taking too many stupid penalties – with Buffalo managing to keep the puck in our zone for most of the power play, that’s going to burn us soon.

Glen Wesley got his head bounced off the glass and didn’t play the rest of the period. Hopefully it’s not concussion.

So on paper it was a better effort for us in this period, but not where it counts (on the scoreboard). Buffalo is making us play deep in our own end, which is going to wear us out soon.

Period 3

Carolina continued to make incremental progress toward offense in this period. Buffalo appeared to start getting tired. Miller started getting tested more and more, and came up big. Finally, however, Bret Hedican sent a fairly innocent wrist shot high toward the net, and it scooted under the crossbar for a 1-1 tie with 4:00 left.

The last 4 minutes was pretty tight, but nobody could put it away.

Overtime

I told Mark that we’d be alright if we didn’t take any stupid penalties. What happens a couple minutes into overtime? Doug Weight runs his man from behind and gets put in the box. Right at the end of the power play, Buffalo crashes the net and gets a couple of good whacks at it, and ends up putting the puck in for the OT winner. Damn.

Conclusion

Carolina was the worse team in Game 5 and ended up winning. They played stronger tonight as the game wore on, but couldn’t solve the Buffalo D. Cam Ward played his skates off to keep us in the game, but we didn’t generate the chances we needed to win. That Justin Williams whiff in the 2nd looms large.

So Game 7 is in Raleigh on Thursday. It’s a tossup at this point. We’ll have to see which Canes team shows up.

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Since I’m still awake, I’ll post the sign of the night from Game 5.

There was an old guy in the crowd holding up a sign that got shown a couple of times – once during the warmups and once during the game, at least. The sign said:

Buffalo fan for 82 years.

Canes fan for 3 years.

With age comes wisdom.

Well played, sir.

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Holly and I took some time on Friday to head up to Rolesville and check out the new house and its progress. When we last saw it less than a week before, it looked like this:

Imagine our surprise when we pulled in on Friday to see this:

The roof was on with tarpaper (no shingles yet), the framing was done, there was concrete in the garage, and windows were in. We got to go in and walk around. It looked like all the major framing was finished in the house – doors and walls were framed out, steps were in, that sort of thing. Very good progress!

I’ll probably go by again at the end of this week to see what the next steps are (shingles? siding?). As always, you can keep up with the house progress on Flickr with the newhouse tag.

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I went to Canes/Sabres Game 5 tonight. Wow. It’s 1:30am and I’m still too wired from the game to sleep.

I left the house about an hour and fifteen before gametime for the 20-minute ride to the arena. I ended up parking in, I think, Greensboro. As I was making the long trek over to the arena, I thought back to an article I saw today saying “…and there shouldn’t be as many Buffalo fans at the game tonight,” and realizing that the author had no idea what he was talking about. I think there were more Sabres fans tonight than there were in Game 2. And they were . . . some would say “confident,” some would say “jackasses.” But they were certainly loud.

My tickets were in 315, but I went to my favorite section (328) to see if any seats opened up. As luck would have it, there were two right at the front that went unclaimed, so I got one and 328 regular Roger got the other. I was on the row with Jack, Fowler, and Flanagan, and nearby to several other fans I know by face if not by name.

The building seemed a little dead to start – whereas in game 2, Buffalo fans were immediately drowned out, it wasn’t really the case tonight. Martin Gerber got the start in net after his dominating performance in Game 4. However, we were shaky early. We had serious problems keeping control of the puck in our zone, as well as clearing it out when we needed to. Buffalo got one in the first, but we scored seconds later to tie it up. Buffalo beat Gerber again with a couple minutes left, and that’s where we ended the first. A close game, but our sloppy play was worrying me.

We started the second, and Gerber got beat again with under two minutes gone to make it 3-1, and that was his night. Cam Ward came in from the bench to take over and hopefully give the team a spark. Mark Recchi scored about three minutes later to make it a one-goal game, and Rod Brind’Amour followed halfway through the period to make it 3-3 halfway through regulation.

It would stay that way for a while. Thank God for Cam Ward, because he made some amazing saves. There were a couple that I just knew went in, but he somehow had found a way to make a stop. He even stoned a breakaway. We got very nervous when Bret Hedican (who did not play a good game) got put in the box with :40 left for hooking, but we held on until the end of regulation.

Over the intermission, I said “If we can kill off the rest of this penalty, we’ve got it.” Sure enough, we killed it off. Some chances went back and forth, until Buffalo got whistled for a penalty seven minutes in. We managed to control the play, went to their end, where a Matt Cullen shot bounced off the boards and in front of Ryan Miller. Ray Whitney took a shot but couldn’t bury the rebound, but it popped to Cory Stillman, who slid it beneath Miller and into the goal.

The place went nuts. Absolutely crazy. Watching the Sabres fans who’d come all the way from New York to talk smack and award themselves the Cup walking out of the arena with a dazed look on their faces made it even nicer. It was an unbelievable game to attend.

Now we’ve got two chances to win one. This is the first time a team has won back-to-back games in this series, but I know Buffalo is talented enough to win 6 and 7. The prospect of playing them in game 7 worries me, so I hope we can go up on Tuesday and play a better game than we did tonight and put the series away.

Now hopefully I can get some sleep tonight.

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I went to Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals last night. The tickets I bought were in section 312, but there was an open spot in 328, so I sat there instead. Buffalo had won Game 1 in a close match, so Carolina would have to come out strong to avoid going down 0-2 and heading up to New York.

Reports from Game 1 had about 2,000 loud Sabres fans in attendance. One thing about Hurricanes fans – they’re generally polite and non-confrontational, which often leads to chants for the visiting team ringing out in the arena. Not last night – as soon as Sabres fans started making any noise at all, they were immediately drowned out by Hurricanes chants. It was awesome – I hadn’t seen the building that hot in a long time.

Buffalo had edged out the first game by aggressive play, taking advantage of their opportunities, and stellar goaltending by Ryan Miller. Of those, only Miller showed up in Game 2. Carolina was by far the faster and more agressive team. Carolina took the early 1-0 lead, but Buffalo tied it at the end of the first. You thought that might help the Sabres, but Carolina came out and flat-out whipped them in the second period. Ray “The Wizard” Whitney scored two. After two, the fans in 328 started chanting “Miller Lite” (to the Buffalo fans who came into the building chanting “Miller Time”). In the 3rd, when Justin Williams scored on a puck that Miller mishandled, the crowd gave a good 3-4 minute mocking chant of “Miller! Miller!” It was awesome, though truth be told Miller’s play was the only thing that kept the game from being 7-1 at that point or something else absurd.

Buffalo came back late in the 3rd on a couple of goals with a two-man advantage, off of a couple of questionable calls. So don’t take away from the 4-3 final that it was a close game at all, because it wasn’t. Now, Buffalo is an extremely talented team and could come out tomorrow night and do the exact same thing to us. But for tonight at least, Carolina showed the type of play that could beat Buffalo.

Awesome game on many levels. I’ve got a ticket to Game 5 – maybe Carolina will win the next two and clinch at home. I doubt it – Buffalo is too good to lose four in a row, but it’d be nice.

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Our second hailstorm of the month hit tonight, from out of nowhere. I think we’ve had more hail this month than in our 5 years of living here previously. This time it wasn’t a lot of hail, but the stones were larger (around 1”)

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Permitting is done, and work is progressing on our new house in Rolesville. From mid-March until late April, the lot was empty.

In early May, Holly rode past the site and reported that there was a pile of bricks and cinderblocks on the site. I went by about a week later, on May 13, and was greeted by a completed foundation!

I went by a few days later to find a pile of 2×4s and plywood. I didn’t have the camera, so I went back by today to get a picture of the pile. Imagine my surprise to pull up and see this:

They’d nearly finished framing out the first floor! I talked to one of the workers, and he said that if they’d gotten a delivery of building materials this morning like they were expecting, they’d probably have finished the second floor! As it is, he said that if the material arrived today, they’d probably have the roof on by Wednesday. So I’ll have to go back by at the end of the week to take more pictures.

For those interested in following along at home, check out the “newhouse” tag on Flickr.

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It’s the conference finals, and Carolina’s still alive. Woot! Let’s take a quick look back at Round 2:

Round 2

East

#1 Ottawa vs. #4 Buffalo: Prediction: Ottawa in 7. Reality: Buffalo in 5. I shouldn’t have underestimated two thing: Buffalo’s fast, new-NHL, Carolina-like skills, and Ottawa’s ability to choke. The talented Senators couldn’t match up with Buffalo, and the plethora of one-goal games that went the Sabres way showed that the series went to the team (brace yourself, Mark) “that wanted it more.”

#2 Carolina vs. #3 New Jersey: Prediction: Carolina in 7. Reality: Carolina in 5. I figured New Jersey didn’t have the depth it would take to advance, but I underestimated just how handily Carolina would take them. New Jersey was on a huge winning streak and swept the Rangers, but their weaknesses were exposed and dealt with, in a more impressive fashion than I would have thought.

West

#4 San Jose vs. #8 Edmonton: Prediction: Sharks in 6. Reality: Oilers in 6. I keep betting against Edmonton, and they keep proving me wrong. Much like Carolina/Detroit in 2002, the team that won the 3OT thriller went on to win out the rest of the series. Dwayne Roloson is playing great for Edmonton, who got a legit goaltender to go with their hard-work lines. San Jose’s hot goalie faltered, and their high-powered scoring lines were shut down.

#6 Anaheim vs. #7 Colorado: Prediction: Anaheim in 6. Reality: Anaheim in 4. I’m still trying to figure Anaheim out – they’re obviously very talented, but I guess I don’t watch enough Western Conference hockey to know how they’re making the run they are. Sweeping a decent Colorado team (though a shell of their glory years) was surprising, and they’re also riding the hot goaltender train.

Round 3

And here we are at the conference finals. Three of the four teams have never won a Cup.

East

#2 Carolina vs. #4 Buffalo: An incredibly evenly-matched series. This should be great. Both teams have four lines of fast, exciting players. Both are riding rookie goalies who are turning in amazing performances. Both are well-coached. Both block a lot of shots. Both won a lot of one-goal games so far in the playoffs. Both had similar records in the regular season. Buffalo wins the “asshat fans on USENET” category. This is a really close one to call. I think it will come down to which team can get the goals when the opportunities arise, because I don’t see one team running away with the scoring chances on the other. I’m guessing on a tight series that goes the distance. Prediction: Carolina in 7.

West

#6 Anaheim vs. #8 Edmonton: Next on Fox – “When Low Seeds Attack!” You’ve got two gritty teams that are proving the experts wrong. Anaheim is on a tear after their sweep, and nobody seems to be able to solve their goalie. Edmonton isn’t backing down from anyone. I’m going to break my habit and go with Edmonton in this one, thinking that Roloson will win the goaltending battle. Prediction: Edmonton in 6.

I’ve got tickets to game 2 & 5 in Raleigh. Go Canes!

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I’d been using Bloglines for my online feed reading for quite a while. I have Macs at home (so I had bought NetNewsWire), but a Linux system at work, and there was no cross-platform feed reader that really suited me. So I went web-based, and at the time, Bloglines seemed like the best one.

However, Bloglines has been getting crappier and crappier as time has gone on. Eventually, I got frustrated to the point of doing something. I downloaded a new version of NetNewsWire on Holly’s laptop (she doesn’t care about reading feeds from more than one place, so a standalone app is fine for her), and saw that there was new sync stuff in NNW 2.1. Digging further, I found that since NNW was bought by NewsGator, they were offering sync to the NetNewsWire online feed reader.

I played with it and liked it well enough to make the switch. I can use NNW on my Macs at home, use the web-based one on the Linux box, and my subscriptions and read counters stay in sync between all of them.

Goodbye, Bloglines.

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Ran into a subtle problem tonight. A buddy had a website that was displaying fine in Safari and Firefox, but not in IE. A huge chunk of content from the page just wasn’t rendering.

I checked the Validator and, while it wasn’t valid, it wasn’t horrible. A couple of weird issues about unbalanced table tags. I did a view source, and all the data was there, it just wasn’t being displayed.

After digging for a while, I found that he had a comment in the page like:

<!— Comment here —!>

Now, the HTML spec says that a comment should be of the form <!— Comment —>. Safari and Firefox were Doing The Friendly Thing and assuming he meant to have the correct syntax, but IE said “I’m not doing to display anything until I hit a —>, and it didn’t (there was one near the bottom of the page).

Fixed the comment to the correct form (ie. “removed the last bang”), and it worked flawlessly.

Sheesh.

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