Thanks to the surprise, yet expected, free preview of NHL Center Ice, I’ve caught two Hurricanes games. And while the game I’m two-thirds of the way through watching at 2:25 am certainly isn’t “live”, it’s live to me. After two, Carolina’s up 1-0 on Pittsburgh.

While watching Thursday’s OT win over Toronto, I got a few flashes of why Erik Cole is probably my favorite Hurricanes player (If you can still have a “favorite player” when you’re pushing 34 years old…). Tonight, I got a bigger dose.

Flashback to March ’06, when, to put it lightly, Pittsburgh’s Brooks Orpik checked Cole illegally. (Oh dear, is the end of that post slightly NSFW…) So tonight, in damn near the same spot where Orpik broke Cole’s neck and ended his ’06 season (or would have, had the Canes won the Cup in 5 games…instead of Cole and his ironclad testicles coming back for Games 6 & 7 to lift the Cup), Cole threw down with Orpik. It wasn’t much of a fight, really, more of a wrestling match with some swings thrown, but it was teriffic.

Also, is it wrong that each time the announcer calls Peter Sykora’s name, I start humming “The Next Time I Fall…In Love” by Peter Cetera? Or that I know that Peter Cetera sang “The Next Time I Fall…In Love”

-No sooner than I sent that post, and Pittsburgh scores. Ugh. 1-1.

-I know he probably has to carry a bit more of a load while Sidney Crosby nurses that yeast infection or whatever, but I swear that Evgeni Malkin plays about 19:30 of each period.

-Aaaaand… 2-1. I’ve got a feeling that a number of good chances that weren’t finished are gonna hurt Carolina in this one. I hope not, or else this “liveblog” will run into not much more than a chance for my douchebag brother to leave an ignorant comment or four. The irony is, the goal came on a powerplay after a Bret Hedican penalty that happened while I was reading this post.

-Shit. 3-1. I bet Malkin dots the “i” at the end of his first name with a heart.

-Christ on a crutch, another PP goal. I should have gone to bed after the 1-0 first. Or listened to the jackass at work that pretended he wasn’t leaking a score to me. And what was with the pause between foghorn blasts? Did the retard in the booth have to read the manual on how to press a button?

-It’s 3 a.m. and I’m hate-filled.

-Apparently there’s a respect thing among NHL-type folk, but how in the hell did it take the Hurricanes announcers 54 game minutes to talk about Pens goalie Ty Conklin (whom they had been praising the pants off of through two periods) and how he was the Edmonton goalie that coughed up the puck in Game 1 of the ’06 Final, giving Carolina a comeback win? Warm and fuzzy my ass, laugh at him already!

-These announcers, color man Tripp Tracy especially, are too damn friendly. Granted, Pittsburgh isn’t a rival, and in the grand scheme of things, a “meh” team, but all the mushy feelings about the opponent are pretty much unlistenable.

-The good news, at least, is the Canes are on TV again Tuesday, even if the free Center Ice is over. One minute left.