Cam Ward's return will come sooner rather than later.
Canes coach Paul Maurice said today that Ward would start in goal Monday in Atlanta against the Thrashers. Justin Peters has been reassigned to Albany (AHL).
Maurice had said Ward's first start since Feb. 3 would come in the middle of next week. But Ward has tested out his back, feels good and will be Manny Legace's backup Saturday against the Thrashers at the RBC Center.
Maurice said injured defenseman Alex Picard (upper body) still was "week to week" and not yet close to returning. That means more playing time for Bryan Rodney.
A Raleigh native, Chip has worked at the N&O since 1979 and is the Canes beat writer. He can be reached at 
Comments
i hate to
Fri, 03/26/2010 - 17:46 — esteban1949see that but the rats in a playoff stance needs all of it's best there 7 healthy if they stand any chance during a play off run...but what fried my butt was what the rats did to pistilli...give him a humanitarian award ...abd then the next mourning ship him off to florida...his stats were not all tha bad...but hey...I'm just a fan,what would i now about running a hockey team ?
The Canes are Good,My Grandkids are Better, and Life is Great !!
Go Canes !!
Dear Mr. Rutherford
Fri, 03/26/2010 - 13:22 — LainiencWhatever you do, please re-sign Manny Legace.
12 yr Career: GAA 2.41 SV% .911
Thank you.
FSTH
Five of Manny's seasons were
Fri, 03/26/2010 - 13:36 — ctillFive of Manny's seasons were with the Red Wings, who had a phenomenal defense in front of him. Anybody's numbers would have looked great.
The real questions are, does Manny have legs for another season.. and would Peters' long-run value to the Canes be increased by another season in Albany?
Defense
Fri, 03/26/2010 - 17:07 — LainiencAny goalie with great career stats has always had outstanding defense/offense in front of them? The common denominators in the defense over Mr. Legace's tenure with the RedWings were Lidstrom, Chelios, Fischer- excellent indeed. But in 06/07 when Mr. Legace was w/ St. Louis Blues and there wasn't the same calibre of defense his stats were still 2.59 & 2.41 the following year. Furthermore, Dominick Hasek shared duties w/ Mr. Legace and when Hasek moved on, his stats were the same in Buffalo as they were in Detroit. Defense is important, but I don't agree that any goalie would have good stats in front of the Detroit defense.
Go to Hockey-Reference.com , Leaders > GAA > career , and you'll see Mr. Legace ranked as # 19 out of 147 active and retired goalies, Mr. Hasek is ranked # 7. Based on that, the real answer is that most goalies aren't fit to carry Mr. Legace's jockstrap and it would be foolish not to re-sign him. Mr. Legace showed in last night's game what he's capable of for another season.
I'm unpersuaded. We can
Sat, 03/27/2010 - 09:52 — ctillI'm unpersuaded. We can debate his history, but it's not so relevant (as for Brind'amour). How is Legace doing this season, and what's he likely to do next season when he is one year older? His save percentage this season is .909, which is competent but not elite. I believe the only reason to retain him would be to allow Peters a lot of ice time in the AHL next season.
Peters can help the Rats
Fri, 03/26/2010 - 12:41 — Hockeydogright now with the injuries they have. And of course it's the logical choice as you mentioned sittler27. I watched the game last night on TV and Cam was in the broadcast booth. He said that his back is good and only has a 5% chance of the same injury re-occurring. That is good news and makes me feel better about Cam's durability, although to be honest I don't know if this was a different issue or related to the back spasms he's had before.
As for next year I'd love to see Manny back. I don't think he'd be too hard to sign and it would keep all the options at the position open to the organization.
Legace
Fri, 03/26/2010 - 12:12 — sittler27I don't think that this is a sign that the Canes will necesarily re-sign Legacy as the back-up for next year. They might, but this has more to do with the goalie situation in Albany where both Murphy and Pogge are injured.
They would have had to waive Manny to send him down so Peters is the logical choice even if he is the plan for next year.