Golf Digest released its 2009 list of the Top 150 golfing athletes, with one notable omission: Hurricanes forward Ray Whitney, a plus handicap who tried (but failed) to qualify for the U.S. Open.
Whitney's plus-1.2 index would put him at or near the top of the list if he had been included.
From Talking Points:
If there is anything Frantisek Kaberle and Tom Barrasso have in common, it was that they were both underestimated during their time with the Hurricanes.
Both were in the news Tuesday, Kaberle because the Hurricanes bought out his contract and Barrasso for his induction into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
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If there is anything Frantisek Kaberle and Tom Barrasso have in common, it was that they were both underestimated during their time with the Hurricanes.
Both were in the news Tuesday, Kaberle because the Hurricanes bought out his contract and Barrasso for his induction into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Carolina Hurricanes goaltending coach Tom Barrasso was named to the United States’ Hockey Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009 as a player, one of five inductees to be enshrined.
The others include the late Frank Zamboni, the inventor of the Zamboni ice resurfacer, Tony Amonte, who scored the winning goal against Canada to clinch the inaugaral World Cup of Hockey in 1996, John LeClair, the first American-born player to have three consecutive 50-goal seasons in the NHL, and the 1998 U.S. Olympic Women’s Hockey Team, which captured gold in Nagano, Japan.
Canes goaltending coach Tom Barrasso made the suggestion, but it had nothing to do with Cam Ward.
What about putting winger Michael Ryan on Eric Staal's line, Barrasso said during the second intermission of Thursday's game against the Buffalo Sabres.
Canes coach Paul Maurice liked the idea, made the switch and it paid off with a tying goal.
Don't forget: The on-ice portion of this week's prospect conditioning camp starts at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday at the RecZone.
They'll be out there Thursday, Friday and Saturday as well. That group includes Brandon Sutter, Jamie McBain, Zach Boychuk and seven others who will get a crash course in Canes trainer Pete Friesen's lofty fitness expectations.
Michael Leighton is also a possibility to participate, harkening back to a different goalie at a different prospect conditioning camp. In August 2001, after taking a year off of hockey, a 36-year-old Tom Barrasso celebrated his return to the NHL by outrunning a bunch of kids almost 20 years his junior on the track at Cardinal Gibbons.
Hockey News columnist Mike Brophy says that Tom Barrasso's personality kept him from getting a deserved call to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Tuesday:
It’s time to forgive Tom Barrasso for being Tom Barrasso and acknowledge his greatness. One hundred years from now no one will remember how he treated people and no one will question his inclusion in the Hall.
Barrasso's run-ins with teammates and the media became the stuff of legend during his stops in Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Ottawa, although he had mellowed considerably by the time he arrived in Carolina in 2001 and has been open, friendly and accessible during his time as the Hurricanes' goalie coach.
But with a long list of Hall of Fame candidates coming onto the ballot next summer, a group that includes Steve Yzerman and Brett Hull, this may have been Barrasso' best chance to get in.
