Voting for the 2nd round games for the ‘Cup Core’ and ‘Current Generation’ regionals’ will kick off at 11:30am on Friday, September 11. If you are here before then, please check back.
The matchups and bios for those games are below the recap from the most recent voting. The recaps for the 1st round matchups are at the bottom. (So just keep scrolling to find what you need.)
So far Ron Francis, Kevin Dineen, Arturs Irbe, Jeff O’Neill, Glen Wesley, Bret Hedican, Aaron Ward and Ray Whitney have punched their ticket to the Sweet 16. The 2nd round games just completed shattered a bunch of Cinderella slippers from the 1st round. #10 seed John Forslund put forth an admirable fight, but in the end Ray Whitney’s 1,064 NHL points were too much. Kevin Dineen took out #12 seed Gary Roberts setting up a Kevin Dineen versus Ron Francis captain matchup in the round of 16. And #11 seed Josef Vasicek was actually leading early but was eventually overpowered by Arturs Irbe. The 2nd round games just completed also saw Aaron Ward squeak by Kevyn Adams in the closest game of the round. Rafter residents Ron Francis and Glen Wesley beat Kevin Weekes and Peter Laviolette respectively pretty handily. The 2nd round elimination of wild cards John Forslund and Peter Laviolette leaves only players remaining in the tourney.
With that, we move to the 2nd half of the 2nd round and the task of punching passes for 8 more players to complete the Sweet 16.
The matchups are:
Cup Core 2nd Round:
Rod Brind’Amour (1) / Mark Recchi (8)
Matt Cullen (5) / Mike Commodore (13)
Justin Williams (3) / Niclas Wallin (6)
Erik Cole (2) / Chad LaRose (7)
Current Generation 2nd Round:
Eric Staal (1) / Elias Lindholm (8)
Tim Gleason (4) / Joni Pitkanen (5)
Jeff Skinner (3) / Tuomo Ruutu (6)
Cam Ward (2) / Justin Faulk (7)
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1st Round Recaps
In the ‘Founding Fathers’ regional, as expected players with ties to the magical 2002 playoff run that put hockey on the map in Raleigh dominated the first round. Goalie Kevin Weekes and forwards Sami Kapanen and Josef Vasicek joined Ron Francis, Arturs Irbe and Jeff O’Neill who were already waiting in the second round with byes.
Kevin Dineen squeaked by Sean Hill in one of the closest first-round games, and Gary Roberts as a #12 seed proved to be a bracket buster when he defeated #5 seed Keith Primeau handily. Looks like Canes fans never forgave and forgot his contract holdout in the 1999-00 season that ultimately led to his trade for Rod Brind’Amour. Dineen and Roberts see each other in the second round which means at least one of the players who saw the Greensboro era but never Raleigh will represent that group in the Sweet 16.
Josef Vasicek as a #11 and Gary Roberts as a #12 seed were the two biggest upsets at least per the seedings.
The ‘Unsung Heroes’ regional featured multiple wild card matches. Peter Laviolette bested Paul Maurice in a coaches’ matchup. Jesse Boulerice won a four-player battle royale to claim the title of favorite ‘enforcer’ and advance to the second round. And John Forslund defeated Chuck Kaiton to win a broadcasters’ matchup. The other two winners, Bret Hedican and Kevyn Adams, leveraged their role on both the 2002 and 2006 playoff runs to advance to the second round.
Except a minor upset with Forslund as a #10 seed over Chuck Kaiton at #7, the bracket was straight chalk with the higher seed winning all of the other matchups. Waiting in the second round with first round byes are Glen Wesley, Aaron Ward and Ray Whitney.
The ‘Cup Core’ regional featured arguably the biggest upset in the tourney thus far. Using a late night Twitter request to his 57,000 and the mojo of his lucky robe, #13 seed Mike Commodore overtook #4 seed Cory Stillman who is Twitterless and went on to win going away in stunning fashion. The rest of the bracket saw Mark Recchi win a wild card matchup of trade reinforcements over Doug Weight and also saw Matt Cullen, Niclas Wallin and Chad LaRose advance.
Chad LaRose’s narrow win over Andrew Ladd who was only with the Canes briefly was surprising to me, but as they say at tourney time – it is about surviving and advancing, not score. As you would expect from a bracket focused on the Stanley Cup team, this bracket is completely stacked and only gets stronger when first round byes Justin Williams, Erik Cole and Rod Brind’Amour enter the mix in the second round.
Finally, the ‘Current Generation’ regional featured an eclectic mix of stars from the 2009 playoff run and current players who could be championship contenders when we launch the 10-year anniversary bracket event in 2025. Still standing after the first round are two current Canes players in Elias Lindholm and Justin Faulk, two 2009 playoff blue line heroes in Joni Pitkanen and Tim Gleason and the winner of the ‘battle of Finland’ Tuomo Ruutu. The match that pitted 2009 favorites and countrymen Ruutu and Jussi Jokinen against each other was arguably the best matchup of the entire first round. The two traded leads and were never more than a couple votes apart before Ruutu finally pulled it out in the final minutes.
The regional ultimately saw all of the higher seeds advance to join the trio of current stars Eric Staal, Cam Ward and Jeff Skinner who had byes into the second round.
Go Canes!
