Q’s Cuties: Blues vs Hurricanes 12-11

Welcome to tonight’s cutie watch!  I am back in action after a break for taking care of a family member before Thursday’s game.  What a game- 3 power play goals and awesome penalty killing!  Glad that our guys are looking good for a change. The Blues looked much better than their embarrassing loss in Columbus.  Was it a “revenge” game?  I don’t think so, but it was nice to see everyone working together for a win.  The Blues are up against a team with fewer wins tonight= the Hurricanes have been struggling this season as well.

This Cutie has been hot defensively,

Here’s who my eye will be on tonight:

Ian Cole #23:  This cutie may not have any points in his games for the Blues, but defensively Ian Cole has looked amazing.  Cole has been making plays that some of his team mates haven’t been playing.  The defensive aspect of Blues hasn’t looked awesome until lately, but Cole has been performing well in his time on the blue line.  During Thursday’s game, Darren Pang discussed an interview with Cole where he discussed being paired with Brewer and the great leadership Brewer has shown to him on the ice.  Obviously something is going right with the pairing since Cole is only a minus-1 in his 6 games with the Blues, and fans know not all of those games have been winners.  Watch for this cutie to be more of a defensive guy, his offensive side hasn’t blossomed for the Blues yet.

Hurricanes Cutie to Watch:  The Hurricanes have only won 11 of their first 27 games.  In the month of November and the beginning of December, they have won only 1 of their away games.  While this is great news for Blues fans, Hurricane fans are probably as down as Blues fans were a few weeks ago.  The Canes only have 3 players with 20 or more points; their team seems to have a scoring issue too.

This Cutie may not be playing his best game ever, but he is still the team point leader

Here’s who I’ll have my eye on tonight:

Eric Staal #12, Center:  This cutie and captain is the oldest of the Staals, and of course I couldn’t choose any other player on the Hurricanes player to watch.  Those who have paid attention to Staal’s stats already know that Eric hasn’t played well since his injury last season.  He has been getting points in short bursts, but hasn’t been the quality of player he was prior to missing games with an injury.  That being said, Staal leads the Hurricanes with 28 points and also has 4 more goals than any other player on the team.  However, he falls near the bottom of the team with a minus-5.  While Eric has had his moments, his team in general hasn’t been great this season.  Watch for this cutie in front of the net- although he has had a 3 game point drought, he is still offensive team leader.