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On top of missing the playoffs two years in a row and then getting off to a bad start the third year, he played three injured players to end the '07-'08 season and all three of them did nothing and we lost 3 out of 4 games to miss the playoffs.
He had the bright idea of dressing Justin Williams (first game in 4 months) and Ray Whitney (first game in a month) on the 4th line despite neither of them being ready for game action, against the Capitals who we were battling for a playoff spot with. Whitney takes a bad penalty leading to a Capitals goal and Williams re-injures himself in the first period, leaving us with 11 forwards for a crucial game.
In the final game of the season (in which the Hurricanes would have made the playoffs had they won), Laviolette dressed Matt Cullen, who had suffered a concussion earlier in the season and was still having "vision problems" (and was confirmed to still be suffering from post-concussion syndrome during the offseason). He wore a tinted visor during the game because bright lights were still causing him headaches. Not only does Lavi play him, but he plays the point on the powerplay and gets badly burnt leading to the GWG.
This seems to be totally forgotten, but it was a big deal at the time. Lavi rolled the dice by playing three injured players and all they did was hurt the team.
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