Carolina Hurricanes
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CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • January 12, 2021 Carolina Hurricanes tuned up Monday for 2020-21 NHL season opener. How did they look? By Chip Alexander During the second period, Necas was moved to right wing on Trocheck’s line, with Fast going to the right side of Staal’s line. Rod Brind’Amour watched the Carolina Hurricanes’ game-like Brind’Amour is looking for balance on the lines and that was scrimmage Monday from a perch high in the Canes’ new an interesting look, combining two of the Canes’ most dynamic practice facility, not from behind the bench. young wingers with Trocheck, who was active most of the His view of things? scrimmage. “I like where we’re at,” the Canes coach said. Brind’Amour also gave forward Seth Jarvis some work in the scrimmage at Wake Competition Center. Jarvis, 18, was the The Canes used their seventh training camp practice to allow Canes’ first-round draft pick in 2020. the players to get in some five-on-five play at something approaching game speed, with a certain degree of physicality. On the back end, it was Jaccob Slavin with Dougie Hamilton, The final score and the winner — for the record, the Red team Skjei with Brett Pesce and Jake Gardiner with Haydn Fleury won 4-3 — was irrelevant but not the competition, which was as the top three defensive pairs. intense enough. Skjei scored early in the scrimmage, jumping into the play to “We started off on a good pace and kind of kept that pace beat goalie Petr Mrazek. It’s possible Skjei, traded to the during the scrimmage, which was nice,” defenseman Brady Canes in February by the New York Rangers, will be given Skjei said on the Monday media call. “It was more of a game that kind of offensive freedom this season by Brind’Amour. feel and I think the guys enjoyed it and kind of helped them “Roddy (Brind’Amour) and the coaches here like to play with get their feet under them.” that aggressive system,” Skjei said. NHL teams will enter the 2020-21 season with shortened JAKE BEAN WANTS TO PLAY GAMES training camps and no preseason games. Some are having bigger dress rehearsals than others, to prepare for the season Jake Bean, named the AHL’s best defenseman last year with openers. Some will be more ready than others. the Charlotte Checkers, also has made an impression on Brind’Amour. A former first-round draft pick by Carolina, Bean Brind’Amour said he was pleased with the way the Canes, has “definitely taken a huge step” in his development, who open the season Thursday on the road against the Detroit Brind’Amour said. Red Wings, went about things Monday. Bean, 22, should end camp as the team’s seventh “I thought it was good. What I saw was a group that has been defenseman, bringing up an interesting decision: To keep him together and kind of knows what we’re doing,” he said. on team’s NHL taxi squad, or have him playing games with “Puck drop, Game 1, is going to be a different animal. Playing the Chicago Wolves, the Canes’ new AHL affiliate. a real game is a different animal. But hopefully this knocks off Bean said his preference was to be wherever he can play a little of the rust.” games, even if that means returning to the AHL. Brind’Amour opened with the forward lines he has maintained “I think I’m definitely NHL ready,” Bean said. in camp. Sebastian Aho centered Teuvo Teravainen and Nino Niederreiter, Vincent Trocheck was at center with Andrei Teams are allowed to to carry four to six players on a taxi Svechnikov and Jesper Fast, Jordan Staal centered Warren squad in the 56-game regular season, and that decision must Foegele and Martin Necas, and Jordan Martinook centered soon be made by the Canes. Brock McGinn and Ryan Dzingel. CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • January 12, 2021 Hurricanes scrimmage: Game speed, Greek expressions, Lady Byng predictions By Sara Civian much as we can on the ice and off the ice. I think we’ve done a good job of that in camp and it’s been The first rule of NHL preseason scrimmage club is don’t talk fun playing with him.” about NHL preseason scrimmage club. • It’s not that they don’t matter, and this year the reason they Andrei Svechnikov’s set up on Skjei’s goal was just actually matter — to give the players that first taste of game as good as the goal, which validates my mildly hot speed — is more important than ever. take that he will up his passing game more than his shooting game this season. The second rule of NHL “It was more for the players than for me,” head coach Rod preseason scrimmage club is you’re allowed to throw Brind’Amour said after Monday’s scrimmage. “It’s for them to rule No. 1 out the window if something happens that go at the pace, or closer to the pace, you’re going to go to in aligns with any of your preconceived takes. a game. That was the mindset of it, the routine of a game, • pregame, all that stuff was important.” Speaking of Pesce’s return, it has been very loud. Every time I tweet that someone is screaming, But there’s a catch with the part we care about — the people want to assume it’s Jordan Martinook. But I’d performance of the players vying for a roster spot. Naturally, guess at least 20 percent of the time it’s been Pesce. they’re going to try the hardest, while the players who know Monday was no different. For some reason he they’re in the clear probably aren’t operating at 100 percent screamed “Opa!” a Greek expression used to and risking injury. Brind’Amour inadvertently brought that express enthusiasm, at least five times throughout notion up again when asked about Teuvo Teravainen after the the scrimmage. After he scored, he ventured over to scrimmage Monday. the other team’s bench looking for high fives. They “He’s a gamer, I mean if you watched today he wasn’t really were not impressed. into it, I’m just going to be honest,” he said. “But I can • Speaking of volume, witnessing NHL players play in guarantee you when we play on Thursday he will be dialed in. a game-like situation in complete silence was He’s sneaky competitive in that way.” hilarious, odd and kind of informative. The silence Even though “Team Red” technically won the even strength was the odd part, it’s like they’re all standing around portion of the scrimmage, it randomly devolved into an a water cooler in a corporate office between whistles. overtime format and then a shootout, driving home the point The informative part was getting a glimpse into how once again that this is for the players. certain players interact with each other on the ice. Maybe it was just because he was playing close to Despite Teravainen’s ever-apparent nonchalance — and where I was sitting, but Haydn Fleury seems despite someone on the “other” team screaming to make him particularly vocal. Martinook struck me in the same mess up — he won the post-scrimmage shootout in a walk- way, but less in the scream-y way you’d expect, and off. Hey, if Justin Williams is gone, someone’s gotta do it. more in a “calmly communicating with his linemates” (Yes, that is me laughing.) way. A puck came flying at Slavin and he said “Oh!”… If that happened to 99.9 percent of NHL Other loose pucks from Monday’s scrimmage players an expletive would’ve followed. In a year where we can actually hear what the players are • Brind’Amour watched from above with video coach saying on the ice, I’d bet on Slavin to finally win the Chris Huffine as his assistants coached the teams. Lady Byng. “Just to kind of get a good view of everything. I find when I’m coaching I’m watching one team a lot, and • Even with the aforementioned catch about training I didn’t just want to focus in on one group. I just camp scrimmages taken into consideration, Jake wanted to get a birds-eye view on everything. Nice to Bean looked good. His speed and confidence talk with (Huffine), we spitball a lot of things about immediately stood out compared to his camp last systems, so when I saw something break down I’m season and even the summer’s return to play training asking him, it’s just nice to have that kind of camp. He sounded confident, too, and went as far as communication and a different look.” to say he’ll actually be better in the NHL than he’s been in the AHL. “It’s obviously exciting. It feels like • Brady Skjei scored the first goal of the day and he a long time coming for me. It’s not exactly how I felt was all over the place in a good way. Brett Pesce’s like it would go 2-3 years ago, but I’ve been able to return to the Canes no doubt lets him access that use it to my advantage getting a bunch of ice time in offensive flair more easily, and it’s no coincidence the the AHL. I’ll do my best to make all that work come two seem familiar with each other.