Canes Focused on Their Game in First Week of Camp

On the evening of Tuesday, May 26, National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman outlined the league's 24-team return to play plan.

It was then that the Carolina Hurricanes learned their first 2019-20 postseason opponent would be the New York Rangers.

That was nearly two full months ago.

Has there ever been an NHL season during which a team knew of its playoff match-up in early February, a full two months prior to the typical start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs?

Take the 2018-19 season, for instance. The Hurricanes, who had punched their ticket to the playoffs for the first time in a decade on April 4, still were looking at three different opponent scenarios heading into Game No. 82 that Saturday. Less than a week later, the puck dropped in their First Round series against the Metropolitan Division champion Washington Capitals.

Like everything else in 2020, this season is different.

By the time the puck is dropped in Toronto in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, the Canes will have known their opponent for almost 70 days.

That's an unprecedented (there's that word again) amount of time to analyze and dissect the four-game season series with the Rangers and prepare for a best-of-five qualifying round match-up with an already familiar divisional opponent.

Plenty of work has already gone into doing just that, no question. But, before the coaching staff downloads that information to their players, the Canes are focused on themselves in the first week of Phase 3 training camp.

"Every day you're just adding a little bit," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said after Thursday's skate. "I think by Sunday we'll have covered everything we want to cover, at least touched on the whole scheme of things. Then, we'll really start ramping it up."

There's a method to the madness, a plan of attack sketched up in preparation to make the most out of these two weeks of on-ice training before the team travels to Toronto on Sunday, July 26. There, the Canes will continue to practice and will face the Washington Capitals in an exhibition match on Wednesday, July 29.

This first week has been heavy on review, incrementally adding aspects of the team's game - on Thursday, for instance, the Canes worked on special teams - and ramping up the physicality with tight-quartered battle drills.

"We're just trying to pick up where we left off," Video: "Every day just adding a little bit.". "I just think the team that really values these two-and-a-half weeks the most or gets the most out of it, is probably going to have the best result."

Phase 3 is an important stretch for everyone involved but perhaps even more so for the acquisitions the Canes made at the trade deadline. Vincent Trocheck and Brady Skjei only played seven games prior to the pause, while Sami Vatanen remained sidelined with an injury.

"Honestly, the first day, it kind of seemed like everybody was picking up where we left off. There wasn't a whole lot of rust going on," Trocheck said. "I think the only part that took a little bit of getting used to was just going through the drills again, the timing of everything. All in all, everyone looked like they were ready to go right from the jump."

Trocheck, whose first goal with the Canes was an Video: "Every day just adding a little bit.", spent the four-month pause in Raleigh and used some of his downtime to review video of his new team.

"I think this time off has actually helped me more than the time I played," he said. "Being able to watch the video and learn the system better, I think that's helped me over the last few months to get more acclimated with the team's style of play. The first several games coming from a different team, you're going to have a little confusion."

"We knew he was going to be a little uncomfortable," Brind'Amour echoed. "That's normal, especially with our system. I think it's a little different than a traditional [system], so there is a lot to pick up. You could tell he was a little unsure in that seven-game span. He did a little work on video over the break. These two weeks will help him a lot."

The Canes, who will take Friday off before getting back on PNC Arena ice this weekend, will soon start dialing up discussion of their qualifying round opponent. The Rangers won each of the four regular-season meetings between the two teams. Henrik Lundqvist stopped 125 of 132 shots (.947 save percentage) in three of those wins.

That was then - the two played twice in November, once just before the end of 2019 and then a fourth and final time in late February - and this is now, though.

"What went on four months ago in that three-quarters of a year is kind of almost done and forgotten. We're moving forward," Brind'Amour said on Monday. "We're going to plan for what we think we're going to see, but it's really about getting our game where it needs to be and understanding what worked and what didn't work when we played them."

Even if the season series had played out differently, Brind'Amour said he's not sure there will be much carryover, some five-plus months after the last meeting in Raleigh.

"It's just so far in the past that it doesn't register," he said on Thursday. "Everybody is coming in different right now and starting fresh. That's the key."

The Canes do have a valuable resource on their side: Skjei, who knows a thing or two about the team with which he played 307 of his 314 career NHL games.

"I don't want to give away too much, but we've talked to Brady a little bit. We'll definitely use him as a resource," Brind'Amour smiled. "We're still chipping away at the phase of getting to our game and what we need to do, but starting next week, we'll definitely pick his brain."

"These two teams have seen each other enough to where everyone kind of knows each guy's game," Skjei said. "I'll definitely give some inside scoops to give us the best chance to win."

It typically takes 16 wins to capture the Stanley Cup. This year, it will take 19 if the Hurricanes are to capture the franchise's second title.

Not that anyone will need motivation to begin that quest, but Skjei already has a little extra juice on his side.

"I can tell you I'm really excited and looking forward to it. I've got a ton of motivation," he said. "I really enjoyed my time in New York and loved every part of it, but now I've got a ton of motivation, a chip on my shoulder going into this playoff series. I'll do everything possible and everything I can to come out of this series victorious."