On Monday, the Canes practiced for a solid 75 minutes at Raleigh Center Ice.
"We got a good workout today," Brind'Amour said afterward.
Tuesday was a scheduled off day. The Canes will practice at Raleigh Center Ice once more on Wednesday morning before departing for Philadelphia that afternoon.
"We gave them some time," Brind'Amour said. "We'll go at it again Wednesday and be ready to go Thursday."
The structure of these four blank days on the game schedule was designed with physical and mental preparation in mind. The Canes might not have another chance this season to practice as intensely as they have this week.
"We'll have here and there practices, but where you can actually push and have battle drills and things like that," Brind'Amour said. "You won't be able to because you're playing every day and every other day. Practice days will be more light. We've got to take advantage of it."
Vincent Trocheck and Brady Skjei, who were acquired in deadline day deals, have played in three games with the Canes, a sort of crash course in the team's systems. These practice days offer an opportunity to dive deeper.
"We're running all the stuff again," Brind'Amour said. "You go over it with a guy and he gets a game or two, but until you actually get it ingrained, it's just through repetition. They'll get better and better."
A pair of days off also allows for new faces to get acclimated to a new city and new teammates.
"We've got a couple new guys," Joel Edmundson said. "Maybe get a round of golf in, get away from hockey and get to know the new guys. Our schedule in March is kind of hectic. Whenever we get a day off, we'll take full advantage of it."
"It's all about coming together as a group," Brind'Amour said.
After staying relatively healthy all season, the Canes' lineup has recently been gouged with injuries to key players. While Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce are unlikely to return in the regular season, the Canes hope to get at least one of their other three injured players back in the lineup on this upcoming road trip.
Sami Vatanen, who was already on injured reserve with a lower-body injury when he was acquired from New Jersey just over a week ago, skated before practice on Monday.
"That's positive. We'll hopefully keep pushing that," Brind'Amour said. "We need to get him in there, so hopefully he can get in at some point soon. We need him."
Petr Mrazek remains in wait-and-see mode after sustaining a concussion in Toronto on Feb. 22.
"Until he's out there with us taking shots, that's when you can say he's getting close," Brind'Amour said. "It's not really positive until then."
So, here's the road ahead, the finish line a mere month away.
As of Tuesday, March 3, the Canes sit three points out of a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with three games in hand on the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Canes have 18 games remaining in the regular season, all but one of which are against Eastern Conference opponents. Of those 17 games, 10 will be played within the Metropolitan Division.
The Canes will face four divisional opponents, including three they're chasing in the standings, on this upcoming five-game road trip. They'll also play the entirety of their four-game regular-season series against the Pittsburgh Penguins in a short 21-day span.
"You can group them all into the same category for me - you've got to have them," Brind'Amour said. "Whether they're on the road, whether they're divisional … it kind of all goes out the window. You're at a point where you've got to have them."
