Notebook: The Injury Bug & The Next Men Up

TAMPA, FL - The Carolina Hurricanes remained south following their contest against the Florida Panthers on Saturday, allowing the team to get full practices in on both Sunday and Monday.
The team's skates did not include Nino Niederreiter, Brett Pesce or Antti Raanta.

As noted late last week, neither Niederreiter (lower body) or Pesce (lower body) made the trip with the team, recovering from injuries sustained in recent contests.
On the Niederreiter front, Brind'Amour said that Nino was "feeling better" several days ago, but that's the furthest extent of update shared. Exiting the team's win over Chicago on Friday, October 29 late in the third period, the team's Swiss forward was initially declared set to "miss some time" on October 31.
In terms of Pesce, a scary scene Wednesday night in Chicago resulted after the Canes defenseman was racing back to win a battle for an icing call, sending him into the end boards awkwardly. After remaining down for a minute and being tended to by the team's training staff, Pesce made it to the bench under his own power before cracking a smile. He would take a few more shifts in that second period but then not return for the third period. When announced Friday that he would not travel, Brind'Amour shared that it would be "more of a week-to-week" thing.
To complete the unfortunate trifecta of injuries to the roster, Saturday night it impacted the team's goaltending situation, where Antti Raanta was then forced out of the team's meeting against their Eastern Conference foe. A puck that came into the Canes defending end ultimately led to a collision between the team's netminder, who had come out to attempt to make a play, and Panthers forward Ryan Lomberg. A slight hesitation from Carolina's Finnish netminder led to the

, concluding with Raanta's night ending due to an upper body injury and Lomberg's due to a game misconduct. Sunday afternoon the club's head coach said that Raanta had been sent back to Raleigh from the trip, thus rendering him not an option for the foreseeable future.
The Next Men Up
Now over a week into his NHL tenure, Seth Jarvis has made the most of his three NHL games thus far. Albeit not how the fan base was hoping to see the 19-year-old inject himself into the lineup, a blessing to them to see his talents on display after what felt like a long wait. His first game he recorded an assist on the game-winning power play goal, which came with him on the ice during the final minutes of a tied game in the third period. His second contest he buried his first NHL goal, beating Marc-Andre Fleury on a breakaway. While held off the scoresheet in Saturday's defeat, Jarvis still found a way to impress, bringing noticeable life to a game for his team when they trailed by as many as four.
In the third period he even found himself skating with Jordan Staal and Jesper Fast, which deviated from his normal spot alongside Derek Stepan and Steven Lorentz.
Since Niederreiter's departure, Brind'Amour has openly stated that he's not committing to any forward in any certain spot amongst the group - Jarvis included. Jordan Martinook has been skating alongside Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, a new look that the team had yet to roll out this season.
Asked Sunday afternoon if Brind'Amour could see a bigger role for the rookie coming, the head coach played it coy, but also left the door open with a quick answer of, "possibly".
The part that makes that such a presumably difficult decision to make for Brind'Amour is that over the past few games he has felt that the line of Lorentz - Stepan - Jarvis has been the best line. And as the old adage goes, "don't mess with success".

On the backend, Brendan Smith stepped in Saturday for his first action of the season, playing 11:48 and laying three hits along the way.
Skating alongside fellow veteran Ian Cole, the blueliner is now in his 11th year of experience. Signing with the Canes this summer, Smith's ability to slot into the lineup when someone goes down makes him a fitting option in these situations and the bench boss was pleased with his performance in his first contest. "He was solid. He worked hard. He didn't play a heck of a lot but for being out as long as he had been, I thought he competed really hard."
In net? Alex Lyon was officially recalled Monday morning, joining the team in Tampa for practice. The ball began rolling Saturday, actually, just moments after the Raanta injury occurred, as Lyon was set to make his scheduled start for the Wolves in their Saturday evening contest against the Manitoba Moose. Instead he was then swapped for Canes prospect Eetu Makiniemi, who started both Saturday and Sunday's games for the club's American Hockey League affiliate, in effort to avoid potential injury to Lyon, should he be needed in Carolina.
Lyon, who is in his first season with the Hurricanes franchise, comes to the big club with 22 games of NHL experience over four seasons.
Given his outstanding October, it's expected that Frederik Andersen will still carry the load for the team moving forward, however, as the team's schedule ramps up a bit with a back-to-back home set coming later this week, followed by a six-game west coast trip, the message that there is trust in all parties was echoed again Monday.
When asked about the plan to ensure Frederik Andersen isn't overworked, now including Lyon instead of Raanta, Brind'Amour offered the following. "It doesn't really change, to be honest with you. We have a plan and we know when we need Freddie to get a rest, he's going to get a rest - regardless of who our other goalie is."
In today's day and age, it is rather uncommon for goaltenders to play two games in two nights, which, the team again faces for a second time already this season Friday and Saturday. The opponent in the first half of that back-to-back? The Philadelphia Flyers, the club which Lyon began his professional career with.
Before we get to ahead of ourselves though, the team's immediate task at hand is the Tampa Bay Lightning, tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
Worth A Click:
Canes Recall Lyon From Chicago
Recap: Canes Suffer First Regular Season Loss to Florida
Burnside: Andersen's Journey To Carolina