With Thursday's session being the final one before the club welcomes the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers to town, their first set of two games in two days since the middle of November not only brings them a test of their own conditioning and ability to perform at a high level on consecutive days, but it also forces them to do so against two of the league's top teams - each with their own different set of strengths.
Calgary, who the Canes last saw on December 9 as a part of their tour through Canada, is one of the best defensive teams in the league, holding opponents to an average of 2.35 goals per game. That number ranks just second among all 32 clubs, behind only Carolina.
Florida, who the group is eager for another shot at
after spoiling their first chance on November 6
, possesses the ability to seemingly score at will. The Cats pace the NHL with their average of 36.8 shots per game, which, in turn has translated to the league's second best average of 3.85 goals per game.
"They're two of the better teams that we're going to see all year," Head Coach Rod Brind'Amour began when speaking to the media following the skate. "They do play different styles but they're both capable, I think all good teams in this league are capable, of doing whatever the game needs them to. The other night they played each other and I think they both almost had 50 shots - lots of offense. It presents a different challenge, but it's one hopefully we're up for. Calgary is a bit more committed to shutting you down and Florida is a run-and-gun type team. It'll be a good test for us either way."
Being that Carolina and Calgary sit number one and two respectively in the NHL rankings in goals against, it shouldn't be a surprise, especially given that that number held true then and continue to hold true nearly now a month following the game, that
the final result was a 2-1 score
. Both teams kept the contest tight and at the end of the day a Sebastian Aho overtime winner pushed the visiting side to victory.