'We could play today': Carolina Hurricanes Training Camp Day 3 Notebook

The Carolina Hurricanes were back on the ice at the Lenovo Center Saturday with the C1 group, which is primarily the NHL regulars having the first session.

Day 1 Notebook
Day 2 Notebook

William Carrier was again absent from practice, but Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour stated that he didn't think he'd be out for a long time.

"He'll probably be out a couple of days," Brind'Amour said. "I don't anticipate it being very long. At this time of year, you're just really being cautious on everything. Nothing serious."

So it seems like the Canes have dodged a potential bullet there.

Day 3 of camp featured a lot more focus on plays off the rush.

Whether it was quick ups in transition or developing breakouts, the Hurricanes leaned hard into generating shots off the rush and boy where they ripping it.

Carolina had about a dozen or so post-and-in shots during the first 20 minutes of practice and I'll I could think was that they better save some of those for the real games.

The Hurricanes' main group also started to ramp up the physicality a bit with some in-zone 5v5 work.

The main group had the same lines as yesterday and the power play groupings also remained the same.

The C2 group took to the ice following the main group, and while Brind'Amour stated yesterday that he thought Morrow would be back on the ice today, he was still absent from practice and was watching on from the stands in street clothes.

The prospect group pretty much did the same drills as the main group and were perhaps the most physical of the two today.

Brind'Amour was also getting involved with the prospects following the main practice and teaching a few guys some faceoff techniques: his bread and butter.

Rod Brind'Amour

On the short turnaround time to the first preseason game: I don't know. Preseason games are tough. I like the practice time. I know guys need a couple of games just to get a little bit of the rust off, but it's changed so much now and we've been talking about this for a long time. Guys are ready. We could play today. We'd have a lot of mistakes, but as far as the conditioning and all that, they come ready to go. I don't know. To be honest, I like when they're all done.

On how he anticipates handling the goaltending split this season: I think it's all up for grabs. We've always kind of shared the work load and that's served us well. Honestly, we have two good ones and we have [Spencer Martin] here too if something happens, so I think we feel pretty good about that position and we really haven't given it much thought.

On the depth beyond the top three goalies: I think if you have three guys you can count on, that's pretty good. I don't envision that too many teams have four guys. If you get that far down, then you've had disaster hit. And the other guys are unknown but I think we feel pretty good about them.

On how the new guys have been integrating: That's a question for them. I love how we've done three days of work. It's been very professional, which is how we've set it up. We have two groups and one should be more professional and the other should be a little more learning, but the new guys who have come into that group, the professional group, have certainly looked good.

On Cam Abbott: It was a great hire. We knew that. I thought the time I spent with him, which has been pretty extensive to be honest, he's been here a long time... Spent a lot of time with him and I think he's going to be a real good coach for those guys. He's got a real willingness to teach and for all coaches that's what you're doing, but especially at that level where it's all young kids that are trying to learn the game. They have all the skills, but it's just about getting all the details and the game. I think he's a great fit.

On if he has a plan for how the preseason will go. Oh yeah, [I have a plan], but you know how plans go. There's certain rules that you have to have 'X' amount of guys and that kind of throws a jammer if guys get a groin pull or something. But like I said, the guys come ready to go. It's not like we need a ton of games. But we definitely have a plan.

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