Day Before: Canes Ready To Get Back To Game Action

RALEIGH, NC. - For the first time in over a week and a half the Carolina Hurricanes held a "day before game" practice Wednesday.
It's been 11 days since the Canes cruised past the Los Angeles Kings in 5-1 fashion and since then the team has had four games postponed, an impromptu early start to their holiday break and unfortunately made four additions to their COVID-19 Protocol list.

The schedule has changed countless times and every day has been described as a "hold your breath situation", in hopes of everyone staying on the healthy side of things. There have been steps forward for the unit though, not all just rocky news.
Less than a week ago their protocol list was at 12, following the positive test of goaltender Frederik Andersen on December 23. Now, it's down to a much more manageable three. On top of that, Jalen Chatfield and Jordan Martinook, the team's two existing injuries, have both been skating prior to team practice the last few days, working their way back toward the lineup. In fact, Martinook stuck around to practice with the team today as well.
Now only without the aforementioned two, Brendan Smith, Jesper Fast (maybe) and Andersen, it looks like the team is going to get back to game action tomorrow.
"It's what these guys want to do. It's what we do, right? It's exciting," Head Coach Rod Brind'Amour said after the team's session. " We've been off for such a long time, the guys just want to play. It's that simple. So, hopefully everything goes the way it should over the next 24 hours] and we can get it in."
The team enters their second meeting of the season against Montreal having won six of their last seven games, making their way back to the top of the NHL's standings this month. Four of the five victories came on their trip to Canada and then a memorable 16-skater victory over Detroit came just two days before their defeat of Los Angeles on Saturday, December 18 - their most recent game.
"We've had a little rest and that's been good for the guys," Jesperi Kotkaniemi offered when looking at the extended break on a positive note. "We've got some of the guys back from the COVID-19 list, had a little training camp over the last four days and I think we're ready to go now."
'Training camp' has been a phrase commonly thrown around over the last few days, especially after seeing the way that the team has skated to conclude their recent practices. Putting an emphasis on ensuring that the "game legs" and conditioning are there, the crew will be up against a Canadiens club that took the defending Stanley Cup Champions to overtime Tuesday night in Tampa Bay.
In terms of how the available skaters will stack up, Wednesday reflected the following:
Niederreiter - Aho - Teravainen
Svechnikov - Trocheck - Necas
Kotkaniemi - Staal - Jarvis
Lorentz - Stepan - Martinook
Slavin - DeAngelo
Skjei - Pesce
Cole - Bear
There are, however, a couple potential curveballs that could come amend the above, at least in terms of forwards.
First, for Martinook to play, he would have to be cleared to play and come off of injured reserve. Monday his head coach said he still felt that the 29-year-old forward was "still a ways away" from playing, for what that may be worth. Perhaps a more realistic situation is Stefan Noesen,
[who was assigned to the Taxi Squad Wednesday afternoon
, could be recalled to the active roster. The right-handed winger had just come off COVID Protocol, where he was placed on Sunday, December 19. A final option is that with the
NHL amending their protocol requirements
from a ten-day quarantine to a CDC-suggested five-day timeline, Fast (along with Smith and Andersen) may be available. The first indication we would have as to whether any of the three could come off would be Thursday at morning skate.
As mentioned prior, with Andersen being away from the team at the moment, that leaves the club with the duo of Antti Raanta and Alex Lyon in net for tomorrow night's matchup. This season Raanta is 4-2-1, stopping 24 of 26 in his last outing against Vancouver, which came on Sunday, December 12. Lyon was recalled to the team's Taxi Squad on Tuesday and it is expected he will be recalled to the active roster on Wednesday.
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