Staal, Canes Get Back to Work

Rod Brind'Amour blew his whistle just before 11 a.m. on Tuesday, signifying the Carolina Hurricanes' return to the ice as a team for the first time in eight days.
Among the group of 21 players - 11 forwards, seven defensemen and three goaltenders - skating at PNC Arena was Jordan Staal, the first of six Canes added to the NHL's COVID-19 Protocol list, which prompted a temporary shutdown.

"I felt good," Staal said. "It was good to get back on the ice today with the fellas and get back in the routine."
The routine had been missing for a week now, especially as the league played on without the Canes, but Tuesday's practice felt like a return to normalcy, as much as normal can feel right now.

"It felt like everything was going and we were sitting here not a part of it, and we weren't," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We all knew this was a possibility - maybe a better way to put it is a probability that something like this was going to happen. Unfortunately, it got us right away."
While they were isolated off the ice, quarantined Canes tried to maintain their physical fitness as best they could. Strength and conditioning coach Bill Burniston delivered stationary bikes around town and developed individual at-home workout programs for the week. Lucy Gardiner, who owns a barre studio in Edina, Minnesota, led a barre3 class on Zoom over the weekend.

"It's not ideal, but I'm sure all the guys worked out by themselves as much as everyone could," Sebastian Aho said. "You can always find a way to get your work done. It's just a matter of will."
Staal found himself in a bit of a different situation after testing positive for COVID-19 while the team was in Detroit, where he had to stay sequestered until he could make the 11-hour drive back to Raleigh.
"It makes it real, obviously. No one wants to be that guy, and clearly it was me bringing it into the room. I was trying to be safe. It's unfortunate," Staal said. "It's just one of those things that just seemed to happen the way it did. There's not much you can do about it. I've beaten myself up about it enough."
"It could have been anyone," Aho said. "I'm happy that he's back and healthy. That's the number one thing."

Staal is back and healthy, indeed, and the Canes should have him in the lineup on Thursday when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning in their first game since Jan. 18.
The Canes, however, will still be without five other NHL regulars who remain on the COVID Protocol list: Jesper Fast, Warren Foegele, Jordan Martinook, Jaccob Slavin and Teuvo Teravainen.
"There are a lot of concerns. Number one, you're missing a lot of guys," Brind'Amour said. "Then you add in the fact that they've been sitting around. We tried to do the best we can, but the conditioning level goes right out the window very quickly when you're not on the ice every day."
A number of new faces will grace the lineup on Thursday. Steven Lorentz is set to make his NHL debut, and he skated on a line with Staal and Ryan Dzingel in Tuesday's practice. Taxi squaders Morgan Geekie and Max McCormick figure to be two-thirds of the Canes' fourth line, which will be rounded out with a forward recall, like Drew Shore or Sheldon Rempal, or perhaps a seventh defenseman.

Speaking of the defense, Jake Bean is likely to make his season debut and draw in for Slavin. Bean, who was named the AHL's defenseman of the year last season, paired up with Haydn Fleury in Tuesday's practice.
"We are considering everything, all the options available," Brind'Amour said. "We're going to have to rely on different people to step up, for sure, but I think we're more than capable."
Tuesday was a productive on-ice workday after the Canes skated in four groups of no more than six players apiece
on Monday
, just to get the legs active again. The Canes will reconvene at Wake Competition Center on Wednesday, and on Thursday, it will be finally time to drop the puck again with three games in four nights against the two teams that vied for the Stanley Cup in late September.
"There are no excuses," Aho said. "We just have to get the work done … and be ready on Thursday when the puck drops again."
"We've got to deal with it. That's just it," Brind'Amour said. "The excuse jar is full. Nobody cares. We've got to figure it out."