tweetmail052318

Hello and welcome to Tweetmail, presented by our friends at
Tijuana Flats
! Wear your Canes gear to participating Raleigh locations on Wednesdays throughout the season and receive 50% off any entrée.
Tweetmail is a weekly feature on CarolinaHurricanes.com in which I take your Twitter questions about the Carolina Hurricanes or other assorted topics and answer them in mailbag form. Hopefully the final product is insightful to some degree, and maybe we have some fun along the way.
Let's get to it.

Martin Necas.
After beginning the 2017-18 season with the Hurricanes, making his debut in Edmonton and getting a taste of NHL life before heading back overseas, I think there's potential for Necas to be an impact player with the Hurricanes in his first season in North America.
Still just a teenager, Necas played a key role with HC Kometa Brno of the Czech Extraliga. With nine points (4g, 5a) - including the championship-deciding goal - he helped the team capture its second straight league title. Then, at 19 years old, Necas notched five points (3g, 2a) and a plus-2 rating in seven games at the 2018 IIHF World Championship, as the Czechs were ousted by Team USA, eventual bronze medal winners.
Now, Necas enters an important offseason with Prospects Development Camp and the NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Mich., on the horizon.
TV's Mike Maniscalco and I had the chance to catch up with Hurricanes President and General Manager Don Waddell on this week's episode of CanesCast. In mentioning Necas, along with Sebastian Aho and the Hurricanes' potential second overall pick, Waddell said this: "Our best players are going to be our youngest players."
That's true, and Necas is going to be an integral part of that group, perhaps as early as this season. Where he fits in - whether its at his natural position of center or on the wing, or maybe even starting the season in Charlotte - will be decided come training camp in the fall. But, he's certainly the name that jumps to the top of my list of players in the system who could make a big impact with the Hurricanes.

I've got a few suggestions. Before we get to that, some quick backstory for those unfamiliar: we're
soliciting fan opinions
on what could be the team's new goal song. Internally, we've compiled an initial list of 50-plus song options. After opening this up to the public on Monday evening, we've already received over 700 song suggestions. Over the next weeks and months, we'll be working to compare lists and pare down the suggestions to a final 5-10 for a fan vote later this summer.
"Raise Up" by Petey Pablo is an early favorite of mine. I am curious to hear how it fits in with the team's goal sequence, which includes the horn and Ric Flair's "Woo!", though - and that's important to consider in this whole process. The song is but one element in a larger sequence; how well does the 20-30 second splice of music play off the goal horn and wooing? "Jump Around" by House of Pain could work better in this sense, but we'll see.
One song I initially suggested internally was "Start the Commotion" by The Wiseguys. It's a funky little tune that \NERD ALERT** I remember playing in middle school band. The bit from 25 seconds until 55 seconds has real potential, I think.
Have a suggestion for us?
Submit it here!
Tweet from @Holsty07: Will college rush be back for the upcoming season?
Yep! That's definitely returning. In fact,
College & Military Rush
ticket numbers were up 20 percent in the 2017-18 season.
And speaking of college, look for
College Colors
to expand in year two to include more North Carolina schools.

Great question! I could probably dedicate an entire article or podcast to life in a social media world, but that's a different conversation for a different day.
Like you said, negative comments are inevitable, and I think that's the most important thing to consider. No matter if it's sports or a movie or a book or a piece of clothing or a sound bite or something you saw that you thought was share-worthy, someone somewhere is probably going to disagree and make it known. Sometimes, disagreement can spark worthwhile, constructive discussion. Often times - especially on Twitter, where brevity reigns and nuance is easily lost - it just results in an echo chamber of noise.
I think the key to tuning out the noise is to simply understand that it's going to exist. That's way easier said than done in a lot of instances, but that's when I have to remind myself that acknowledging the noise only encourages it to become louder. There's a mute button. There's a block button. Or I could just close the app and move on with my day.
With that said, there is a lot of good that comes from Twitter and social media, which has connected the world in unparalleled ways. This very mailbag feature has roots in Twitter and continues to exist because you all follow along, read and engage on a weekly basis.
And I'm very thankful for that.

Congratulations, sir!
For those of us who work in hockey, August is the safe month. I got married in August, and it's also a great month to get away for vacation. If the wedding can't be that late in the summer, shoot for late June. Emphasis on late.
Just in case.
\\*
Join me next week for more questions and more answers!
If you have a question you'd like answered or you'd like to discuss the series finale of "The Middle" (a "Heck of a ride," indeed), you can find me on Twitter at
@MSmithCanes
or drop an email
here
.