Tweetmail No. 206: Adjustments, Chemistry & Job

Hello and welcome to Tweetmail, 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.

Tweet from @Canesfan2006: With the team losing two in a row, what adjustments need to be made? #Tweetmail
The two losses in a row don't concern me as much as the bigger picture of the Canes starting 4-0-1 and then going 2-5-0 in their last seven games. The shootout win over San Jose was impressive, no doubt, but that gets overshadowed by regulation losses to a divisional opponent and an Eastern Conference opponent to wrap up the month. At the same time, the Hurricanes still find themselves ranking third in the Metropolitan Division, a fluid situation this early in the season, no doubt, but also a refreshing perspective considering the last two weeks.
"I'm not happy where we're at, for sure. Nobody would be happy with the record. I'm happy with the level of compete. I'm happy with a lot of things. But at the end of the day, we're here to win hockey games, so we've got to find a way to get over that hump," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said after Tuesday's game. "We've got to nip that in the bud right now and figure out ways to win."
We'll touch on some forward line adjustments in the next question, but what other adjustments might need to be made? Special teams play has to top that list. The power play is a mixed bag, but there are some encouraging signs of improvement. The penalty kill, on the other hand, is struggling. It ranks last in the league (66.7 percent), and there have been just two games this season - Oct. 5 in Columbus and Oct. 22 in Detroit, both regulation wins - in which the Canes have not surrendered a power-play goal. That will need to get squared away sooner rather than later, especially with a four-game road trip on tap. But maybe that's just what they need; Arizona, Chicago and Vegas rank 29th, 30th and 31st, respectively, on the power play.
Which leads us to …

Head coach Rod Brind'Amour and his coaching staff have essentially played with consistent forward lines and defensive pairs for 12 games now. In the first two weeks of the season, there was no need to mess with what was working. Since, results haven't been as consistent. Over the weekend, Brind'Amour explained his philosophy:
"I hated when a coach would come in after a period or two and be like, 'We're changing it' because we had a couple bad shifts. Usually, I felt like if you trust your guys, they can work their way out of it. Now, there are times when things go stale and it's nice to shake things up. I'm sure that will happen here at some point, but I don't really like to do that if I don't have to."
I wouldn't be surprised if that point was coming soon, perhaps as early as this weekend, when the Canes play in Arizona and Vegas on back-to-back nights to begin a four-game road trip. Brind'Amour was asked again Tuesday about perhaps switching things up.
"I like the way the lines are playing. I like the flow of it," he said. "We'll probably look at maybe doing something. You usually change lines to create chances, to create offense because you're going stale. I know we're not scoring, but I don't see it as an offensive drought as far as creating opportunities."
The trio that likely isn't getting touched is Sebastian Aho's line, which is driving the team's offense. Fair game for the other three. I'm not sure Andrei Svechnikov on Jordan Staal's line is the right answer, though, especially if Warren Foegele is on the opposite wing. Staal is a horse, no doubt, but flanking him with two rookies defeats the purpose of his line being a shutdown line. Brock McGinn could be an option for that line, given that he's played that role with Staal before.
If the team does experiment with lines, folks smarter than me (like, the coaching staff) will, I'm sure, put together some combinations that make sense.

Victor Rask isn't potentially returning to the lineup - he is returning to the lineup, just not any time soon. He remains out indefinitely after having finger surgery on his right hand. He is skating and working out off-ice, yes, but he can't put a glove on his right hand (or hold a stick, of course) just yet. That's the next step in his return from injury, followed by ramping up his on-ice work and rejoining the team at practice.
When that does happen, it's going to be a huge boost to the Canes down the middle of the ice. Rask can slot in as the third-line center, and Lucas Wallmark could man the middle on the fourth line; that's a drastic depth improvement.
"It's almost like adding a player or making a trade. That's how I look at it," Brind'Amour said at the start of the season. "We've got a good player coming at some point."

We should have them in stock from adidas by mid-December, just in time for Whalers Night on Sunday, Dec. 23.

Tweet from @TakeWarning1819: Here's one, Mike. Kinda basic but I'm curious. What's your favorite part of your job? Being able to interact with players and fans? Stretching your creativity chops? Helping to grow the game and the fan base?
My favorite part of my job is everything you listed - interacting with players and fans, stretching my creativity chops, helping to grow the game and the fan base - and more. Whenever I get asked this question, it's difficult to boil it down to one aspect that I enjoy the most. Perhaps above all, it's fun. Every day is different. From practice days to game days to travel days to off days, there's always something new or unexpected happening. It certainly keeps me on my toes and constantly drives me to be better at what I do. I come from a creative background, so being able to express that in my writing (like this weekly feature, for instance) or in CanesCast or in whatever else we do is an extreme pleasure and something I'm very appreciative of.
What's not to love about this job? I'm making a living working for a professional hockey team in my home state. I hope you all enjoy what we do as much as we enjoy producing it. Cheers!
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