Carolina Hurricanes

The rip current that annually sucks the optimism out of the Carolina Hurricanes' sheltered bay came early this year.

As the hours until Friday's regular-season-opening game wind down, the 'Canes have been left near-shipwrecked and already seeking to patch a plethora of holes.

Eighteen percent of the Hurricanes' total salary cap and 23 percent of last year's goal production already sits on the injured list.

Jordan Staal was injured in the team's second preseason game and will miss three to four months with a broken leg, and Jeff Skinner is out indefinitely with a concussion—his third in less than three years. 

The long-term absences of two different top-six forwards deal a terribly-timed punch to a Carolina offense still seeking to redefine its identity.

Skinner ranked 11th in the NHL with 33 goals last season, while Staal ranked fifth on the 'Canes in points and was the team's most trusted defensive forward. Now, young guns like Victor Rask, Chris Terry and Patrick Brown—a trio who, thanks to Terry, sport 13 combined games of career NHL experience—will attempt to fill their places.

A month ago, expecting a big improvement in 2014-15 from the offensive unit would've been completely justifiable. The unit is much more talented on paper than their 2013-14 performances indicated, as the team was ranked No. 23 in goals scored. Also, new head coach Bill Peters can't possibly mismanage his players as much as predecessor Kirk Muller did.

But such hopes now appear unlikely to be fulfilled.

Outside of the pair of devastating injuries, the Raleigh hockey scene was blindsided by a poorly-worded headline that sparked false rumors about the franchise's future in North Carolina being up in the air.

Meanwhile, the 'Canes won just two of seven preseason games—albeit while fielding a more prospect-filled lineup than their opponents on most nights—and now stumble into the regular season with the worst Stanley Cup odds in the league (according to Odds Shark).

Faced with such a maelstrom of conflict and uncertainty, many teams would turn to their coaching and managerial staff to rebuild confidence in the ranks. Unfortunately for Carolina, however, neither Peters nor new GM Ron Francis have held their current leadership positions for a single NHL game.

Both men seem to be smart choices for the franchise's long-term future, but their inexperience nonetheless adds to the team's instability for the moment.

Said Peters optimistically to Chip Alexander of The News & Observer on Tuesday:

We’re going to have to be real responsible defensively and make sure we’re the hardest-working team each and every night in order to give ourselves a realistic chance. I think we’re capable of that. We’ll find a way.

The season will mercifully (or not) begin Friday night at PNC Arena, kicking off a back-to-back home-and-home with the rebuilt New York Islanders. The 'Canes play their third home game of the year next Tuesday against Buffalo then don't return to Raleigh again until Nov. 1.

The first nine contests of the season, in fact, take place in seven different arenas—hardly a schedule conducive to developing chemistry and routine.

Desperate for answers to many nagging weaknesses and simultaneously hungry for success on the ice, the 'Canes may find it impossible to solve both issues at once.

It's a paradox that threatens to doom Carolina's entire 2014-15 season before it even begins.

Mark Jones has covered the Carolina Hurricanes for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.

Ryan Murphy and Zach Boychuk have been here before, dueling for an opening night NHL job at Carolina Hurricanes training camp.

Victor Rask hasn't.

For all three, though, the race for a valuable NHL roster spot has now pushed on into October—and considering the current ambiguity of the Hurricanes' lower lines and pairings, all three stand respectable chances of indeed earning such valuable spots.

What has each done through Carolina's first four preseason games to stand out above the masses? A quick analysis lies below.

Zach Boychuk

In very uncharacteristic fashion, Boychuk's impact in his two appearances to date hasn't reflected onto the box score—but that doesn't mean he hasn't been noteworthy nonetheless.

The defending AHL scoring leader has registered one assist (a setup on a Murphy power-play goal in the Hurricanes' lone win) and five shots in two preseason games, having played 17:47 in the loss to Buffalo and 12:39 in the win over the New York Islanders. He's been active in both games, producing an abundance of offensive opportunities and looking much less like the ghost he's resembled during NHL call-ups in the past.

Said Boychuk to Charlotte Checkers reporter Paul Branecky a week ago:

It’s kind of a new era with a new GM and a new coach. It’s exciting for everybody, especially for me. Coming into camp I’ve done everything I can over the summer to be ready for this and this is kind of my year to break out. Hopefully I do well in the preseason games and we’ll see what happens.

Perennially a superstar in the minor leagues, Boychuk has never really found his niche as a "glue player" between superior teammates in the NHL. Perhaps new head coach Bill Peters will find a new way to employ him, or perhaps the former first-round selection is just a very late bloomer.

Ryan Murphy

For Murphy, the 2014 preseason isn't about earning an NHL roster spot, but rather reproving himself worthy of one in a strengthened 'Canes defensive unit.

The 21-year-old defenseman played 38 of Carolina's first 41 games last season but then only 10 of the second 41, demoted due to his back-end weaknesses and strangely negative effect on the needy power-play unit.

So far, Murphy's performance appears to be pointing towards last spring rather than last fall, the fluky half of the campaign.

No. 7 has tallied at least a point in all three preseason appearances, including the Hurricanes' opening goals against both the Isles and St. Louis Blues. He's played over 22 minutes twice already, averaged a whopping 4:55 of man-advantage ice time per game (finally embracing the power-play quarterback role that fits so perfectly to his skill set) and thrown seven shots from the blue line on goal.

Murphy is fighting against a varied collection of fellow defensemen—Ron Hainsey, John-Michael Liles, Brett Bellemore, Tim Gleason, Jay Harrison and Haydn Fleury—for playing time, but the competition beneath Justin Faulk and Andrej Sekera is actually quite wide-open. A superior training camp performance could boost Murphy into a second-pairing role even.

Victor Rask

The wave of faceoff concerns triggered by Manny Malhotra's departure and Jordan Staal's broken leg have been eased somewhat by the incredible draw success of young Victor Rask in this year's preseason.

Rask has won 22 of 32 faceoffs (68.8 percent) in three appearances, dominating the likes of Islanders veteran center Frans Nielsen (went 5-of-5 while the rest of the 'Canes were a combined 2-for-6 against him) and Sabres star youngsters Sam Reinhart (5-of-7) and Mikhail Grigorenko (3-of-4).

With Staal leaving the 'Canes more shallow down the middle than they've been in years, Rask stands to receive a tremendous opportunity to transition from an unremarkable AHL contributor to an NHL regular in just one summer's time.

No player has made more appearances than Rask's three to date, and Bill Peters' regular praise of the former second-round choice is reportedly hitting home, as noted by Chip Alexander of the News & Observer Monday.

While No. 49 still hasn't recorded a scoring point yet, a favorable mixture of beneficial circumstances and strong on-ice effort has helped Rask emerge as a top contender for a highly-contested opening-night job.

Mark Jones has been a Carolina Hurricanes Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.

It's been five seasons since the Carolina Hurricanes reached the postseason. The only team with a longer drought is the Edmonton Oilers, who haven't been back to the playoffs since losing to the Hurricanes in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final.

Consider that Exhibit 3,045 in the case against recognizing the 2005-06 season as a real NHL season.

The last time the Hurricanes danced, in 2009, Evgeni Malkin scored this ridiculous goal as the Penguins swept the Hurricanes in the conference finals.

*Checks Hurricanes offseason moves*

*Sees biggest signings were Jay McClement and Tim Gleason*

*Slogs ahead with this piece anyway*

What We Learned in 2013-14

The 2013-14 Carolina Hurricanes were a picture of both consistency and mediocrity. They never were worse than three games below NHL .500 (4-7-3) and never better than five games above NHL .500 (26-21-9). After the Hurricanes reached that high-water mark Feb. 7, they finished the season 10-14-2.

It cost coach Kirk Muller his job. In two-plus seasons with the Hurricanes, Muller had an 80-90-27 mark and perhaps a poorer record of deploying his talent.

Two seasons ago, Muller relegated Jussi Jokinen to the third line and severely limited his minutes. Jokinen had six goals and 11 points in 33 games during the 2013 season and had less even-strength ice time than forwards Patrick Dwyer and Jared Staal.

Jokinen was eventually traded to the Penguins for a conditional draft pick and had seven goals in 10 games. The following season, he had 21 goals and 57 points in 81 games, most of them played alongside Evgeni Malkin, and added seven goals in 13 games during the 2014 playoffs.

On a related note, longtime general manager Jim Rutherford was also relieved of his duties during the offseason.

Muller also managed the ice time of Jeff Skinner, one of the elite young talents in the NHL, in a weird fashion. Skinner had 33 goals in 2013-14, tied for 11th most in the NHL, and did it all with a mere 17:11 of ice time per game. On 16 occasions, Muller limited Skinner's ice time to 15 minutes or fewer.

Among the top-20 goal scorers in the NHL last season, no one played less than Skinner.

It was a confounding use of offensive talent for a team that finished tied for 23rd in scoring last season. 

Injuries limited goaltender Cam Ward to 30 games, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The 30-year-old Ward had the worst season of his NHL career, posting an .898 save percentage while missing time with a lower-body injury. That opened the door for Anton Khudobin and Justin Peters; Khudobin went 19-14-1 with a 2.30/.926 split, while Peters went 7-9-4 with a 2.50/.919 split. 

Khudobin is back, but Peters signed a UFA deal with the Washington Capitals.

The bad news is the mismanagement of talent and some key injuries (the Hurricanes lost 293 man games to injury last season, including 82 by defenseman Joni Pitkanen) quelled the Hurricanes last season. The good news is a few corrections in roster usage and some breaks on the injury front could help the Hurricanes turn around in 2014-15.

Outlook for 2014-15

With Muller and Rutherford out, the Hurricanes hired first-time head coach Bill Peters, formerly an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings, and promoted Ron Francis to general manager after spending eight seasons in the team's front office.

In terms of assembling a new roster, Francis didn't get much done this summer. Here's a projected look at the 2014-15 lineup, and it's not exactly a massive overhaul from last year's team.

LW	C	RW	LD	RD
Jiri Tlusty	Eric Staal	Alex Semin	Andrej Sekera	Justin Faulk
Jeff Skinner	Jordan Staal	Patrick Dwyer	J-M Liles	Ron Hainsey
Nathan Gerbe	Riley Nash	Elias Lindholm	Jay Harrison	Tim Gleason
Chris Terry	Jay McClement	Radek Dvorak	Ryan Murphy	Brett Bellemore

The three newest faces are Gleason (who is also an old face), Jay McClement and Brad Malone. Among the departed are Peters, Drayson Bowman and Manny Malhotra, while Tuomo Ruutu was traded at last year's deadline for Andrei Loktionov, who remains a free agent after suffering a shoulder injury at the world championships.

Ward and Khudobin will likely have a tug of war for the No. 1 goaltender spot, which the Hurricanes should hope is won by Khudobin.

What type of difference will the new acquisitions make, if any?

Malhotra was the consummate defensive checking line center, as he started 59.3 percent of his shifts in the defensive zone last season, the second most in the league, which speaks to his role as much as it does to how Muller felt about Eric Staal, who began 40.3 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone, the fifth-highest number among centers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deTTQdnGMmY

The 34-year-old Malhotra's possession numbers (41.4, -10.7) were understandably poor given his deployment, and McClement (38.7, -5.0) might find the sledding just as tough in a similar role. McClement began 51.1 percent of shifts in his own zone last season and faced a similar level of competition as Malhotra, which doesn't bode well for a team looking to improve its depth this season.

The addition of Gleason is designed to...well...that one's a bit of a mystery. He certainly isn't good enough to crack the top four of Justin Faulk, Andrej Sekera, Ron Hainsey and John-Michael Liles, and it's debatable if he's worth using on the bottom six. Gleason will likely battle Brett Bellemore, Ryan Murphy and Jay Harrison for playing time, although a comparison of the four (that was a sweet table I compiled on the defunct Extra Skater you can no longer see) allows for a compelling argument that Gleason is the least attractive option.

It all adds up to Peters having to bear the brunt of this turnaround.

Francis told NHL.com:

Part of what we were looking for in a new coach is somebody who could come in and change the culture a bit -- hold guys accountable, demand our guys are playing hard every night, playing a 200-foot game. We're hoping that with a healthy lineup and the changes we made from players to coaches to management, we're going to field the team we want on a night-in, night-out basis to give us the opportunity to be successful.

It sounds as though Francis is expecting the likes of Staal and Skinner, two of the most sheltered players in the league in terms of zone starts, to play a better two-way game in 2014-15. Murphy and Lindholm—a pair of young, promising players—must take a step forward in their already solid games in a new system with a new coach too.

If that works, and Khudobin matches his play from a year ago and the Hurricanes can stay reasonably healthy, there's hope for a playoff spot.

If that doesn't work, Ward and Staal could be dangled as trade bait at the deadline as the Hurricanes potentially sink to the bottom of the standings.

It's rare that so much pressure on a team's improvement is placed on the shoulders of a rookie coach, but that appears to be what's happening in Carolina this season.

With Jordan Staal missing 3-to-4 months with a broken leg to start the season, the outlook is bleak in Raleigh.

All statistics via NHL.com or Extra Skater (obtained in advance).

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.

From his first day with the Carolina Hurricanes on, new head coach Bill Peters has stressed the importance of the power play arguably above all other aspects of the sport.

Three games into the preseason, the effects of Peters' focus are already highly evident.

The 'Canes have scored seven total goals so far; a whopping five of the seven have come on the man-advantage.

The team is 5-for-15 overall on the power play, including two conversions in Sunday's loss to the Blue Jackets and three in Wednesday's win over the Islanders. Jeff Skinner and Ryan Murphy have each already tallied a goal and two assists while working the unit, while Andrej Sekera has scored twice from the blue line—including a 5-on-3 goal on Long Island.

It's not just luck that has helped Carolina to its 33 percent conversion rate, either. The 'Canes are producing a plethora of scoring chances on the man-advantage, as well.

Their average of 1.28 shots per minute of 5-on-4 time is a massive jump over last year's regular season rate of 0.85 shots per minute in the same situations. While regression is inevitable and the preseason is far from a tell-all, the improvement is nonetheless impressive.

Statistic	2013-14 Season	2014-15 Preseason
Conversion Rate	14.6 percent	33.3 percent
Goals per Game	0.50	1.67
Shots per Minute	0.85	1.28

Peters has frequently mentioned the power play as his top area of concern since arriving in Raleigh last June. 

When asked at his introductory press conference about what most needed fixing with the 'Canes, Peters listed the power play No. 1, per team reporter Michael Smith. “We have enough skill to have a good power play," he said.

At a Q&A with fans in July, the 48-year-old boss called Eric Staal's one power play goal in 2013-14 "unacceptable" and laid out bluntly his plan for the first man-advantage unit, which included the surprise of Alexander Semin manning the point.

During the first two practice days of training camp, solid chunks of time were spent both days "on power play breakouts and positioning," per Smith. Said Peters to Smith:

On the power play breakout, I want to make sure we’re all together and efficient. I want to make sure we have more than one or two ways to enter the zone. Once you’re in the zone, you...have to shoot it, and you have to retrieve it. The best power plays know what they’re going to do. 

Despite coming from an assistant coach job in Detroit where he "worked mainly with the defense and penalty kill," according to Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press, the offensive side of special teams has clearly captured Peters' attention this past offseason.

He is, after all, inheriting a Hurricanes team that ranked 28th in the NHL in power-play efficiency last season and hasn't finished higher than 18th in such regard since 2007-08.

Conversely, Carolina did enjoy the ninth-most power plays last season. Given their relatively plentiful opportunities and the league-wide conversion rate of 17.9 percent, the 'Canes should've scored nine or 10 more man-advantage goals than the 41 they actually did. And considering the team's mere minus-23 goal differential for the year as a whole, those additional conversions could've made a very significant difference. Had the power play been an above-average unit, the difference could've been even more substantial.

That's surely Peters' dream and plan for the 2014-15 campaign, in which he'll have to overcome extremely low expectations to help Carolina end its painful five-year playoff drought.

The transformation from 2013-14's underachieving Hurricanes to 2014-15's expectation-shattering Hurricanes may well have to revolve around a power-play revitalization.

Mark Jones has been a Carolina Hurricanes Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.

An serious injury to Jordan Staal during Tuesday's preseason game sent an earthquake rattling through the Carolina Hurricanes' offensive plans.

The 'Canes and new head coach Bill Peters expected to be able to rely on the duo of Jordan and Eric Staal as their steady first- and second-line centers. The brothers missed a combined three games in the entirety of the 2013-14 season—Eric accounting for all three.

But such stability is now in tremendous question.

Jordan suffered a broken leg during the third period of the Hurricanes' 2-0 loss to the Sabres in Buffalo on Tuesday night, with further details about the injury not yet publicly available:

Carolina's Jordan Staal taken off ice..no weight on right leg.after taking hit in #Sabres zone from Gorges...Exactly what teams can't have

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) September 24, 2014

NEWS: Jordan Staal suffers broken bone in leg during #Canes preseason game. Details: http://t.co/XVVIVFFkZT pic.twitter.com/KXietSMxAM

— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) September 24, 2014

According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons' website, recovery time for a broken tibia is typically around four to six months. Recovery time for a broken fibula, the other main bone in the lower leg, is usually slightly shorter.

In 82 appearances last season, Staal, 25, tallied 15 goals and 25 assists, ranking fifth on the team with 40 total points. Contrary to logic and expectations, however, his average ice time hit a six-year low as then-coach Kirk Muller struggled to obtain consistency in his player usage tactics.

A major jump in Staal's production could have been a significant boost to the Hurricanes' quest to field an offensive attack on par with the money they've spent on the unit. According to CapGeek.com, they currently feature the NHL's fourth-highest average salary per forward.

Now a multimonth absence from the 6'4" center appears set to again disrupt that goal.

Looking down the middle of the depth chart, no promising replacement candidates stand out.

Offseason addition Jay McClement should provide substantially more offensive output than departed Manny Malhotra. Despite how incredibly frequently he was overused in Toronto last season, however, the 31-year-old is primarily a defensive center and not a viable top-six player.

Meanwhile, Chip Alexander of the News & Observer suggests Riley Nash's job as the supposed fourth-line center has been drawing some competition from fast-rising prospect Victor Rask, the 42nd overall selection in the 2011 draft who scored nine points in four games during last week's NHL prospects tournament.

On a better note: Peters said he liked the play of Victor Rask and Anton Khudobin.

— Michael Smith (@MichaelSmithNC) September 24, 2014

Nash's job is now looking much safer, and Rask's NHL odds are now increasing even more, but neither a 25-year-old who scored 24 points in 73 NHL games last season nor a 21-year-old who scored 39 points in 76 AHL games last season seem well-fitted for a second-line role on opening night.

The most likely route of replacement may well be shifting over either Jeff Skinner or Elias Lindholm, both natural centers who played wing in 2013-14, into the hole.

Neither has played much center at the NHL level, yet both were originally drafted with top-10 picks as such.

Despite a late-season surge, Lindholm's 21-point rookie campaign was moderately disappointing. The talented youngster's career could take off in 2014-15 with a larger role at a more comfortable position.

Elsewhere on the roster, the NHL hopes of prospects like Brock McGinn, Zach Boychuk and Chris Terry will also receive a bump from Staal's injury—not only because of the additional available roster spot, but also because the loss of another key producer could make the upcoming season look more and more like a rebuilding year.

General manager Ron Francis could potentially turn to the free-agent market to add another forward, as well, like predecessor Jim Rutherford did by signing Ron Hainsey last September after Joni Pitkanen was ruled out for the year.

Although no players remotely near Jordan's caliber remain available this close to the season, a few NHL-level veterans—including wingers Dustin Penner (35 points last season) and Ray Whitney (32 points) and centers Michael Handzus (16 points) and Andrei Loktionov (22 points, including 10 with Carolina)—are still possibilities.

Mark Jones has been a Carolina Hurricanes Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.

Brock McGinn continued his dizzying career rise, Daniel Altshuller crumbled yet again under the spotlight, Victor Rask jumped into NHL roster spot contention and the Carolina Hurricanes finished fourth out of eight teams in the 2014 NHL Prospects Tournament.

The annual Traverse City, Michigan-hosted tournament concluded Tuesday night as the Columbus Blue Jackets' team defeated the Dallas Stars' squad to take the title. The 'Canes lost control of a late two-goal lead and fell to the Detroit Red Wings in overtime of the third-place game.

Twenty-three players—including 17 official prospects and six tournament invitees—participated under the watchful eyes of general manager Ron Francis and head coach Bill Peters. Carolina finished 1-3 last year and improved to 2-2 this autumn.

Date	Result	Goals
Friday, Sept. 12	Hurricanes 6, Sabres 1	Di Giuseppe (2), McGinn, Aleardi, Rask, Pedersen
Saturday, Sept. 13	Stars 4, Hurricanes 2	Tolchinsky, Rask
Monday, Sept. 15	Hurricanes 3, Rangers 2 (OT)	Rask (2), McGinn
Tuesday, Sept. 16	Red Wings 5, Hurricanes 4 (OT)	Robertson, Di Giuseppe, Tolchinsky, Brown

Rask's four goals tied him with two others for the highest total of the tournament. 2014 second-round draft pick Alex Nedeljkovic recorded both wins, while Altshuller (a 2012 third-round selection) suffered both losses.

What takeaways can be drawn from the results? Analyses of several noteworthy developments lie below.

Nedeljkovic Out-Shines Altshuller

The Hurricanes' two primary goaltending prospects both dominated the OHL in 2013-14. Altshuller posted a 31-13-3 record, 2.56 GAA (fourth in the OHL) and .917 save percentage (fifth); Nedeljkovic recorded a mediocre 26-27-7 record but ranked second in the league with a .925 save percentage.

The latter missed his first opportunity to compete directly opposite the former when he missed July's prospect development camp with a broken thumb, but he certainly took advantage of this past weekend's chance.

The 6'0" Ohio native stopped 50 of 53 shots (a .943 save percentage) in the Hurricanes' two victories, while Altshuller stopped only 50 of 58 (.862) in the two defeats.

The poor pair of outings continues an alarming trend for Altshuller, who hasn't yet lived up to his junior-league pedigree against top-caliber competition: The 6'4" netminder was also underwhelming in last year's tournament (recording an .877 save percentage), as well as at prospect development camp.

Both goalies will join the 'Canes at NHL training camp beginning Friday, per the 51-man roster released on Tuesday, and should see some action in the seven-game preseason schedule. A more conclusive comparison of the two should emerge in the weeks ahead.

Defensive Depth Improving

Last year's tournament sent warning alarms echoing throughout the organization about the state of the club's defensemen of the future—they were awful. The 'Canes allowed a whopping 25 goals against in four games (6.25 per game).

The organization thoroughly responded to the warning. Dennis Robertson was added to the system in January's Gleason-Liles trade, and Trevor Carrick exploded into relevance with a 51-point OHL campaign. Francis then spent the team's first-round pick in June on Haydn Fleury, the fourth-round pick on Josh Wesley and the seventh-round pick on Kyle Jenkins, all of whom played in Traverse City. 

As a result, the aforementioned GAA was cut by more than half this year. Fleury tallied three assists and played first-pairing minutes throughout the tiring four-games-in-five-days stretch; Robertson stood out as "quite the find" to team website reporter Michael Smith.

Carolina's newfound focus on restrengthening its cast of young defensemen seems to be working effectively.

NHL Roster Spot Contenders Bolster Resumes

Rask, the No. 42 overall selection in the 2011 draft, was desperately in need of a career jumpstarter after a disappointing 16-goal, 39-point AHL rookie season.

He may have found it this weekend. The 6'2" center racked up nine points (according to the Hurricanes' website), including the overtime game-winner against the Rangers. He'll be hard-pressed to surpass either Riley Nash or Jay McClement for a third- or fourth-line center role at the NHL level this coming season, but Rask's career may be back on track at last.

McGinn doesn't capable of making any missteps lately, and his five-point performance in a mere three appearances certainly didn't represent a change in that pattern.

The Hurricanes' best forward prospect at the moment, despite entering training camp as merely a dark horse for a roster spot, could easily be playing 18-plus minutes per game in the NHL in only another month or two.

Sergey Tolchinsky, Phil Di Giuseppe and Patrick Brown are all likely bound for the AHL in 2014-15, yet all three made their presences felt this weekend nonetheless. Tolchinsky scored twice and added three assists, Di Giuseppe trailed only Rask with three goals and Brown built upon a breakout development camp with two points of his own.

All unsourced statistics courtesy of Pointstreak.com.

Mark Jones has been a Carolina Hurricanes Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.

For the third consecutive season, all 82 games in the Carolina Hurricanes' 2014-15 season will be televised either locally or nationally.

The new TV schedule released today by the Hurricanes covers the remaining 79 games not already claimed by NBC Sports Network, with 67 on mother station Fox Sports Carolinas and an additional 12 on sister channel SportSouth.

The 'Canes home opener against the New York Islanders on Oct. 10 will be televised on FS-Carolinas, with the following night's rematch on SportSouth. A stretch of two games later in October and three consecutive games in November will also air on the secondary channel.

Nine of the 12 SportSouth games are against Western Conference opponents.

The team's final 19 contests of the season are all scheduled for FS-Carolinas broadcasts. 

Games on NBCSN: Oct. 14 vs. Buffalo, Jan. 27 vs. Tampa Bay, Feb. 24 vs. Philadelphia

Games on SportsSouth: Oct. 11 @ NY Islanders, Oct. 23 @ Calgary, Oct. 24 @ Edmonton, Nov. 15 @ Boston, Nov. 16 vs. San Jose, Nov. 18 @ Dallas, Jan. 4 vs. Boston, Jan. 6 @ Nashville, Jan. 13 vs. Colorado, Jan. 30 vs. St. Louis, Feb. 12 vs. Anaheim, Mar. 6 vs. Minnesota

All other games on Fox Sports Carolinas.

The tradition of televising every 'Canes game began in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, then was expanded to a full year for the first time in 2013-14. It's a big change from a decade ago, when the club excitedly announced that 10 games in the 2002-03 campaign would be televised in glorious HD.

Last year, 17 games were relegated to SportSouth—a network not typically available on local cable TV provider Time Warner Cable, although moved to a special events channel on game nights. 

The five-game reduction of that total for this coming season is the latest step forward in the Hurricanes' annually expanding media exposure.

The Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area ranked 24th in Nielsen's 2014 ranking of U.S. television markets, ahead of the Charlotte area (among many others) and up from 29th in 2005, with more than 1.165 million TV homes.

In population itself, the area has grown a whopping 60.5 percent since 1997—the year the Hurricanes announced their move south from Hartford. If translated directly to TV market size, one can reason that the RDU region may have added an additional 460,000-some TV homes since the arrival of NHL hockey.

The 'Canes have impressively taken advantage of such significant growth in the local media presence.

The next goal? Crawling out of the league basement in terms of national TV appearances.

Mark Jones has been a Carolina Hurricanes Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.