The time has come, Caniacs. The Carolina Hurricanes have returned to Raleigh for the 2019-2020 season. Quite a bit took place on their first day of training camp.
THE TIME HAS FINALLY COME, FOLKS! Our favorite bunch of jerks, the Carolina Hurricanes, are back in Raleigh for the 2019-2020 season. This season’s training camp began this past Friday, September 13th. Quite a bit went down, so here’s a quick highlight of what happened on the ice and in the locker room when the players spoke to the media.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first: Justin Faulk, who is reportedly on the trade block at the time of writing, was out on the ice practicing as usual. From my perspective, he didn’t seem to be phoning it in at all. Which is good to see that he is still committed to this team for as long as he’s here. I’ll paraphrase here, but in his talk with the media he said that he will continue to show up for as long as he’s here and he’s not the first person to ever have his name thrown around in trade talks.
From all accounts, the new additions are fitting in very well. Erik Haula said that he’s excited to be in Raleigh and that he isn’t used to being around so many other Finnish guys. (The Hurricanes seem to be the go-to destination for star Finnish players after all, Erik.)
The big quote came from new defenseman Jake Gardiner, however; this one may be an early contender for quote of the year for me, guys. Gardiner, who reportedly turned down more money from Montreal, said the following;
Jake Gardiner on signing with the #Canes: "I want to win a Stanley Cup, and I thought this was my best chance to do it."
— Michael Smith (@MichaelSmithNC) September 13, 2019
Hayden Fluery made the first penalty shot of training camp after Andrei Svechnikov missed one and Dougie Hamilton missed two.
Petr Mrazek, who spent his off season at home in the Czech Republic, said he is happy to be back with the Hurricanes. He also bought the whole team matching hats, which are awesome and I need one in my life now. Also, after getting an up close look at his new goalie mask, it is freaking beautiful.
.@pmrazek34 is happy to be back and also has a very cool hat pic.twitter.com/2L8FOKKNsW
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) September 13, 2019
We also got the first “Woo!” of the season from my man Jordan Martinook, who also took an awkward slide into the goal post which garnered a cringy “Oooo!” from the crowd in attendance. No worries, though; Martinook was fine. He got up and kept going just as hard as he did before taking the tumble.
On the other side of the coin, Carolina Hurricanes prospect Chase Priskie left early to go to the doctor due to an (as yet) undisclosed injury. Hopefully, it’s nothing too serious and he will be back. Cardiac Cane wishes him a speedy recovery.
Trevor van Riemsdyk‘s status is still up in the air, which I can live with. I am with the team and don’t want to rush his return. The Carolina Hurricanes have plenty of depth when it comes to defenseman, so they should just let him take his time and make sure he’s at 100% when he comes back.
Day one was a fun one for sure, excluding Priskie’s injury, of course. The team seemed to be getting back in the groove of things. All of the new guys were meshing well from my perspective. Hopefully, the rest of training camp will continue to go as smoothly and there will be no more injuries.
Question for CC readers: Who do you think will be an early standout at training camp?