Friday, September 30, 2011

Carolina Hurricanes a week away from home opener

Zac Dalpe cracking the Canes lineup
As the Carolina Hurricanes prepare to begin the regular season on October 7, the team's most recent roster cuts came on Thursday.

The team's 24-man roster takes on the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night and has the team preparing to be in season-ready form over the next week.

Before camp started many speculated that the forward positions would be the only ones to be contested but as training camp has progressed rookies Justin Faulk (19 years old) and Ryan Murphy (18 years old) have made strong cases to contest for a spot with the blue line corps of veterans.

With only two games remaining in the preseason, the next week of practices will really focus on putting together all of the individual and small group positional work that coach Paul Maurice and his staff have been putting the team through.

Hurricanes fans can expect a more quick puck-moving offense and a defense that will 'gap' opposing teams in the neutral zone to cause more turnovers with quicker transition into the offense and increase in shots on goal.

That's the plan anyway.

How quickly the team develops those systems to pay dividends remains to be scene, but they're exciting prospects to consider.

New feature: X's & O's

Stay tuned as a new feature titled X's & O's will show the team's plays drawn up to help everyone understand what they're trying to do during games.

Follow on Twitter @pksport to get picture posts of play set-ups used in the games starting on Sept. 30 during the Hurricanes vs. Columbus Blue Jackets game and throughout the season.

Thoughts and comments are welcome at any time.

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