RALEIGH -- The players stood in their spots and listened, and Paul Maurice lectured, and then they would try to do what he was telling them to do. Then he would correct them, and the players would switch places, and they would start again.
It was the kind of practice common during training camp, not November. For most teams, the teaching was conducted long ago.
The Carolina Hurricanes, after a start to the season that has been a complete and total disaster, might as well have been back in training camp Tuesday. It was a back-to-basics practice for a team that hasn't just lost its way, but never found it.
After spending the first 13 games of the season standing around and watching, then figuring out what to do next, the remedial system's work was designed to help players act more instinctively on the ice.
"We've got four guys waiting for the puck to be moved," Maurice said. The Hurricanes have looked slow, and yes, it may merely be because they're old. But maybe it's because they have spent too much time standing around wondering what to do and waiting to react. The longest journey starts with the first step, but so does the shortest one, and the Hurricanes aren't taking it.
They have nothing left to lose now. If they don't play with more aggression tonight at the Florida Panthers and Friday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, two teams as low in the standings as the Hurricanes, they deserve to be in the basement with them.
