RALEIGH -- Many of the Carolina Hurricanes players will begin to scatter in the next few days, and sooner than they expected.
Tim Gleason will head back to Michigan. Jeff Skinner will go back to Markham, Ontario, and Brandon Sutter to Red Deer, Alberta. Drayson Bowman should go to Charlotte to play for the Checkers in the American Hockey League's Calder Cup playoffs.
The Hurricanes believed they would be gearing up for the Stanley Cup playoffs, preparing to face the Washington Capitals in the first round. That was not to be after an agonizing 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday that left the Canes one victory short of qualifying as the NHL's regular season ended.
"We didn't expect to be in the situation we are now," forward Erik Cole said.
The question now is how many of the players who leave town will be returning to the team?
Cole is due to become an unrestricted free agent. So are Joni Pitkanen, Jussi Jokinen, Chad LaRose, Cory Stillman, Pat Dwyer and Jay Harrison.
General manager Jim Rutherford said re-signing Cole, who scored 26 goals, would be one of the team's priorities. But at what asking price? Cole, 32, made $3 million this season.
Pitkanen, who had a $4.5 million salary, is a swift, puck-moving defenseman who plays a lot of minutes. But are the Canes willing to pay what Pitkanen potentially could make on the free-agent market?
The Hurricanes slashed the payroll this season as majority owner Peter Karmanos Jr. looked to sell part of the team. Karmanos has said he has found a group of investors, but there has been no announcement on ownership changes and it's hard to say if more money will be invested in player salaries next season.
Missing the playoffs a second straight season didn't help, either. That has cost the team millions of dollars.
It is believed the Canes will look to restructure their group of defensemen, which means Pitkanen could have played his last game for the team. The Canes also could be in the market for a center and a veteran goaltender to back up Cam Ward.
Not that the Hurricanes will spend close to the NHL salary cap next season. They're still a "budget team."
There are prospects with the Checkers who will get another look next season, among them forwards Zach Boychuk and Zac Dalpe, and defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti.
The Hurricanes, who finished ninth in the Eastern Conference with a 40-31-11 record, will be remembered as a hard-working group that had some limitations. Had Ward not been so durable and reliable in goal, or had Skinner not blossomed in his rookie year - scoring 31 goals at age 18 - it may have been a .500 team.
It was a team that never won more than four in a row but never lost more than four in a row. The Hurricanes had no major injuries - remarkable in itself after the freakish injuries in the 2009-10 season.
Carolina played 21 sets of back-to-back sets, second only to the Buffalo Sabres' 22. Beginning with a 1-0 win in Buffalo on March 15, the Canes went 9-3-1 in their final 13 games.
Yet, it wasn't enough. They needed one more win to keep playing..
The RBC Center was electric Saturday in the final game of those 21 back-to-backs. But the Lightning, in a final playoff tuneup, built a 3-0 first-period lead and pushed it to 4-0, and the Hurricanes got no closer than 4-2.
What will the players remember most about the season?
"The schedule wasn't easy," Canes captain Eric Staal said. "I liked the energy, the excitement in our locker room. I thought we competed extremely hard every single game, every single practice.
"From the top down, we competed. That's all you can ask for, night in and night out. That seems to be what this organization has stood for over the years I've been here, with the leaders in front of myself.
"We worked extremely hard all year long. We did all you can ask."
Canes coach Paul Maurice said he couldn't have asked more of a team, in terms of effort and determination. Could the power play have been better? No doubt. Could the Canes have been better in their own end? Yes.
But the Canes kept pushing. In a transition season, they made it to the 82nd game with a chance.
"We learned to survive all those back-to-back games," Maurice said. "We never got out on that huge run, and at the same time we never let it go the other way. I'm very, very proud of the work they've put in the whole season."
