Changing the routine

For now, Hurricanes will skip traditional pregame skates

The Carolina Hurricanes didn't hold a pregame skate before their season-opener against the Florida Panthers.

There was no pregame skate before the game against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday.

Nor will there be one Friday before the Canes play the Los Angeles Kings.

See a trend developing here?

The pregame skate, a day-of-game warmup routine for many NHL teams, no longer is in the Hurricanes' plans. Coach Peter Laviolette said his team can do without them -- a sentiment supported by general manager Jim Rutherford.

"It's something we've talked about, and I think there's a lot of research that says you're probably just wasting energy out there," Laviolette said.

Laviolette said he consulted with Pete Friesen, the Canes' strength and conditioning coach, and decided to take a look at going without the skates in the preseason exhibition games.

"Just let the guys kick a soccer ball around, stretch and get treatment but not put the equipment on and go out and sweat for 20 to 30 minutes -- sometimes they're out there for 40 minutes," Laviolette said. "I don't know if it's right or wrong. But we tried it during the exhibition season, I liked the jump we had in almost all the games we had other than the first one. ... We've decided to keep going down that road."

The Panthers had a pregame skate at the RBC Center the morning of this past Friday's season-opener. The Tampa Bay Lightning, the Canes' opponent on Saturday, had a skate.

The Red Wings, the defending Stanley Cup champions, skated before Monday's game at the RBC Center, a 3-1 Detroit victory. The Kings will skate Friday morning.

"We'll evaluate it as we move on through the course of the season," Laviolette said. "But if you keep the guys out of their equipment an additional 80 to 90 times, I don't think that's such a bad thing."

Rutherford said the practice of conducting pregame skates began in the 1970s, when he was a young goaltender in the NHL. Hall of Fame coach Scotty Bowman, he said, was one of the first to get his players on the ice in the morning for some skating and perhaps a light practice.

"It was a way to break up the day," Rutherford said.

Some of the Canes' players don't mind skipping the skate.

"I've never had any use for them," veteran winger Ray Whitney said Wednesday. "I never thought they'd do anything for you. They don't make you better that night, I don't think.

"To me, personally, it's just wasted energy. Some guys treat it as a way to get up and get active, but I'd rather come down to the arena, have a cup of coffee, work on my sticks and stuff and if you need to exercise, go to the gym."

Among the undecideds is the team's No. 1 workaholic, captain Rod Brind'Amour.

"I guess we'll see," he said. "That's [Laviolette] trying to change things up a little bit.

"I'm not sure. I can go both ways. On the road, I kind of like to do it because there's too much down time sitting in a hotel, but at home I don't mind. There seems to be more things to do.

"But it really makes no difference. What matters is when that puck drops at night."

Winger Chad LaRose is one who prefers the skate, saying it makes him feel better, sharper.

"But, you know, it saves energy and whatever's working is whatever is best for the team," he said.

Forward Matt Cullen said there are days he'd like to get out and skate and days he could do without it -- just get in some stationary-bike time or stretching.

"It's just a matter of coming up with a new routine," Cullen said. "If you're not going to skate, you have to figure out a way to get yourself ready."

And, as Laviolette said, the Hurricanes could always go back to the pregame skates. Let the team have some poor starts and ...

"That's the secret right now," Brind'Amour said. "I think everybody is trying to figure out the routine because we've had [skates] our whole career.

"It's too early to put two and two together. If we go 10 games and you start seeing the same kind of thing, you might say, 'OK, we might need to do something different.' But I really don't think you'll see that."

Keep up with the latest on the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL from N&O writer Chip Alexander as the team heads to California for the first two of six consecutive road games.

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