Canes glad Sutter is back

RALEIGH -- Sometimes it's easy to forget Brandon Sutter is just 19 years old and an NHL rookie.

This has been a season of firsts for the Carolina Hurricanes forward: his first game, his first NHL goal, his first assist, his first penalty, his first penalty kill, his first victory and his first loss.

Then, of course, there was the hit. Sutter was knocked unconscious and suffered a concussion Oct. 25 when he was hit in the head and leveled by Doug Weight of the New York Islanders.

But Sutter appears to have bounced back quite well from his first major injury, showing the poise and on-ice demeanor of an older player. He hasn't been timid. He's back to working hard on the penalty kill, doing all the little things, the smart things.

"It's been awesome, for sure, to get back," Sutter said Monday. "Personally, I feel my health's good. Nothing's bugging me. I feel back to normal."

After missing eight games, Sutter returned to play 12 minutes last week in the Canes' 5-1 loss to the Washington Capitals at the RBC Center. Late in the game, he stepped in and flattened the Caps' Alexander Semin, who had scored two goals, assisted on the other three and generally had his way with the Hurricanes.

Sutter had 13 minutes of ice time against the Atlanta Thrashers in a 3-2 loss on Friday, then played nine minutes Sunday as the Canes rallied for a 3-2 shootout win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The game went to overtime with Tampa Bay on the power play. But Canes coach Peter Laviolette didn't hesitate in sending out Sutter for the 4-on-3 with the game on the line.

"I've done it before," the coach said. "I did it earlier in the year before he went out with the injury, where we have things that are on the line and important minutes at important times in the game.

"Brandon Sutter is a kid that you tell him once. If you tell him once, he usually gets it. If there's a mess-up in his assignment and you tell him a second time, it's done.

"When you get into that situation, it's got to be complete execution of what you're trying to do. It's staying tight, it's staying in the shot lanes, it's understanding the movement that the opposition has, and when pucks move from high to low what the coverage is, and he's just very good at figuring it out."

The Canes killed off the penalty. Soon the game was in a shootout, and Carolina won it, ending a three-game losing streak.

"The first game or two back, I didn't feel too great out there," Sutter said. "I was a little tired, with the pace of the game and stuff. I think after [Sunday], I've played three games, and I've gone hard for the last 10 days, so I feel like I'm back to where I was."

For Sutter, the Canes' first-round draft pick in 2007, that also means being able to go full tilt in practice, not just in the games.

"It's the pace," Laviolette said. "I think that was evident in [training] camp when he first came in, that he just needed to adjust to the pace and the speed of the NHL, and the players and how quick the game is thought and played.

"Today, I told him at the end of practice that I thought it was his best practice. You can just see things when somebody gets more confident with their skating and they start to get more confident with their puck movement and their speed picks up."

Since his return, Sutter has appeared fearless on the ice. He assisted on Wade Brookbank's goal against Tampa Bay that began the Canes' comeback, and though his body is lean, he isn't shying away from contact.

Sutter can even joke a little about Weight's hit.

"It's something that happened, and I don't even remember it, so I guess I have nothing to worry about," he said with a smile.