Time to get started: Canes, Preds in opener
NASHVILLE -- Carolina Hurricanes captain Eric Staal is beginning his 12th NHL season and center Jay McClement his 11th, but the emotions, the feelings about a season opener never change.
Asked Thursday morning if he still has butterflies before an opener, Staal said, “No question, and especially tonight when you get to the rink. You get amped up and excited and get some goosebumps along the way.”
A year ago, McClement was about to play his first game with the Canes when Carolina opened the season against the New York Islanders at PNC Arena. That was special, but this year’s opener is on the road, against the Nashville Predators, in a building where the Preds rarely lost last season.
“It’s always exciting,” McClement said after the Canes’ morning skate at Bridgestone Arena. “Training camp is great for getting things ironed out and I think we began to turn in the right direction and find our game a little bit, and that’s always a great sign. But it’s always long and you’re itching to get going by now.
“It’s finally here. We’re looking to get off on the right foot.”
The Preds are starting their 17th NHL season and are 8-6-2 in home openers. Bridgestone Arena will be packed and Preds fans excited about a team that finished with 104 points last season, the third-best total in franchise history. Nashville was 28-9-4 at home last season, the best in the Western Conference.
“We know how we’ll have to play against them because they’re a good, solid team with lots of depth,” McClement said. “We’ve got to play our game and tight checking hockey. There’s no room for error. We have to play with all the details we’ve been working on for two weeks.”
Canes coach Bill Peters did not tweak the lines in the morning skate. Eric Staal will center Kris Versteeg and Elias Lindholm, Jordan Staal will center Nathan Gerbe and Riley Nash, Victor Rask is at center with Jeff Skinner and Chris Terry, and McClement will center Joakim Nordstrom and Andrej Nestrasil.
Justin Faulk and Ron Hainsey will be the top defensive pairing. The other D pairings have John-Michael Liles with James Wisniewski, and Noah Hanifin with Ryan Murphy.
Cam Ward, beginning his 11th season for the Canes, will be the starting goalie.
“The biggest challenge is (Nashville) is a good team and has a lot of momentum in this building,” Peters said Thursday. “They get one in this building and next shift is very big. They usually get another one or get another good chance.
“Things are going to go wrong at some point tonight and when they do go wrong let’s get regrouped quickly and go right back to work.”
Peters said there would be a lot of emotion in the building but noted that “works both ways.”
“I look at the standings from last night and I don’t think a home team won,” Peters said. “There’s a lot of distractions, too, when you’re opening up the season. A lot of people in town, a lot of requests that you’ve got to fulfill.
“For us, it’s just come out and be who we are, get off to a good start and limit our mistakes.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2015 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Time to get started: Canes, Preds in opener."