For the first time since the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup, hockey will be played in the Lenovo Center Tuesday Night.
Sure you aren’t likely to see, well, any of players that actually played a major role in that Cup win, and it’s the Preseason not the regular season, and there isn’t going to be any sort of celebration for the Cup as that happens next Tuesday—but still, it’s amazing to think of everything that’s happened since a team wearing the Hurricanes uniform last played on the Lenovo Center
ice.
The team won and lifted the Cup, the amazing celebrating in downtown Raleigh, the months of celebrations all over the world, and the renovations inside their home.
Yes, renovations. Fans will get their first look of the new lower level seating area Tuesday as all the lower seats were replaced, the sections between each baselines saw aisles removed and reconfigured to add a few more seats. The area where the Canes used to enter the ice through the fan tunnel is now gone and filled with more seating. There are also going to be new boards, new glass, new LED signs on the steps that will likely be used for advertising as well as the goal celebrations, and for the players a refreshed locker room:
One thing that is the same from the last time the Hurricanes played—the starting goaltender. After Pyotr Kochetkov played an uneven game on Sunday, last year’s hero and the newly married Brandon Bussi will see his first action of the preseason. This will be after a busy summer for him, but also one where for the first time he knew where he would be spending the season, and there’s little doubt his offseason work reflected that.
He’s going to be busy as Rod Brind’Amour released the roster for Tuesday’s game and it looked pretty much the same as Sundays:
Walt notes, by the way, that Ronan Seeley’s name will be spelled correctly for all notes in the game.
What’s especially noteworthy about this roster is that there’s really only one player who one would expect to be an every game player in the regular season—Mark Jankowski. Mike Reilly might see some time in Alexander Nikishin’s spot until that situation is resolved, and there’s the discussion of who’ll take Seth Jarvis’ spot, but really it’s clear that Brind’Amour plans to use the latter two games to get his regulars into game shape versus the first two. Perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that these Canes and Panthers will face off a week from Tuesday? Who’s to say?
One name that does also stand out is Nicolas Deslauriers, and that feels pointed considering the confrontation between Charles Alexis Legault and Brady Tkachuk in the third period Sunday. Remember this same Panthers team was involved in two fight-filled preseason matches against Tampa last season. We’ll see if Florida decides to go with their full team lineup again or if they do the same thing on the road the Canes did and send out a mostly minor league lineup.
Of course if Paul Maurice had his way, you’d play one preseason game like a regular season game:
It honestly feels like tonight’s roster is how Rod Brind’Amour thinks about this.
One more note—with the Hurricanes Hockey Network premier happening next Friday, Mike Sundheim notes that Tuesday’s broadcast will be a little different than what is normally seen on the website:
If you aren’t going to be in Lenovo tonight—and it might be an enjoyable experience because traditionally they don’t do advertisements during the preseason so it may be the most “pure” experience—here’s how you can catch the action
Time: 7 PM Eastern
TV: None
Streaming Video: ESPN + will show the action for fans outside the Canes market area, inside the region you can stream the action directly on Hurricanes.com, the actual link will appear before the game. As Sundheim notes for this game you’ll have a pregame show at 6:30 PM which will likely have Hannah Yates and Shane Willis, then the broadcast appears to be peek at what the HHN will look like with Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy on the call
Radio: The pregame Storm Watch with Adam Gold on 99.9 The Fan starts at 6:30 PM and runs for 30 minutes. At 7 PM the Hurricanes Radio Network (consisting of 99.9, 730 The Game in Charlotte, ESPN New Bern 107.5/1490, and ESPN Greenville 107.5/1570) will pick up Mike and Tripp.
