Today's the day. We'll have the Canes Country game preview for tonight's opening match of the 2011-12 season, when your Carolina Hurricanes host the Tampa Bay Lightning, up following the morning skate. For now, some opening day stories to get you in the mood.

From Raleigh

• Canes' opening night a chance for payback - Chip Alexander, NewsObserver.com When the NHL schedule for the 2011-2012 season was released in June, the reaction of the Carolina Hurricanes was both immediate and predictable.
• If and coulds need answers for Canes - Mike Maniscalco, WRALSportsFan.com Never too early to look to see if a team can make the post season.
• Canes star enters sophomore season with attention of local, national media - NewsObserver.com Want to sell tickets? Skinner is your man. Want to sell merchandise? Go with Skinner. Want a new media star, someone who appeals to fans of all ages? Jeff Skinner, come on down.
• Dalpe's goal: start to finish with Canes - Canes Now  "We've got a little speed and I think Timmy Brent 's a little underrated when it comes to the skill side of the game,"  Zac Dalpe said. "Obviously with a big guy like Stewart you can get him to the front of the net. We might be in that fourth-line spot but I don't look at us as a fourth line. I think we're pretty good. We'll see what we can make of it."
• Maurice embraces pressure - Chip Alexander, NewsObserver.com Coach Paul Maurice is in the final year of his contract, a situation that seems tenuous at best and perhaps foreboding after the Canes missed the playoffs the past two seasons.
• Canes coach on a tight schedule - Luke DeCock, NewsObserver.com Beware the Ides of ... December? In his career as an NHL general manager, Jim Rutherford has only fired a coach three times.

The Tampa Bay Lightning perspective

• After breakthrough season, Bolts ready to strike again | The Tampa Tribune For the better part of two years, the Lightning looked like a team wandering about a frozen desert in search of a hockey oasis.
• Lightning News Report Season Opener - Official site of Tampa Bay Lightning Coach Guy Boucher and theLightning anything but complacent one day before season opener
• Stamkos eager to put education to use | The Tampa Tribune When we last saw Steven Stamkos, he was at the end of his first playoff season - and he was a bloody mess. His nose was shattered by a shot from Boston Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final. Stamkos and his red river left the ice. But before long, he was back out there, his face behind a cage, that bludgeoned nose a righteous symbol of playoff "All In".