The Carolina Hurricanes have 36 players left in the 2011 Training Camp, and all but one participated in 90 minute practice sessions this morning at the RBC. While Chad LaRose, Patrick Dwyer, Derek Joslin, and Tim Brent seemed to be at 100%, Tuomo Ruutu was held out once again following what is officially called a minor LBI coming out of Friday's game vs the Nashville Predators.

Following practice, 29 of the 36 players headed to the airport to take the team's first flight to Manitoba to face Southeast Division rival Winnipeg Jets in a preseason rematch of Sunday's lopsided tilt in Charlotte. Veterans Eric Staal, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Chad LaRose, Tuomo Ruutu, Tim Gleason, Joni Pitkanen and Cam Ward remained in Raleigh. Coach Paul Maurice said he would announce tomorrow which 18 skaters would play in Wednesday night's game. Previous reports said Brian Boucher would be in goal the full 60 minutes with Charlotte- bound Mike Murphy as backup. 

I was able to make it to both the practices earlier today and I've got some quick notes. Plus some links from others on what's new on Edwards Mill Road.

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The Carolina Hurricanes assigned six players to Charlotte this afternoon and now are down to 43 players on their training camp roster.  Brett Bellemore, Kyle Lawson, Chris Murray, Matt Pistilli, Justin Soryal, and John Muse will be heading south soon and will participate in the Checkers training camp which starts next Monday.

Camp here has yet to be open for a full week, but there have been several cuts already.  The players realize this is do-or-die time and they are in full competition mode.  Let's face it, how often do you get the opportunity to compete for an NHL job? 

Several forwards still here, who are vying for just a couple of spots, are making good cases for themselves to make the team, although a couple of skaters probably want to step it up even more than they have.  Are you wondering what they might be thinking about all of this?

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to speak with a few of the players who are in the thick of things and I asked them a question or two about the experience, including how they prepared for camp.  Let's see what they had to say.

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As expected, the Hurricanes announced today that most of the prospects from the CHL have been returned to their junior teams. Defenseman Ryan Murphy is the exception among the 2011 draft class, and Paul Maurice says he will be playing in another exhibition game. Justin Faulk, who is 19, is also getting rave reviews as a young challenger who deserves a very long look for what he brings to the ice. Faulk signed a 2-way contract in the spring and, before camp, the consensus was that he was headed to Charlotte for more experience this upcoming season before cracking the Canes' line-up.

I was able to make today's scrimmage at noon. It was a bit different from yesterday in that only two NHL-lock players participated: Tim Brent and Jamie McBain. Several players who had not scrimmaged yesterday, but played in the game in Buffalo Monday night, including Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, and Jerome Samson went head-to-head, giving them another chance to show what they could bring. 

After the jump, additional notes to bring you up to date on today, as well as several links from the media in attendance.

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With the NHL preseason underway, every team enters the 2011-12 campaign with a clean slate and the expectation of reaching the postseason. Adam Proteau, a writer and columnist for The Hockey News, makes his living writing about the NHL and trying to predict how teams will perform short term and over the grind of an 82-game season.

Adam was kind enough to answer a handful of questions about the Hurricanes' upcoming season, including his insight on some of the ex-Toronto players that he has seen extensively.

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The Carolina Hurricanes held another scrimmage today and have more scheduled for this week, one each for Wednesday and Thursday.  If by chance you didn't think there was enough intensity in Sunday's Red/White game, the players ramped things up a bit today.

At one point, Justin Soryal and Tim Gleason apparently gave each other dirty looks and dropped the gloves to settle things.  Soryal accumulated over 200 penalty minutes in the AHL last season and will be looked upon to police things in Charlotte.  He was perhaps looking to show the Carolina coaching staff that he could play the same role in Raleigh, if needed. 

Whatever the reason behind it, the skirmish fired up the rest of the players and both sides skated with a bit more purpose after that.

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Yesterday's Red and White game was a wide open affair enjoyed by most who attended, except maybe for the goaltenders.  Just a few seconds into the contest, Eric Staal stole the puck away from Tuomo Ruutu and skated in alone to make it 1-0, giving fans just a sampling of what was to come. 

After all was said and done, the final score was 10-7 and the young forwards who were battling each other for jobs, all made cases for themselves. 

Chris Terry, Zac Dalpe, (Drayson Bowman), and Riley Nash each had a pair of goals.  Zach Boychuk, Jiri Tlusty, and Brett Sutter had goals.  Gregory Hofmann raised some eyebrows with some brilliant passing.  All in all, the offense looked very good, but there wasn't much intensity shown by the defense, (which is pretty normal in a scrimmage like this one.)

When Paul Maurice was asked after the game if he was concerned at all about the defense, he just shook his head and smiled. "No, not at all," he said. "There's going to be enough focus on it by time we're finished up here, we'll be much better at it."

The coach went on.  "You know what? You want to know that you're able to put the puck in the net too and you don't want it to be Staal all the time."

The team certainly proved that they could put the puck in the net.

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The Carolina Hurricanes held their first official practice sessions on the ice at the RBC Center today. With today's events closed to the public, the media stories are the best sources we have for what it looked like today. 

Here's what they're saying

Audio Links you want to hear, in particular listen to Paul Maurice's post practice comments - audio [6:42 minutes] Talking about the pairing of Ryan Murphy and Bryan Allen, and why Murphy's relatively small size isn't a big concern; how the battles among the young forwards should ideally play out; and describing the new defensive system coming from the new blueliner coach Dave Lewis. 

You should also listen to Ryan Murphy's own  post-practice audio [1min] after his first session with NHL players and a bit on signing the contract yesterday. 

Direct from Hurricanes.com, Michael Smith does a first class job reporting on the action for all three sessions. First Day of Training Camp Packs Energy, Physicality - Michael Smith, Tracking the Storm

A familiar voice in a new role Forwards Face Tough Competition at Camp  - Paul Branecky, Charlotte Checkers' gocheckers.com All of that time has been spent jockeying for position in the organizational depth chart, which leads to an interesting dynamic for those that normally call themselves teammates and friends in Charlotte. His twitter feed was also filled with some good info: @PaulBranecky.

Sample: Twitter / @PaulBranecky: 

Victor Rask says he's definitely playing in North America next season, but doesn't know where. Carolina, Charlotte, Calgary all possible. Rask: "Not knowing has been weird and I've been living out of a suitcase, but its good to have options"

After the jump, more from today, Canes Country's plans for the Sunday Scrimmage, a couple more great previews of the Hurricanes Camp you'll want to read. Add in notes from Traverse City which have some very positive Hurricanes tie-ins. Plus what about that Frederik Andersen?

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The Carolina Hurricanes have released the rosters for tomorrow's Red vs White Scrimmage game, set for noon at the RBC Center. There are 22 players, including 8 defensemen on each side.  Here is our updated  7-page .pdf guide reflecting those rosters. Click on this link to download: Canes Country's Guide to 2011 Training Camp.

The remaining12 players not taking part in the scrimmage will be practicing at the early session at 9:30. Derek Joslin was held out of practice today due to illness which would seem to explain why he is not participating in tomorrow scrimmage. Justin Faulk was moved over to take Joslin's spot in today's groupings.

Cam Ward also missed today's practice because of "upper body stiffness". Regular alternate Jorge Alves took his place on this ice

Sunday's scrimmage game will feature all the typical events from a regular season game, including the singing of the National Anthem, and three full periods of play with intermission entertainment. No word yet on who will coach the second team. This event is general admission so all seats are open to the public and a ticket is not required.  

Tomorrow's match is the first scrimmage game held during a Canes training camp since 2008,  when Peter Laviolette was coaching here in Raleigh. There will be a second scrimmage game at the RBC Center this Wednesday at noon.

The first pre-season game is set for 7pm Monday night in Buffalo, when the Canes face the Sabres. That game will not be televised, but will be broadcast on the radio at 99.9 ESPN the Fan. The first pre-season game in Raleigh is next Friday, Sept 23 vs Nashville.

Bob Wage is attending the practice this morning, and you can follow @CanesCountry on twitter for live reports. The last session begins at 12:30. Check back for his write up with quotes from the players later on.