The Carolina Hurricanes fully utilized the proximity of their farm club on Wednesday as they notified defenseman Brett Carson at 3:30 that he was needed to play in the game scheduled later that same night against the Ottawa Senators. Carson of course was in Charlotte at the time.
"They called me initially at 1:30," Carson told me. "They said to stay by the phone just in case. Then sure enough, I got the call at 3:30 to get up here as soon as I could."
That didn't leave much wiggle room for the blueliner as typically it's a two-and-a-half, to three hour drive from Charlotte to Raleigh. Carson said that he made the drive himself and arrived in just enough time to warm up and get dressed for the game.
He ended up with a pretty solid, if not uneventful, 12:51 of ice time in the game, "uneventful" being a positive description for a defenseman's performance who is on the cusp of making it in the NHL.
I also asked him how his game was progressing in Charlotte.
"It's going very well. I'm getting a lot of ice time and playing in a lot of different situations," Carson went on. "I've been working on my positioning and break outs. My offensive game still is not where I want it to be, but I'm working on it. "
Carson will have more time to work on his game in the minors as he was reassigned to the Checkers this morning.