Carolina Hurricanes vs. Florida Panthers
BankAtlantic Center, 7:30 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas, FS-Florida

The long wait is finally over and the much anticipated 2013 season will begin tonight for the Carolina Hurricanes. Carolina comes into this season with a new-look offense and greater expectations than they've had in a few years. It's definitely an exciting time to be a Hurricanes fan right now, as there are a lot of rumblings about this team making a strong playoff push and maybe even a division championship. Before we begin to think about that, the Canes have some business to take care of the next few months and it starts tonight with a showdown against the defending Southeast Division champions in the Florida Panthers.

Regardless of what happens tonight, I'm sure the fans will be happy just that the NHL is back, after it looked like we may not have a season this year. Many of us have turned to other outlets to get our hockey fixes, but it's hard to match the thrill and excitement that the NHL brings night in and night out. Plus, Carolina fans will finally get to see Jordan Staal and Alexander Semin in regular season action for the Hurricanes, which is going to be a treat no matter what.

We'll take a closer look at these two teams and talk about possible matchups after the jump.

Well, after a very long wait the big day is finally here and the NHL season is ready to get underway starting at 3 p.m. Saturday. Today was the last day of training camp and teams had until 5 p.m. to finalize their rosters for opening night. We've spent the last week or so going over which players might make the roster and the final 23 are now set in stone.

After the jump, we'll look at which players made the team, go over the lines being used in camp and how the coaching staff could utilize each unit.

Winnipeg Jets Season Preview

Record Last Year: 37-35-10
Goal Differential: -21
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 51.05% (11th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 8.1%
5v5 Sv%:  .912
PP SF/60: 45.6 (21st in NHL)
PK SA/60: 51.4 (11th in NHL)

If you have looked at Bovoda's betting odds for who will win the Southeast, you will see that the team with the worst "chance" at winning the division is the Winnipeg Jets at +700. Those aren't terrible odds by any means but most people have the Jets as the "underdogs" in the Southeast and the least likely to make the playoffs. To me, this is surprising because Winnipeg wasn't that bad of a team last year. They weren't exactly a "good" team either, but compared to the rest of the Southeast, the Jets were pretty much in the thick of things until the latter part of the season. They had only one fewer win than the Southeast champion Florida Panthers, two more points than Carolina and the same amount of points as Tampa Bay. It's just kind of hard to believe that the odds of them winning the division are so much lower than them.

A possible reason why Winnipeg hasn't been receiving much love from the writers and oddsmakers is because Carolina and Tampa Bay both had very active off-seasons while the Jets didn't make much noise that caught the national media's eye. The Jets may have not broke any headlines but GM Kevin Chevyldayoff made a few good signings and it could help Winnipeg surprise a few people this season.

Florida Panthers Season Preview

Record Last Year: 38-26-18
Goal Differential: -24
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 50.35% (13th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 7.2%
5v5 Sv%:  .925
PP SF/60: 48.8 (13th in NHL)
PK SA/60: 54.3 (26th in NHL)

Aside from the Phoenix Coyotes and maybe the Ottawa Senators, no team exceeded their expectations more than the Florida Panthers did last season. Pegged by most to be a bottom-feeder in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers ended up winning the Southeast Division and making the playoffs for the first time in over a decade. They went onto give the New Jersey Devils a hard run for their money in the first round before being eliminated in seven games, ending what was one of the best seasons this franchise has ever had. Despite this, there haven't been many people picking Florida to repeat their title and there are many reasons for that.

For starters, they still had a terrible goal differential of -24 and had the same amount or fewer wins than non-playoff clubs such as Tampa Bay, Dallas, Colorado and Buffalo. One of the reasons why they got into the playoffs was due to their 18 points gained from shootout and overtime losses. It should also be mentioned that Florida was involved in 40 one goal games and they gained points in all but five of them. When your place in the standings is decided that much by one-goal gains, it's usually a sign that good fortune played a role in it. 

In addition to Florida's own flaws, the rest of the teams in the Southeast each made their own improvements and appear to be more dangerous than they were a year ago. Florida isn't as bad of a team as some would lead you to believe, but they are going to need a few things to go right if they want to have a chance at repeating.

Washington Capitals Season Preview

Record Last Year: 42-32-8
Goal Differential: -8
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 49.71% (16th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 8.6%
5v5 Sv%:  .920
PP SF/60: 47.5 (18th in NHL)
PK SA/60: 49.4 (14th in NHL)

The Washington Capitals fall from grace last season was fascinating to watch. Many projected this team to win the Southeast Division for the fifth year in a row and be a favorite for the Stanley Cup. They ended up barely making the playoffs and rode a hot goaltender to the conference semi-finals where they lost in seven games to the New York Rangers. A team with as much talent as them was expected to have a much easier path to the playoffs and rely on more than just ridiculous goaltending to make a strong run but sometime last season, the once dominant Capitals team saw their ability to control possession plummet and their scoring dry up along with it. Some blamed the coaching change while others pointed to injuries as the main cause. Others put the blame on the star players simply not getting the job done but whatever the case was, the Caps didn't look like their usual selves last season and still managed to turn in a good season all things considered.

The Caps now find themselves with yet another head coach, a slightly different roster and expectations that were lower than they were in years past. Luckily for them, the Southeast Division is wide open and Washington could regain their title if they stay healthy and rebound from their second-half slump last season.

Tampa Bay Lightning Season Preview

Record Last Year: 38-36-8
Goal Differential: -46
Team 5v5 Fenwick: 48.31% (20th in NHL)
5v5 Sh%: 9.9%
5v5 Sv%:  .899
PP SF/60: 41.5 (28th in NHL)
PK SA/60: 53.4 (25th in NHL)

With the season set to begin a couple days, it's now a good time to see what the other teams in the NHL have been up to over the last six months and how the Carolina Hurricanes stack up against them. One team that Carolina had some problems with in the past is the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are known as the team that knocked Carolina out of the playoffs on the last game of the 2010-11 season and followed it up by defeating them 5-1 on opening night the next season. These two teams did have some good battles last year, though as they ended up splitting the season series with three wins a piece.

That aside, the Lightning are coming off a very disappointing season after making it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals the previous year. You can see from the stats above that the Bolts were a pretty bad team in just about all areas. They did get some good shooting luck from their top-two lines that helped them win a few more games than they probably "should" have when you consider how poor their goaltending and defensive play was. If the Lightning want to get back to the playoffs, they will need to rely on more than just Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis and Teddy Purcell striking gold everytime they shoot the puck because that will only get you so far when your goalies are stopping less than 90% of the shots they face at even strength.

Their GM, Steve Yzerman, was smart enough to recognize this over the summer as the Lightning had a pretty underrated off-season and appear to be a better team on paper than they were a year ago.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Carolina Hurricanes made the decision to put both Brett Sutter and Andreas Nodl on waivers, meaning that the Canes are very close to trimming their roster down to the 23 player limit.  Assuming they put Tuomo Ruutu on Long-Term Injured Reserve, the Canes would need to make one more cut to reach the limit and if they don't, then two players need to go. Over the past week, we've discussed who is in camp and what each player would have to do to make the team, but now we have more of a solid idea of what the roster will look like with only a couple more pieces to sort out.

Who will make it past final cuts, though? We'll preview that after the jump and talk about some possible line combinations that we could see to open camp.

The Hurricanes made their first round of roster cuts this afternoon by sending forwards Riley Nash and Jeremy Welsh to the club's AHL affiliate in Charlotte. Nash was a long-shot to make the team, but many expected Welsh to get a look at the third line center spot. He is going to have to wait until later in the season to get his shot there now. Some may say that neither player was given much of a chance since they were sent down three days in, but the Checkers were in need of at least two forwards for their game on Wednesday and training camp is only a week long to begin with.

One of the reasons why Nash and Welsh in particular were sent down is because neither player has to be exposed to waivers before returning to the AHL, as they haven't been under an NHL contract for enough years. Once a player is placed on waivers, any other team can put a claim on him and add him to their roster. Waivers are put into place to give everyone a chance at playing in the NHL and to prevent teams from stockpiling talent at the lower levels. Sometimes teams can find hidden gems on the waiver wire like the New York Islanders did with Michael Grabner a couple years ago, but most of the time, players on waivers aren't anything terribly valuable to an NHL club. They are a good low-risk option for teams looking for cheap talent, though.

A player's waiver eligibility relates to how many years he is under an NHL contract and how many games he played, and both Nash and Welsh fit the guidelines to be waiver exempt. In other words, it was easier for the Hurricanes to send down these two because they can be called up and sent down at anytime without much risk. Unfortunately, this isn't the case with almost everyone else the Hurricanes called up from Charlotte, as the Canes could risk losing a key player from the Checkers for nothing if they decide to send them down to the AHL before the season. With only 23 roster spots available and 26 bodies in camp, they are almost certainly going to have to take this risk.

After the jump, we will go over which players in the Hurricanes camp are waiver eligible and how likely it is that they might be claimed by another team.

On Sunday afternoon, the Carolina Hurricanes opened their training camp for this season, beginning what is sure to be an exciting week for the entire NHL. The Hurricanes camp in particular is going to be very fascinating to watch for a few reasons. Firstly, this is their first camp under head coach Kirk Muller and in addition to that, they have a few new players coming in along with nine call-ups from the Charlotte Checkers. That's a lot of bodies to sort through with only so many roster spots available and the best part about it is that they have less than a week before their first regular season game.

The Hurricanes are going to have a very brief amount of time to something together here, so I can imagine that training camp is going to be rather chaotic and Muller will have his work cut out for him. Everyone seems to believe that this team will be better than next year now that they have some more offensive firepower but there are still a few things that need to be determined before the Hurricanes begin the season, and it goes beyond just finding out who makes the team and who doesn't. 

After the jump, we will look at some questions the Hurricanes will be facing this training camp and discuss some possible solutions to them. With so many players in camp, they certainly have plenty of options.

Hockey was indeed alive and well in North Carolina during the lockout, as the Charlotte Checkers got off to one of their best starts in team history and have the second best record in the AHL at 23-11-2-3. Their performance during the lockout was very promising for the Hurricanes organization because most of Charlotte's top players were younger players who the Hurricanes drafted. Developing talent in the minor leagues is always important in running a successful franchise, so it was great to see guys like Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman, Zac Dalpe and Bobby Sanguinetti excel in Charlotte during the lockout. 

The Checkers receiving the bulk of their production from guys who are on the cusp of being ready for the NHL is somewhat of a double-edged sword in a way, though. It was good to see these players perform well during the work stoppage, but most people knew that these players were going to get their shot in the NHL once it returned. This would lead to a massive talent purge on the Checkers and put the team in a rough spot depending on how many players the Hurricanes decided to call-up. Charlotte isn't in the same boat as Oklahoma City where virtually all of their best players will be going to the NHL, but they could potentially lose some key pieces once the NHL season begins.

Charlotte had to play two games this weekend without the services of Zach Boychuk, Tim Wallace, Dan Ellis, Drayson Bowman, Jeremy Welsh and Bobby Sanguinetti and they could potentially lose a few more players depending on who else is called up, who makes the Hurricanes and who gets lost on waivers. Add in the injuries to Rasmus Rissanen, Jerome Samson and Marc-Andre Gragnani and there could be some tough times ahead for the Checkers. 

That's the risk you take when you have so many players in their early to mid-20's playing in the minor leagues. The AHL acts as a developmental league but it's easy to forget that the Checkers are an independent franchise just like the Hurricanes and they have their own goals to ice a competitive and successful team. The Canes could potentially take a lot of talent away from the Checkers (9 players in total were called up) depending on what happens over the next week.

Just what are the Checkers going to be left when all is said and done, though? To find out, we will take a closer look at how Charlotte's players have been performing this year and discuss who will have to fill in for some of the pieces they will be losing to the NHL very soon.