With no preseason games on the docket, the coaching staff has had to get creative when it comes to getting their squad prepared for the real thing.
“We did the red/white scrimmages and lots of five-on-five play during practice as much as we can to get our compete and our battle up,” said Warsofsky. “It’s hard to emulate a game, it really is, but we’ve tried our best to. Hopefully when we get into games we can pick up where we left off in practice and see how we need to play structurally.”
Adding to the difficulty of preparing for game action has been the fact that several key players got longer looks during NHL camp, delaying their arrival in Charlotte and making it tough for the Checkers to get a real glimpse of their team until the final days.
“That’s a challenge that every coach in the American league has to deal with, your team comes together a little later than the NHL,” said Warsofsky. “You have to deal with that and we’re coming along. We have some great leadership that’s pulling the guys in and showing them how we want to play.”
DISSAPOINTMENT BECOMES FUEL
While those final cuts from Canes camp signify a solidification of the Charlotte roster, they also signify tough breaks for players right on the cusp. The emotion that comes with players like Julien Gauthier and Alex Nedeljkovic narrowly missing the NHL Opening Night roster is an added wrinkle for a coaching staff building an AHL roster.“You can come down and you can pout and have a bad attitude or you can come down and grab the bull by the horns and attack it,” said Warsofsky. “I had a good meeting with Goat and Ned and all the other guys that came down that were probably disappointed.”
Not that those emotions are necessarily a bad thing.
“I get it, you should be disappointed,” said Warsofsky. “That’s the fire in you that you want to be up there. But if you come and show a positive attitude and we have team success, you’re probably going to have individual success. That’s been the message.”
Luckily for this group, the positive attitudes have been on full display.
“All the guys have been great,” said Warsofsky. “They’ve had a great attitude and we’re approaching it day by day. Goat came in and worked hard the first day and had another great day today, Ned too and the rest of the guys. They’re down here to get better and to work on specific things and we’re going to help them do that.”
FINDING AN IDENTITY
With the team now fully assembled, the next step for the coaching staff will be meshing the group together and embracing a particular style of play.“We have to play fast, we have to play an in-your-face style of hockey,” said Warsofsky. “We want to make it hard on other teams. Something that we’ve talked about lately is, win or lose, we want to make teams feel when they leave the rink that it was a hard-fought game. It has to be a consistent effort from the coaching staff on down to our backup goaltender. That’s been the message and it’s been good to see it at practice.”
