RALEIGH - Rod Brind’Amour wanted more minutes. Ray Whitney wanted the puck, and Cam Ward refused to let one go past him.
The Carolina Hurricanes ended the preseason Sunday with a solid 2-0 victory over the Nashville Predators, getting the winning goal from Whitney and a shutout from Ward in goal.
And, in the end, a little more ice time than coach Peter Laviolette wanted to give Brind’Amour — which was just fine with the team captain.
Whitney’s goal at 7:19 of the third period, on the rebound of a Patrick Eaves shot, finally gave the RBC Center crowd something to really cheer about, and Eric Staal later finished it off with an empty-netter. But there was much for the Canes to be pleased about in ending the preseason schedule 3-3 after an 0-3 start.
Brind’Amour, who missed nearly all of training camp after knee surgery on Sept. 16, got in his first game action and had more than 15 minutes of ice time. With the season-opener on Friday night against the Florida Panthers, it was important he get in some work in game situations.
“Lavi told me I wasn’t going to play much,” Brind’Amour said. “When he told me [Sunday] morning I was OK with it, but as the game goes on it was ‘Come on …’
“Because you do need to get in and involved. I am used to playing a lot of minutes, so it was an adjustment.”
And how did he play?
“I knew it was going to be horrible,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s OK. That’s all I wanted to get out of it.
“Hopefully it will get better and better as we move on. It was important to me to get some of the cobwebs out.”
Whitney, too. The winger has missed part of training camp and preseason games but showed little rust and was credited with six of the Canes’ 37 shots and set up Staal for a few others.
“I felt comfortable,” Whitney said. “I felt fine, timing wise. I got a little tired about halfway through the games — my legs felt a little heavy — but they came in the third again.”
The Canes, after a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers and 4-2 win at Nashville on Thursday, weren’t at their best the first two periods. But Ward was, notching 23 of his 31 saves in the first 40 minutes.
“I felt good. It’s a nice way to end the exhibition season, obviously,” Ward said. “It was nice to get in a full game and things go well.
“It’s a token to the guys in front of me. They played extremely well. The PK [penalty kill] was really strong. The guys worked hard.”
Brind’Amour said Ward was a hard worker, as well. It was more than the goaltender being in the right position.
“When you have great goal-tending it makes everything look good, and he was solid when he had to be,” Brind’Amour said. “I thought he was really good with the puck.
“He was playing the puck and giving our defensemen passes — things we haven’t seen in the past him doing. He was really doing it well today.”
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