Better late than never. The 2012-13 (now truncated to just 2013) Canes season starts tonight. A HUGE summer with the addition of Jordan Staal and Alexander Semin has hopes and to some degree expectations high this year.

Here are 5 things I am watching in the opening game tonight at Florida:

1) Cam Ward. He did not play overseas, so this is his first real hockey game since last April. The shortened and compressed season does not allow for 10-12 games to work into a groove without collecting points in the standings. Dan Ellis is a great safety net and because of the busy schedule should see a decent amount of work regardless of how well Ward plays, but at the end of the day Cam Ward needs to be at least a top 10 NHL goalie if not better for this team to make the playoffs.

2) The kids. The guys who were in a groove in the AHL heading into the short training camp should have an advantage out of the gate. The Charlotte Checkers were playing really well. 2 key players from that success are in the top half of the forward lines (Boychuk with EStaal/Semin and Dalpe with Skinner/JStaal). If these guys can hit the ground running, it will provide a huget boost to the offense and balance of scoring especially minus Tuomo Ruutu. Drayson Bowman is also in the lineup and a likely candidate to move up if either falter and practice this week seems to indicate that Bobby Sanguinetti could start the season as the 6th defenseman over more-experienced Jamie McBain.

If these guys do well, the Canes are suddenly very deep offensively with pretty good offensive ability on the 3rd line. If they flop, Muller probably has to move up some combination of Jokinen, Tlusty and Larose to fill holes and this team suddenly becomes 2 lines deep. With the busy schedule, you just cannot ride your top 2 lines too heavily or they will be dead mid-way through the sprint.

3) Semin and EStaal. They are obviously both gifted offensively. Both have 40 goal seasons to their credit. I think they could have benefitted from a real training camp to get acclimated and build some chemistry. But that's not how it goes this year. Is it the case where you pair 2 gifted players and instincts just work and they go off right out of the gate? Or does it look like 1 puck is not enough for 2 players who are both shoot-first type players and more natural goal scorer than playmaker.

4) Can Justin Faulk pick up where he left off? On a team that leans offense on the blue line, the Canes are asking a lot for Faulk to be a cornerstone of a solid blue line. He also starts the year with Joni Pikanen who can be a challenging partner when he goes off the normal defenseman guide trying to make something happen. If Faulk is solid, you have enough pure defense in him, Gleason and Harrison for a team that will score. If Faulk looks like a sophomore still trying to play his way, there might not be enough defense in the defenseman of the Canes to even give Ward and Ellis a chance.

5) Jordan Staal's line. In Pittsburgh with the benefit of Malkin and Crosby centering scoring lines above him, Jordan Staal had a reasonably narrow job description to breakeven and outbattle the other team's scoring line. If they didn't score a ton, that was okay. Crosby and Malkin would take care of that. And he generally had linemates who fit the job description - safe and sound defensive players. So if you look at his role and linemates this season, it is very different. Playing on a 2nd line, many nights it will not be enough to only have a solid game defensively. And with an offensive-minded young forward whose defensive development is on a slower pace in Skinner and a light on experience right wing in Dalpe, this will be interesting to watch. Freed of the checking line duties and coupled with some higher-end offensive ability will he jump from what was already pretty decent offensive production in Pittsburgh? Or will he struggle trying to clean up defensively without as much help as he had in Pittsburgh? Or both?

About 5 hours until Canes hockey!

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Go Canes!

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