HURRICANES CHECKING LINE JUST FINE AND DANDY

Carolina

With a lot of new pieces added to the Carolina Hurricanes over the past few months, one thing that has not changed is arguably the league's best shut down league. Returning to the squad is the speedy center Kris Draper who will center a line between the offensively gifted sniper, Mike Fisher and team captain and power forward Shane Doan.

Doan is returning for a third season as the captain of the club and his role has become more of an energy guy who plays a very important shut down role for the squad.

"Last year I was counted on more to put the puck in the net," said Doan, "but this year I will likely be relied on to make sure it stays out of our end. We all played together at time during th season last year but we were all given varying roles. This year, we are the shut down line and I think all of us take that as a compliment."

In Fisher, the club uses one of its younger forwards to fill the gap. Fisher, 25, is more than capable of firing in the goals when needed, but his finesse game takes a back seat to his aggressive two way positional play and reliability in his own end.

Draper, a former cup winner himself, will be looked at as the pivot of the line, a role he has become used to in his successful career.

Overall, the Canes third line is shaping up to do great things this year. It also doesn't hurt that the Canes will be using Jay McKee and Ilja Nikulin as the defensive pairing with the big line.

Good luck to the rest of the league there.