Olympic break ends as Hurricanes hit the ice. Eric Robinson returns for the Hurricanes as they hope to get fully healthy for the final push.
NHL teams all across the league returned to the ice Monday afternoon, as the Olympic break came to a close for all non-Olympian players.
Carolina skated with nearly their full group at Invisalign Arena, the only absences being the five players currently in Milan.
There were no surprises in terms of line rushes as most of them looked like they did in the team's last few games outside of the missing Olympians.
The only change up front was that Andrei Svechnikov — who was without linemates Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis — joined Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook — who were without linemate Nikolaj Ehlers.
On defense, Jalen Chatfield was joined by Mike Reilly in place of Jaccob Slavin and in goal, equipment manager Jorge Alves manned a net in place of Frederik Andersen while freshly extended Brandon Bussi took the other.
Most notably, Eric Robinson was back on the ice, taking part in his first practice since sustaining an injury on Jan. 19.
Robinson suffered an upper-body injury after absorbing a late hit right into his shoulder from Buffalo Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin.
It's a good sign for him and the team and hopefully he'll be ready by the time league action gets back underway.
Carolina has eight more days of practice available to them as they don't play again until Feb. 26 when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning and we'll see how long it takes Ehlers and Andersen to rejoin the team now that Denmark has been eliminated from the Olympics.
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