Of the four Staal brothers, Jared’s NHL career is most likely to be the shortest. (Dave Reginek/Gettty Images)

By Allan Muir

Jared Staal hasn’t made much of an impact this season with the AHL Charlotte Checkers, scoring just four goals and seven points in 52 games. In fact, he probably hasn’t done enough to earn a new deal with the Carolina Hurricanes after his three-year entry level contract expires at the end of this season.

But if that’s the way it plays out, the organization is giving him a pretty sweet parting gift: a chance to make his NHL debut on Thursday night when the ‘Canes host the New York Rangers at PNC Arena.

No word yet on where the 22-year-old winger will slot into the lineup, but there’s a good chance he’ll see some time with his brothers Eric and Jordan. It’s just too bad his other brother, Rangers’ defenseman Marc, is still recuperating from an eye injury suffered earlier this season and won’t be able to make it a family affair.

The Hurricanes acquired Jared Staal for a fifth-round pick in 2010 from the Coyotes, who’d drafted him 49th overall two years earlier. Despite good size (6′-4″, 200) and impeccable genes, he’s never been able to make his mark at the pro level, scoring just 18 points in 119 AHL games.

So why did he get the call?

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Jeff Skinner has had his concussion issues and should be handled with care. (Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Just came across this tweet from Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News and Observer that left me gobsmacked.

Because of course, why wouldn’t Jeff Skinner be rushed back into the lineup for Saturday’s game against Philadelphia? That seems like a perfectly reasonable decision to make with a player who was knocked senseless after sustaining this open-ice hit from Ottawa’s Jared Cowen, right?

Especially a player who has missed stretches of both this season and last with concussion-related issues.

Muller says hopeful Skinner can play against Flyers.—
Chip Alexander (@ice_chip) April 18, 2013

Alexander later reported that Skinner actually wanted to come back after the Cowen hit and was upset with the team doctor for not clearing him. And you know, that’s great. You want a potential franchise player like Skinner to have that hunger, to desperately want to get back into the battle with his teammates.

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By Allan Muir

With pretty much everybody but Brent Ashton and Mike Sillinger having already been swapped today, the talking heads will have a lot of time to kill on the trade deadline shows on Wednesday.

Chances are they’ll spend more than a little bit of it discussing hybrid icing in the wake of this horrible injury suffered by Carolina defenseman Joni Pitkanen.

UPDATE: Pitkanen is expected to miss the rest of the season after breaking his left heel in his collision with the end boards.

You’ve probably heard the term before. If not, it’s a rule tweak that would allow officials to blow the play dead at the faceoff dot or at the goal line at their discretion. The thinking is that the option minimizes the chances that a mad race to the puck will end with the skater out front being injured in a collision with the boards.

It was tested in the American Hockey League, where it was well received. The general managers are in favor of it. So why don’t we have it yet?

Surprise! It’s been blocked by the NHLPA, which prefers to go with European-style no-touch icing or simply leave things the way they are.

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Since signing with the Hurricanes last July, Alex Semin has been a point-per-game player. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

The ink wasn’t yet dry on Alexander Semin’s brand new five-year, $35 million contract extension with the Hurricanes before social media lit up with snarky comments about the dangerously short memory of Carolina’s general manager, Jim Rutherford.

Sure, the flashy winger has been sensational through the first 30 games of his stint in Raleigh, many said, but this is the same player who forced the Capitals to cut him loose after his final two frustrating seasons in Washington.

Are the Hurricanes taking a risk with this deal? No doubt. But before you suggest that owner Peter Karmanos might want to hide the checkbook before Rutherford does another crazy thing with his money, let me introduce you to these 13 players:

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Eric and Jordan: the eyes have it. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Funny how people’s opinions can change about something when it suddenly affects someone they love.

Take Senator Rob Portman, for instance. Or a little closer to home, Eric and Jordan Staal.

It took nearly a month after watching their visorless brother Marc almost lose an eye when he took the full force of a slap shot in the face, but the two Carolina-based Staals finally decided it was time to protect their own futures.

Eric and Jordan hit the practice ice in Raleigh with a new look Friday morning, according to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer.

Here’s Eric Staal, explaining the decision:

“It’s been brewing for a little while. At this point I just feel like the risk [of injury] isn’t worth it right now, because of the injuries I’ve seen to other people in this organization, family.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re invincible, but as many guys have seen, you’re not. Unfortunately, injuries can happen. It’s just being smarter. As we’ve seen in the past when anybody has had an eye injury, they put [a visor] on. So why am I going to wait until that happens to me? Why not put one on now?”

“I wasn’t like we talked long. We kind of looked at each other like, ‘We’re got to start wearing one,’” Jordan Staal said. “It was just one of those moments like, ‘That’s it.’”

You watch the replay of the Marc Staal incident and it’s miraculous he didn’t lose an eye.

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By Allan Muir

The Devils knew Martin Brodeur would make an impact in his return to action Thursday night. They just didn’t realize it would be on the power play.

Making his first start since Feb. 21, the 40-year-old sniper opened the scoring in New Jersey’s 4-1 win over the Hurricanes. He picked up a loose puck behind his net, dashed into the neutral zone, pirouetted through a phalanx of defenders and then went roof daddy on the ghost of Jacques Plante.

Alright, that might be the story he tells the grand kids, but the reality wasn’t quite that spectacular. Brodeur was credited with the tally as the last Devil to touch the puck before Jordan Staal’s hard pass to the point caromed off the boards and down the ice into the cage that had been vacated by Dan Ellis moments earlier because of a delayed penalty call on New Jersey.

It was the third goal Brodeur has earned over his career, but the first ever on the power play. In fact, he’s just the second goalie to score on the PP–Evgeni Nabokov was the first back in 2002.

And how’s this for the ice-leveling powers of the hockey gods: the last goalie to light the lamp? Carolina’s Cam Ward, who was credited with a goal last season when New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk sent the puck the length of the ice into his own net.

Although to hear Ward tell it…

With Cam Ward down, and out for a while, the Hurricanes will have to rely on backup Dan Ellis. (Luis M. Alvarez/AP)

By Allan Muir

Cam Ward was looking forward to a restful day on the bench when his Carolina Hurricanes faced off against the Florida Panthers on Sunday. But when backup Dan Ellis turned up sick, Ward was pressed into duty.

It looks like he’ll have plenty of time to rest now.

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The enigmatic Alexander Semin has been a model citizen in Carolina so far this season. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Apparently, the internet is shocked — shocked, I tell you! — that Washington Capitals forward Troy Brouwer decided to spill the beans this morning about former teammate Alexander Semin.

I can’t figure out why.

It’s not the timing that’s surprising. Semin is making his first visit to Washington tonight with his new team, the Carolina Hurricanes. Naturally, the return of a player who scored 408 points in 469 games over seven seasons as a Capital will be a talking point.

And it certainly wasn’t what Brouwer said. Because really, he didn’t put anything out there that varied from the widely held opinion that Semin has a somewhat “irregular” competitive drive.

Was it a problem with giving Semin and the ‘Canes some bulletin board material? As if Semin wasn’t already pumped to prove the Caps wrong for letting him skate as a free agent last summer?

No. It’s just like Colonel Jessup said: People can’t handle the truth.

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By Allan Muir

Another day, another brutal call in the NHL.

But this one doesn’t fall on the on-ice officials.

This time it was the league’s video review team that botched it, taking away an apparent game-tying goal from Toronto’s Tyler Bozak. Take a look at the video above, and then read the official ruling below, courtesy of the NHL’s Situation Room Blog:

At 18:44 of the second period in the Hurricanes/Maple Leafs game, video review determined that Toronto forward Tyler Bozak directed the puck into the net with his right skate. According to rule 49.2 “A goal cannot be scored by an attacking player who uses a distinct kicking motion to propel the puck into the net.” No goal Toronto.

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Defenseman Ron Hainsey, active in NHLPA matters, is keeping tabs on where the Jets may land in realignment. (Marianne Helm/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

A guide to this morning’s must-read stories around the NHL.

• Realignment is the NHL’s “powder keg” but talks are again underway between the league and the NHLPA. The status quo is not an option in Winnipeg, where the Jets expect a move out of the Eastern Conference to happen in time for the 2013-14 season.

• This man-crush I’m developing for Kari Lehtonen is not an exclusive thing. Watch this stop he made last night on Columbus’ Jack Johnson and join me.

• The consensus on the P.K. Subban deal? Montreal GM Marc Bergevin emerges as the big winner.

• Things are getting back to normal in Phoenix. The Coyotes played a strictly disciplined game. Friends and family dotted the stands at Jobing.com Arena. And Chad Johnson stepped up with a 21-save shutout. Wait…who?

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