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Winless ‘Canes aren’t panicking as lengthy road trip looms

James Wisniewski, John-Michael Liles, Elias Lindholm

James Wisniewski, John-Michael Liles, Elias Lindholm

AP

So, let’s recap the start of Carolina’s ’15-16 campaign:

No wins and two losses, including their home opener against Detroit on Saturday. A torn ACL for veteran d-man James Wisniewski, and a shoulder injury for third-line center Riley Nash.

Oh, and Tuesday night’s game against Florida will the last time the ‘Canes play at PNC Arena until Oct. 30 -- because after tonight, they embark on a seven-game, 13-day road trip through Detroit, Washington, Colorado, Los Angeles, San Jose, Detroit (again) and Brooklyn.

Tough times, but the ‘Canes aren’t ready to panic.

Yet.

“There are 80 games left,” Jordan Staal explained, per the Raleigh News and Observer. “It’s a long season. Our philosophy all season will be moving on to the next shift, next game, next practice. We’re always trying to get better and I think we improved on our game from the Nashville game.

“We had a tough ending last game but had a lot of good things, as well. We just want to get that first win and build on that.”

It’s pretty obvious Carolina wants to avoid a repeat of last season, when it went 0-6-2 to start the year and didn’t register a victory until Nov. 1 (yeah, the ‘Canes didn’t win a single game in October).

It was a tough start to Bill Peters’ head coaching tenure and essentially derailed the entire season; the ‘Canes played well in stretches -- including a 7-3-2 record in January -- but were pretty much hamstrung by that disastrous start.