Chip Alexander

Tom Brady has the opportunity to do the funniest thing.

Jordan Staal’s power-play promotion is Rod Brind’Amour’s subtle nod to 2006 As Peter Laviolette did with Rod Brind’Amour, Brind’Amour has done with Jordan Staal: Throw the thirtysomething captain on the power play.

Maybe something about the 2006 reunion jogged Rod Brind'Amour's memory, because when Peter Laviolette used his thirtysomething captain on the man advantage that year, Brind'Amour had a career-high 19 power-play goals.

Twenty years later: Enter Jordan Staal.

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Will Wade’s band of outlaws is racking up wins, points ... and technical fouls No one has ever understood the assignment more than Will Wade, whose first N.C. State team has shown the fight fans want. Maybe too much.

Will Wade’s Band of Outlaws has shown fight, literally and figuratively, and that’s all State fans ever wanted from their basketball team.

Well, that and winning. Why not both?

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RIP Brooksie: Larry Brooks, Post legend and Hall of Fame hockey writer, dead at 75 RIP Brooksie: Larry Brooks, Post legend and Hall of Fame hockey writer, dead at 75

Admired Larry for so many reasons but his absolute determination and conviction stood out. I learned a lot from him, directly and indirectly. After my first year on the NHL beat, I started using the same kind of notebook he did. Still do, for hockey. What a loss.

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Coach K’s career comes full circle with visit to West Point, former Army players The foundation for former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s success was laid at Army, which celebrated his career while hosting the Blue Devils on Veterans Day.

Of all the pomp and circumstance and ceremony of Duke’s visit to Army on Veterans Day in honor of both schools’ former basketball coach, there was one event Mike Krzyzewski had anticipated most: a quiet lunch with four of his former Army players.

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Everything’s going wrong for the Hurricanes ... who haven’t missed a beat Despite key injuries and a few slow starts, the Carolina Hurricanes are 5-0-0, the sign of a deep, talented, mature team.

Jaccob Slavin is out with a mysterious knee injury. Pyotr Kochetkov is injured. Nikolaj Ehlers has yet to record a point. Andrei Svechnikov is on the fourth line. Now Shayne Gostisbehere is hurt, too?

And yet the undefeated Hurricanes haven’t missed a beat.

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You can get +2500 on Nikishin to win the Calder at BetMGM, if that is something you might be interested in.

In column form:

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ACC’s nine-game conference schedule means asking the Notre Dame question — again Does the ACC’s five-game arrangement still make sense when teams will be playing nine ACC games plus a 10th game against a Power 4 opponent?

We all know the pluses and minuses of the ACC’s football arrangement with Notre Dame. Does that calculus change now as the ACC moves to nine league games?

Clemson is all-in, with its own annual game with the Irish. But everyone else is 10-49 under the deal.

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Have the Carolina Hurricanes learned enough from the Panthers to dethrone them? Steel sharpens steel. Every great team needs another great team to learn from. Are the Hurricanes ready to take the next step?

Gretzky's Oilers, famously, had the Islanders. The Panthers had the Lightning. Steel sharpens steel. Dethroning a dynasty can beget a new one.

The biggest question facing the Hurricanes this season: Have they learned enough from the Panthers to overtake them?

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Regarding reports the Hurricanes have decided not to sign Michael McLeod … my understanding is the team has reversed course and backed off signing McLeod for now. Could yet change. But as of last night, anyway, no deal is imminent.

NC State asks to divert Lenovo Center improvement fund to support basketball N.C. State is allocated $500,000 a year from the arena’s naming rights to fulfill the school’s requests for building upgrades. The university wants to spend that money on men’s basketball instead.

At Centennial Authority meeting today, authority approved NC State's request to use its share of naming-rights revenue, about $500,000/yr, to support the basketball program, with restrictions on how the money is spent and a reserve fund.

From May:

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The Carolina Hurricanes may sign Michael McLeod, no matter what you think The Carolina Hurricanes are considering signing a player acquitted of sexual-assault charges (but suspended by the NHL). Fans will have a decision to make.

If the Hurricanes do sign Michael McLeod, it will be because they don’t think fans will, in the end, actually stop coming.

They may be right. But it also feels like they’re playing with fire — and for what? A bottom-six center?

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Down and out, Duke rediscovers what makes it Duke, and leaves NC State behind After losing to Illinois and Tulane, Duke was down two scores to N.C. State before running away on either side of halftime for a 45-33 win.

Maybe it took a mental reboot — “We kind of hit ctrl-alt-delete,” Manny Diaz said — to get Duke back to where it always thought it should be.

Either way, two rivals that came in going different directions exited going opposite directions.

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By Sagarin’s updated predictor, UNC is the fourth-best team in the Sun Belt (and 14th in the ACC, ahead of Cal, Stanford and Wake Forest).

The good news: The Tar Heels would be a clear No. 1 in Conference USA. Which is funny because I wrote this when ECU smoked UNC in Kenan in 2013. Plus ça change.

Caught up with Ehlers’ Switzerland-based agent (and teammate of Rod Brind’Amour with Kloten during the 2004-05 lockout) after this initially posted and he had some interesting insights on the process that are in there now.

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For the Hurricanes and Nik Ehlers, time to find out if the wait was worth it Unlike most sought-after free agents, Nik Ehlers took three days to decide. Both Ehlers and the Hurricanes are happy with the decision.

Nik Ehlers took his time in July to talk to people and make sure he was going to the right place. After all those conversations, he decided Carolina was where he wanted to be. And he's here now.

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Hurricanes’ core starts again, wondering if these new faces are the only ones Nik Ehlers and K’Andre Miller lead the new arrivals on the first day of training camp, but the Canes have the cap space to make a big move.

It’s not just the new faces on the ice that’s enthralling on the first day of Hurricanes training camp. It’s also the possibility of even more new faces to come.

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The Canes’ first fan favorite, Bates Battaglia’s move to businessman complete Once famous for his long, flowing hair, former Hurricanes star Bates Battaglia is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his bar Lucky B’s.

Bates Battaglia was the Hurricanes’ first fan favorite, before the team even really put down roots here — but Battaglia certainly did.

His career took him away from Raleigh but he never left, and this weekend his bar Lucky B’s celebrates 20 years in business.

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Why one Hurricanes TV host spent the summer helping others in war-stricken Burma One requirement was both physical endurance and the “moral courage to stand with those under attack.”

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How one phone call changed Ben Griffin’s golf career — and his life — forever A year ago, the Ryder Cup wasn’t on Ben Griffin’s radar. His exceptional summer put him in a position to represent the U.S. at Bethpage.

Had a chance to talk with Ben Griffin this morning about making the U.S. Ryder Cup team and the incredible season that put him in position to be a captain’s pick.

What an incredible story the Chapel Hill native and UNC grad has written this summer.

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Canes’ Sebastian Aho left for Finland concerned and returns with new optimism Carolina Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho challenged the front office to have a better offseason. At the end of it, he likes what he sees.

Three months after he challenged the Hurricanes to do better this offseason, Sebastian Aho returned from Finland excited to see K’Andre Miller and Nik Ehlers.

“We’ll see if we got better, but that’s my point, you’re willing to try and do those things,” Aho said

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Farewell to a fish called Muddy, and a logo that upended minor-league baseball The Carolina Mudcats are moving to Wilson, but they were once bigger than the Durham Bulls, and they changed sports marketing forever.

Farewell to a Fish called Muddy, and a crazy dream that rose from tobacco fields in Zebulon to change minor-league baseball forever.

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Vanecek arrives with Stanley Cup on back of truck in Czech Republic | NHL.com Goalie celebrates with fans, shows off matching tattoos with Nosek

Florida's Vitek Vanecek pays tribute to late Canes center Josef Vasicek while taking the Stanley Cup to Havlickuv Brod: “I know Josef Vasicek was the first guy to ever bring the Cup to this town and we still have the photo with the Cup and me as a kid in the basement."

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As House settlement spells end for UNC JV basketball, alumni express regret For the first time in more than 50 years, as classes begin, students at North Carolina won’t have the opportunity to try out for the junior varsity men’s basketball team.

Requiem for a basketball dream: For 52 years, any male student at UNC had at least a chance to be a small part of the basketball program by trying out for the JV team. As a new academic year starts Monday, that quaint anachronism has been consigned to history.

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‘They control everything’: How the Dallas Stars monopolized Texas youth hockey Ice is power in the lucrative world of youth hockey. In North Texas, the Dallas Stars hold almost all of it.

The NHL's Dallas Stars bought up all the ice rinks in the Dallas metro area, in several cases got taxpayer money to build the rinks, and now control ice time for youth hockey, jacking up club fees and forcing leagues to play by their rules. Wild story.

Hurricanes prospect has new high-profile teammate at Penn State, eyes pro ranks Penn State forward Charlie Cerrato, a second-round draft pick this year, will be joined next season by Canadian phenom Gavin McKenna, projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL draft.

Hurricanes prospect has new high-profile teammate at Penn State, eyes pro ranks
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Inside the emotional highs and lows as Hurricanes worked to add Miller, Ehlers The Carolina Hurricanes maneuvered throughout the first days of NHL free agency period before adding two key pieces for next season’s team.

The Hurricanes woke up on July 1 with oodles of cap space and a fisftul of draft picks worried they might end up with nothing.

Over the next three days, they traded for K'Andre Miller and signed Nikolaj Ehlers ... and still have $10 million in cap space.

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Saw Usain Bolt come into a restaurant in Boston.