"I liked the first week. A lot of energy," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "You want to get the message across to push, push, push. … Everything has been really positive."

That, of course, doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of it all. But through the first week and change of training camp, the Hurricanes have been building good habits that start with hard work.

For the first time in team history, the Carolina Hurricanes are 3-0-0 to begin the preseason.

Preseason results, for what they're worth, have been positive and encouraging and certainly preferable to the alternative.

"I'd rather win them than lose them," Brind'Amour said. "We want to go out and just play hard. The score, at the end of the day, in preseason is what it is, but it's the process of it. I think the guys have worked hard. Now we've just got to keep fixing the little things that have been wrong and keep adding."

Video: Rod Brind'Amour: "Tough decisions to be made"

Through their first three preseason games, the Hurricanes have outscored opponents 15-3. Players like Lucas Wallmark, Janne Kuokkanen and Warren Foegele are stating their cases to have stalls in the Hurricanes locker room on Oct. 4.

The Hurricanes assigned eight players to Charlotte to trim their roster to 39 players on Friday. Additional cuts are looming, as the team is expected to be down to just one group by the weekend.

With that in mind, Tuesday's preseason match-up in Nashville could be crucial, a final chance for some to impress before the roster is reduced again.

"We do need to get down to the nitty-gritty here at some point. We've got a lot of guys still around. I think guys who play really well make a good case to stay," Brind'Amour said. "If you don't, it's going to be easier to get down to numbers."

Following an off day on Saturday, the Hurricanes, still split into Team Grind and Team Grit, got back on the ice at PNC Arena for a pair of Sunday morning practices. There was plenty of skating. There was battling in the corners. There was intimate, 2-on-2 competition in the neutral zone. There were shootouts between drills (and no one in either group scored, so the goaltenders were spared skating the length of the ice). And there was more skating.

What was missing: Micheal Ferland, who is dealing with a lower-body injury and is considered day-to-day.

"It's not the best news, but it sounds like it's not going to affect him Opening Night or anything," Brind'Amour said. "I think we're going to shut him down for the rest of training camp."

So begins an important week of training camp. Team Grind and Team Grit will practice as one on Monday morning. On Tuesday, the Canes travel to Nashville to face the Predators, and on Friday, it's off to D.C. to square off with the Capitals again. Additional roster cuts are expected at some point this week, and by Sunday's preseason finale against Nashville at what will be a packed PNC Arena, the final group will be about set.

"We've got some young talent in this organization that's been really competing. It's going to make it hard, and I love that," Brind'Amour said. "There are going to be some tough decisions to be made here. This next week is obviously huge for a lot of guys."