RALEIGH, N.C. — It's that time of the season when those NHL teams considered Stanley Cup contenders start really measuring themselves against the others.
The trade deadline has passed. Additions and subtractions have been made and lineups changed. It's time, as Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper put it, for teams to gear up in the stretch run for the "man's game" of the playoffs.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning, to name two.
