There was a positive twist to the Canes' practice Thursday: for the first time since Oct. 3, the entire team was on the ice.

Forward Erik Cole, who suffered a leg fracture in the Boston game Oct. 3, wore a red jersey, went through all the drills and could return to the lineup this weekend, either against Philadelphia or the San Jose Sharks, coach Paul Maurice said. Defenseman Tim Gleason, out the last three games with an upper-body injury, was back in practice and probably will return sometime next week.

Forward Tuomo Ruutu will end his three-game suspension and return for Sunday's game with the Sharks.

As for the practice, it was intense, and it should have been with the Canes winless in their last seven games and now 13th in the Eastern Conference. There were a lot of battles — one on one, two on two, etc. There was a lot of extra skating at the end.

"Simple things," Maurice said. "Close quarters. You spend a lot of time working on your systems but none of them are effective if you're not coming up with loose pucks or defending when they have the loose pucks."

The Canes were coming off a 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues that left everyone grim after Wednesday's game. But there was more of a gritty, business-like, let's-get-better approach to the practice rather than a lot of screaming and long faces.

"Today was about dealing with last night but more importantly getting ready for Saturday, and that's so important for our team," Maurice said.

The Canes outshot the Blues 36-18 and had any number of scoring chances, but Maurice believed it was important to look past mere statistics.

"I just thought our close-quarter fight just wasn't good enough," he said. "It's not with this group of men and it's not them not wanting to be in it. They just position themselves physically, and mentally, with the idea 'I'm going to strip this puck and go the other way and break this thing open and I can feel good about myself.'

"And we have to respect the team more. There are times when all the best you can do for your hockey club is put somebody on their butt. And we have to be prepared to do that."

Forward Scott Walker said the Canes, simply put, had to "find our game."

"Whether that's intense practice or attention to detail in practice or whatever it is, we've got to get to where we have to be," Walker said. "And we're not there yet.

"We have to look within ourselves. You have to do what you can do and that's within each individual stall. It's just not happening on a consistent enough basis for the level this team should be at."

Captain Rod Brind'Amour said the Canes can't "get too uptight" when scored upon and let that affect their game. The Canes seemed deflated Wednesday night when the Blues took a 1-0 lead in the first period, and it soon was 3-0.

"That shouldn't be an indication of whether we're playing well or not -- whether we're scoring or getting scored on," Brind'Amour said. "We have to just stick with our program and not get flustered. We seem to be doing that."