Have Canes reached that 'point" yet?

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Canes defenseman Niclas Wallin has been with the team long enough to go through a lot of highs and lows.

A nine-game losing streak qualifies as a low. It also appears injured center Eric Staal might be out two-to-four weeks, not just a few games. Another low.

But Wallin said there has been enough talk and video sessions and practice and systems work and morale-building.

"There comes a point when you say, the heck with it, let's just go win a game," Wallin said today after the Canes' morning skate at BankAtlantic Center.

Actually, Wallin used a little stronger language than that, but you get the point. And Canes coach Paul Maurice agreed.

"This is where the coaches get paid," he said. "Not when things are good. So you talk more, and you cajole and you hug and you do all those things. At the end of the day, the puck has to drop and this is all secondary.

"We're not playing very well but I believe we will. We're not winning but I believe we will. It's easy to be very, very negative in this situation, but I don't believe that's what we need now. Now we just have to drop the puck and we have an opportunity to prove that."

Much has been made of the Canes' fragile confidence and how their body language changes during games when things start going against them. But one win can change things, as the Florida Panthers have proven with their two recent road wins.

"Your confidence changes and you look at your schedule and say, 'We might run the whole table,'" Maurice said. "That's the pressure of pro sports and maybe any sport -- when the pressure affects what you do. Shift by shift, you just have to fight back to get that good feeling in your room."

Maurice was asked today if the team was too old and too slow. Carolina is the oldest team in the league, even with 20-year-old Brandon Sutter in the lineup.

"I remember that exact comment in early January of last year," he said."'Small' is the other one they threw in there. And then in two months we looked young, fast and big.

"I don't see any difference. Four months really doesn't age a hockey player. I don't think that's a factor here."

At 2-8-3, the Canes still have 69 games left. A lot of hockey left, as they say.

"It can't be Christmas every day at the rink," Maurice said "Then you get to that point where I think we're at now where you have to go back to focusing on the things, the details, the process of our game, that we can build some confidence in doing the small things well and start from there."