Offering up some Thursday thoughts

Canes general manager Jim Rutherford has yet to make any comments about the season, about missing the playoffs, about possible changes for next season.

Not that Rutherford has been reclusive. He attended Charlotte Checkers playoff games last week in Charlotte. So did coach Paul Maurice and his staff.  All were visible and appeared relaxed as they watched games at Time Warner Cable Arena.

While interview requests have been made, the response has been that Rutherford still is going through his postseason evaluation process. It could be another week or two before he holds a press conference. ...

-- A number of people have asked about Maurice, and if the Canes failing to make the playoffs could lead to a coaching change. The feeling here is that nothing is off the table but that Maurice likely will return as coach.

The sense late in the season was that Maurice had done a commendable job with a younger team and with a brutal schedule -- enough to keep his job safe for next year. But the hugely disappointing loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the final game, costing the Canes a spot in the playoffs and a lot of money, could have changed all that.

There is no doubt Jeff Daniels has done a masterful job coaching the Charlotte Checkers this season. There seems to be little doubt he will one day be an NHL head coach. Should the Checkers win the Calder Cup, that may be sooner rather than later.

But next season, as the Canes' head coach? That may be rushing things.

-- Rod Brind'Amour may have an expanded role in the organization next season. Brind'Amour was the Canes' director of forward development last year.

-- That the Checkers' Nicolas Blanchard scored the goal that finished off the Hershey Bears in the opening round of the Calder Cup playoffs was a big hit with his teammates. As goaltender Mike Murphy put it, "It made it 10 times better."

Blanchard is one of those unsung types who do the dirty work and get little of the glory. He's also one of the players who was in the harrowing Albany River Rats bus crash in February 2009 and suffered severe lacerations.

"Everything he does on and off the ice, he's always working so hard," forward Nick Dodge said. "He stands up for his teammates and plays a real solid defensive game. To get a big goal like that, everybody feels great about it."

Blanchard scored at 1:30 of overtime in Game 6 to give the Checkers a 2-1 win, taking a pass from Dodge in front and backhanding a shot. It came about 10 seconds after he jumped on the ice, after he noticed Oskar Osala had missed his shift and the Checkers were a man down.

"He was alert and on his toes and jumped out there," Dodge said. "He really made a great play and it was a really good finish on that goal."