Carolina Hurricanes ‘worker bee’ Jesper Fast has his season off to a quick start

At a team outing for the Carolina Hurricanes before the season, a go-kart race for the players was pretty competitive.

The winner: Jesper Fast. He took the checkered flag for the victory, then took it for a victory lap.

That’s the guy the players call “Quickie,” the forward from Sweden who speaks softly and can often play a silent kind of game while he’s quietly, almost sneakily effective with his speed, instincts, experience and, yes, competitiveness.

There’s little flash to Fast’s game but get this: In the Canes’ first two games of the season, both victories, he has scored a goal in each. The first was on the redirection of a Jaccob Slavin shot, and the second on a top-shelf bullet from the left circle that probably had people double-checking to see who the shooter was.

No 71, Fast.

Told this week that he was on a pace to score, oh, 82 goals, Fast smiled. After all, he scored six goals in 46 games last season for the Canes and never has had more than 13 in a season in his NHL career.

“I don’t think I could expect that,” he said. “Of course it’s fun to score goals early in the year and get the confidence going but the most important thing is to win games.”

Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour has kept the Jordan Staal line together through camp and into the season with Nino Niederreiter on the left side and Fast as the right wing. Some would call it the Canes’ checking line and it has been that, but Fast and Niederreiter have scored and Staal has had Grade-A chances in front of the net and had two assists through two games.

“We know what to expect from each other,” Fast said. “Both of them make it easy for me because both are hard on the puck and strong. They’re making plays and I’m really enjoying playing with them.”

Staal, in turn, said he likes playing with Fast, who he calls a “worker bee.”

“He’s going to show up every night and ready to work,” Staal said. “He’s smart, he’s quick, no pun intended, and a player that I enjoy playing with.”

Fast, 29, came to Canes last year as an unrestricted free agent, signing a three-year, $6 million contract after the New York Rangers did not re-sign him. No player was more popular among the Rangers, who voted Fast the Players’ Player award as the person who “best exemplifies what it means to be a team player.”

The award is given annually by the Rangers. Fast won it five straight times, a team record.

Fast’s team-before-self attitude and play is appreciated by his Canes teammates and his coaches. He’s the kind to attend to the little details, be defensively responsible, win board battles, kill penalties. Having the right stick in the right place at the right time can help win games.

And scoring goals? That almost seems a bonus for the Canes.

“He’s steady. You know what you’re getting out of him and that’s what you love about him as a coach,” Brind’Amour said. “He gets overlooked because we have some bigger names ... but you can’t have success as a team without a Jesper Fast, those players who know how to play and you can count on at the end of the game.”

Carolina Hurricanes at Montreal Canadiens

When: Thursday, 7 p.m.

Where: Bell Centre, Montreal.

TV/Radio: Bally Sports South, WCMC 99.9 FM.