Carolina Hurricanes turn to Fortnite — an old favorite — during training camp down time

What do hockey players do to kill time and relax off the ice during training camp?

Some play golf. Some chill with the family.

Sebastian Aho, Brett Pesce, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Seth Jarvis of the Carolina Hurricanes are spending some of it playing Fortnite, the popular online video game developed by Cary-based Epic Games.

“Who told you that?” Pesce said Monday.

Answer: Jarvis, Aho and Kotkaniemi.

“Oh, all the boys,” Pesce said, smiling. “Yeah, we’re back on the grind.”

But Fortnite? Wasn’t that, like, 2019?

“It was a thing and then it kinda faded away,” Kotkaniemi said. “But we like to play it, so …”

They play. And they do compete.

Kotkaniemi said Pesce is the best player “by a mile.” Nor will Pesce disagree.

“Ah, yeah, but those guys are pretty bad at that game, so …” Pesce joked. “It doesn’t take much skill to be better than those guys.”

Not that there’s a ton of game strategy involved, he said.

“You just shoot your gun as much as possible,” Pesce said.

Things do get a bit testy at times, Jarvis said.

“I like to talk and they get mad when I talk and stuff,” Jarvis said. “It’s got to be quiet for them. ‘Fishy’ yells at me.”

Aho? Calm, collected Sebastian “Fishy” Aho?

“Are you kidding me?” Jarvis said, all but shouting. “Imagine how competitive he is on the ice, you should see him in Fortnite. Oh, my goodness.”

To which Aho replied, “Me?”

“I guess I can’t play video games without … I mean, it’s a battle royale, right?” Aho said. “You want to be the last one standing and be the last survivor. Obviously ‘Pesc’ is the best of us but I’ll battle it out.”

Pesce said he “likes to talk some trash” during the games, adding, “Everybody talks some smack.”

Aho said Pesce was the one who first suggested playing Fortnite again once the guys were back in town and facing the doldrums of camp.

“It was like what should we play? Nobody had played that game in like three and a half or four years,” Aho said. “I played it a ton when it first came out. It was fun, new. ‘Pesc’ said let’s try it again, so the four of us hopped online. We’ve had a blast.”

If Pesce is the best, it’s agreed Aho -- “He’s a big bully on that game,” Pesce said -- clearly is second in the group. Kotkaniemi said he and Jarvis “don’t know what to do other than bringing the entertainment to the mike.”

But Jarvis, who calls himself “by far the worst,” isn’t sure how entertaining he has been.

“I just get ripped by them all day,” he said, shaking his head. “They try to kick me out of the group.”

Will they?

“I’m not going to get kicked out of the group,” he said firmly.