Record - 54-20-8 (116 points), 1st in the Metropolitan Division
Goals For: 278 (9th in the NHL), Goals Against: 202 (1st in the NHL)
Leading Goal Scorer - Sebastian Aho (37)
Leading Point Scorer - Sebastian Aho (81)
The Carolina Hurricanes have become a completely different hockey team since former captain Rod Brind'Amour took over as head coach. After making the Conference Finals in 2009, the Canes would go on to miss the next nine postseasons. Then Rod the Bod came in and turned the organization's culture around. In his first season behind the bench he led the team to the Conference Finals where they ended up losing to the Boston Bruins. He's taken the team to the playoffs each of the three years since, but hasn't been able to get as far as that first run. With a much different look to their club this year, Rod and the Canes are looking to get over that last hump and take home Lord Stanley's Cup.
When I try to think of who last year's Hurricanes reminded me of, the first thing that comes to mind are the New York Islanders teams of the past few years. They play a sound, structured defensive game at all ends of the ice. When on the forecheck they can generate turnovers in their opponent's zone and create high quality scoring chances off of them. When defending the neutral zone the Canes clog the ice, forcing the other team to rely on a dump and chase attack. They neutralize the opposition's top players by giving them no space between the two blue lines. When they have to defend in their own zone, they keep everything to the outside. Very rarely do you see a team get a scoring chance from a high danger area. Because of this and their 1-2 tandem between the pipes, the Hurricanes managed to give up the fewest amount of goals in the league last year.
What separated them from the last couple of Islander teams is offense. Unlike their division rival, the Hurricanes had a plethora of offensive weapons up and down their lineup who could actually score on a consistent basis. Sebastian Aho, who in my opinion is one of the most underrated players in hockey, led the charge with his third 30 goal season in four years. He was an every situation player for the Canes who could score at even strength, a man up, or even a man down. The 2nd overall pick from the 2018 draft Andrei Svechnikov had the best season of his young career scoring 30 goals for the first time and reaching a new high in points. The rest of the lineup was balanced as seven other players put up at least 40 points.
This was a team that I was very worried about come playoff time. They were riding a hot streak going into their first round matchup against the Boston Bruins winning 8 of the last 10 games to close out the regular season. But an injury to their all star goalie Freddie Anderson would pose questions as to how this team would fare without him. This was a revenge series for Carolina having gotten swept by the Bruins in the Conference Finals in Brind'Amour's first year as coach. He had improved as a coach, and the team had improved because of it. The first two games in Raleigh were barely even contests with the Canes outscoring the B's 10-3 in their attempt to take away home ice advantage. They had a commanding 2-0 lead heading into the next two games in Beantown. Once they arrived in Boston they became a totally different team.
Something I didn't understand about the Canes eventual downfall in the playoffs was the drastic difference in how they played at home versus on the road. They were a great road team in the regular season going 25-12-4 when they were away from PNC Arena, and yet they were unable to win a single away game during these playoffs. Not playing your best hockey away from home is something a team can get away with for one series, but it's impossible to win a Stanley Cup without being able to win on the road. It wasn't just Antti Raanta that struggled. The whole team looked like a minor league version of themselves when in Boston and New York. They were able to escape with the their lives against the Bruins, but were unable to get past the hungrier Rangers team. Aside from the swings of momentum a road win can have on a series, one of the biggest reasons why you need to win in your opponent's barn is because you won't be able to win every game at home. At some point you're not going to be able defend your den.
Similar to how they were able to shut down the Bruins, Carolina was able to prevent the Rangers' top weapons from making anything happen in the first two games in Raleigh. After dropping both games in the Big Apple, they won a pivotal Game 5 to give themselves two chances to beat the Blueshirts. The first opportunity was Game 6 at Madison Square Garden. They stormed out the gate getting plenty of pressure in the Rangers' zone in the early going, but Igor Shesterkin was just too good. Once Tyler Motte opened the scoring for New York seven minutes in, it was Katie bar the door for Carolina. Anytime they generated chances Shesterkin stood tall and the Rangers offense answered back with a goal to further increase their lead. This loss may have only counted as one game, but the belief it gave this young Rangers group heading into Game 7 was far more impactful.
Aside from being brutal on the road, the Hurricanes' special teams also failed them in the postseason. Their penalty kill, which was the best in the NHL at an 88% conversion rate, completely stalled out. In the playoffs, they only killed off 74% of their penalties. Yes, they ran into a hot Rangers powerplay that scored the first two goals in Game 7 on the man advantage, but at some point you need to get a kill. The Canes were unable to get one when they most needed and it cost them. A second straight blow-out loss ended their season much sooner than the team and fans alike had expected.
I didn't think the Hurricanes needed to do too much this offseason to keep the team in the upper echelon of the league. GM Don Waddell thought differently. The team said goodbye to a number of faces that played a critical role in the previous year's success. They lost the fourth, fifth, and sixth highest scorers on the team from the year prior. Vinny Trocheck signed with the Rangers. Tony DeAngelo was traded to Philly. Nino Niederreiter signed with Nashville. They also lost Max Domi, Brendan Smith, and Ian Cole to free agency.
Though the crux of their lineup was decimated, the Canes were able to bring in a number of players to fill the vacancies. Don Waddell pulled off two splashy trades that generated plenty of buzz around the league. The Hurricanes sent forward Steven Lorentz, goalie prospect Eeti Makiniemi, and a third round pick to the San Jose Sharks and in exchange received former Norris trophy winning defenseman Brent Burns. This is a huge move for Carolina as they were without a quarterback on the powerplay with Tony D being moved. Although Burns is on the tail end of his career, he's still a different breed of player. At 6'5 230 pounds, Burns is an absolute unit on the ice that is not only nearly impossible to get by, but also almost impossible to stop once he gets a head of steam with the puck. If he and Jaccob Slavin are paired together, watch out. Waddell also made a trade with Vegas to bring in Max Pacioretty and defenseman Dylan Coghlan. While Coghlan will more than likely be on the opening night roster, Pacioretty still has much to go in his recovery from an Achilles injury. They didn't give Vegas anything in the trade other than future considerations so there's really no risk in this move. If the 33 year old American can provide the same level of scoring as he did before the injury, then this trade will be viewed as highway robbery. Two other notable signings the Hurricanes made to fill out their bottom six were with veteran center Paul Stastny and winger Ondrej Kase. Stastny, now almost 37, is coming off of a very nice season in Winnipeg where he scored 20 goals for the first time since 2014. Kase became an unrestricted free agent after the Maple Leafs elected to not tender his qualifying offer. He's injury prone, but can be a very effective depth forward when he's healthy.
The Hurricanes lost way more than they gained this offseason. That doesn't mean they aren't still a playoff team, but I'm I have a hunch that they won't be as big of a force to be reckoned with as they were in 2022. The loss of Trocheck really hurts their penalty kill, but the addition of Burns will help their powerplay. The team is in a particularly precarious situation because until we see what they're is capable with their current roster we won't know how much of an impact losing all of those players had on them. I think the biggest determining factor of Carolina's success this year lies with the development of players like Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis. Their big three in Aho, Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen will continue to drive the offense, but Rod the Bod will be looking to Jarvis and Necas to make up the production that went out the door with Trocheck and Niederreiter. It's a tall task, but these two each have the talent to put up numbers in this league. With all of that sad, I do think the Canes take a slight step back in the standings. They just aren't as strong of a storm as they were last year. They'll make playoffs, but another division title isn't something I envision for these Hurricanes.
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