With just 19 games left until the NHL playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes currently sit in second place behind the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference, and in first place in the Metropolitan Division, just three points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins and five points in front of the New York Rangers.
It’ll be a wild ride to the finish as the Canes will look to grab first place from the Panthers in time for the postseason, so let’s take a look at what brought them here and what needs to happen moving forward.
It’s a team effort
One thing Carolina certainly doesn’t lack is the ability to score, with 10 players currently having reached double-digit goal efforts this season.
Center Sebastian Aho and right wing Andrei Svechnikov lead the team with 28 and 23 goals each, respectively.
Different faces have also been making more of an offensive impact as of late including center Martin Necas who recently ended his scoring drought spanning back to Jan. 15 with goals against the Seattle Kraken and Tampa Bay Lightning in the past eight games.
Center Jordan Staal has also changed the direction of his season these past few months. In a scoring drought from Oct. 29 to Feb. 10, he now has six goals and five assists since then, including two goals in the March 4 matchup against Pittsburgh.
The depth the Canes have, combined with the ability to score no matter who is on the ice, is one of the many things that makes this team so special and has had a large contribution to its success.
Cashing in on the power play
A current struggle for the Hurricanes is the ability to take advantage of the power play.
In its recent four-game losing streak, the Canes had 12 power play chances, but they weren’t able to convert on any of them.
Necas and defenseman Tony DeAngelo finally cashed in during the 3-2 win over the Lightning on March 22, but prior to that Carolina’s last goal on the one-man advantage was back on March 6 against the Seattle Kraken.
The Hurricanes need to take more advantage of these situations moving forward for any hope of being competitive with the Rangers and the current top team in the league, the Colorado Avalanche.
New additions
Part of a three-team trade, the Canes recently acquired forward Max Domi from the Columbus Blue Jackets at the trade deadline in an effort to strengthen that scoring depth even more. Lost in all the discussion of that acquisition, Carolina also grabbed defenseman Tyler Inamoto, who is currently playing in the NCAA, all in exchange for prospects Egor Korshkov and Aidan Hreschuk.
Another announcement at the deadline, the Canes signed an extension with forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi worth $4.82 million per season for eight years.
While Domi will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, he provides some much-needed depth to finish this year, and the Kotkaniemi extension shows Carolina is continuing work on long-term depth as well.
Top of the league in goaltending
As always, the Hurricanes’ goaltending deserves an immense amount of credit for the team’s success. Combined Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta currently have the lowest average of goals against per game in the league at 2.37 and the third highest save percentage in the NHL at 0.921.
Andersen, who represented the Canes in this season’s All-Star game also has the lowest individual average of goals against per game at 2.06 and the second-highest save percentage at 0.928.
With injuries in recent months to DeAngelo, Brendan Smith and Jordan Martinook, the Hurricanes’ defense has taken multiple hits as of late, but the excellence of its goaltending has kept Carolina well within reach of first place in the conference.
The final stretch
It won’t be an easy ride to first-place in the Eastern Conference as the last stretch of the regular season kicks off March 24 at home against the Dallas Stars. The final 18 games include 12 games against Eastern Conference opponents including two matchups on the road against the Rangers and another clash in Tampa against the current defending Stanley Cup Champions.
