For the fourth straight season, the Carolina Hurricanes are playoff bound.
With a comeback 5-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres (26-35-11) on Thursday, April 7, the Hurricanes (46-17-8) clinched a playoff berth as well as the second 100-point season in franchise history. After a bitter 4-2 loss to the Sabres in Buffalo just two days prior, the significance of this win was not lost on the Hurricanes.
“That’s what we wanted to accomplish from day one four years ago,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “It wasn’t just to have a good team here and there. It was to be good for a long time and give this area a team to be proud of.”
Brind’Amour first took the helm for Carolina in 2018-19 when he led the Canes to their first playoff appearance since 2008-09, and he’s repeated that level of play since with this string of playoff berths. However, this is not Brind’Amour’s first rodeo when it comes to leading the Carolina Hurricanes, as he captained the only other Carolina team to eclipse 100 points in a season. A team that just so happened to win the Stanley Cup in 2005-06.
Even with a bevy of young talent on the roster, most of the current Canes players are used to qualifying for the playoffs given the team’s success under Brind’Amour. However, perhaps no other Hurricanes adopted a more “business as usual” attitude than center Jordan Staal, who’s been in Carolina since 2012-13. Even though the majority of his time in Raleigh has been spent missing the postseason rather than making it, the veteran captain stayed true to his down-to-earth demeanor when he found out that the Canes were heading to the playoffs.
The victory over the Sabres to secure a playoff spot did indeed prove sweet. But even before the final horn sounded, that sweetness abounded in the form of a dessert.
Specifically, turnovers.
The Canes and the Sabres each racked up 11 giveaways over the course of the contest, making for a sloppy, albeit exciting, game of hockey. At first, the game looked to be a repeat of that recent loss to Buffalo as Carolina dug itself into a 2-0 hole by the end of the first period. Despite both of the Hurricanes’ power play opportunities coming towards the end of the opening 20, some shoddy defensive work saw Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch each sneak a goal past goaltender Antti Raanta for a 2-0 Sabres lead.
The Canes did let up one more goal in the second period, but things started to turn around for Carolina at that point. The top line of right wing Andrei Svechnikov, center Sebastian Aho and center Seth Jarvis combined for the first of its two goals to put the Hurricanes on the scoreboard.
Left wing Teuvo Teräväinen drew inspiration from the game’s first siren sounder, UNC-Chapel Hill men’s basketball player Brady Manek, by scoring on a catch and shoot play of his own. When the Sabres tried to clear the puck out of their own zone, Teräväinen grabbed it out of the air before setting it down on the ice to fire past Buffalo netminder Craig Anderson, pulling with Canes within a goal before the second intermission.
In keeping with the game’s trend of the Canes scoring highlight-reel goals, Staal netted the equalizer to cap off a stylish segment of team hockey. Right wing Jesper Fast dished a cross-ice pass to defenseman Brett Pesce who dangled the puck just long enough to tease the Buffalo defenseman in, then passed to a wide-open Staal who deposited the puck into the net.
The Svechnikov-Aho-Jarvis line netted the go-ahead goal with just under nine minutes to go in another great example of passing chemistry. After the game, Jarvis expanded on how playing on a line with a young superstar like Svech helps him cultivate his own game.
“It’s sick,” Jarvis said. “All I have to do is be first in the battles and just poke the puck free, and [Svechnikov] just wheels in there with his massive body and creates a bunch of chaos for everyone. It’s nice because a guy like me, I can kind of get lost and hopefully find those greasy goals.”
Staal scored an empty-netter with 55 seconds to go to seal the deal. With another win tucked under its belt and with playoff hockey now officially on the docket for Carolina, the team is beginning to prepare for further success in the postseason.
“It’s good news for this club,” Staal said. “We’ve worked hard to get here. We’ve got a long road ahead, but this was the first step. It’s definitely nice to celebrate.”
For now, the Hurricanes face a quick turnaround as the New York Islanders come to PNC Arena on Friday, April 8. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
