Many questions can spring up for a hockey team during the course of an 82-game NHL season for any given team. Who is the leader? Who will finish first in scoring? Who is the top goalie? Will the team make the playoffs? All of these and more are questions a typical team faces. For the Carolina Hurricanes this season, the question has often been: what next?
The 2016-17 season has, so far, been one of numerous ups and downs for the Canes. Blown three-goal leads in consecutive games to open the campaign all the way back in October paved the way for a brutal month that saw the Canes win a grand total of two games, including just one on a season-opening, six-game road trip.
The rough play continued into November, with Carolina winning just one of its first five games to open the month, and an eighth-straight year outside the playoff picture seeming like a foregone conclusion. The Canes, however, found improved defensive play, balanced scoring and rock-solid goaltending from starter Cam Ward that sparked the team to a five-game winning streak in mid-November, and things were looking up for the men in the sightless eye.
Things can change quickly in the NHL, however, and indeed they did. The Canes hit another rough patch to end November, losing three of four games and once again entering a new month on a rocky note. The team was able to tread water to open December, going 2-2-2 in its first six games, an impressive feat minus top two-way forward Jordan Staal and with five of the six games on the road.
A wild game against the Vancouver Canucks at home on Dec. 13 turned things for the better once again. Entering the third period of that game, the Canes were down 5-2, having surrendered four unanswered goals in a second period that represented the team’s worst 20 minutes of hockey of the season. Naturally, the Canes blitzed the Canucks for four straight goals of their own not five minutes into the third to take a 6-5 lead, and held on to win a crazy game 8-6. That win sparked the Canes to winning three of their next four heading into the Christmas break, and the team earned points in all four games.
The roller coaster ride wasn’t done there (not even close), as the Canes again stumbled out of the holiday festivities, dropping four of six games in late December and early January. A four-game homestand in the second week of 2017’s opening month, then, was just what the doctor ordered. The Canes went perfect on the homestand, picking up eight of a possible eight points. The streak included a win over the at-the-time NHL-leading Columbus Blue Jackets, and wrapped up with a track meet of a game in a 7-4 victory over the New York Islanders on Jan. 14.
Following the conclusion of that homestand, the Canes outlook was at its highest of the season, and rightfully so. The win over the Islanders brought the team within one point of a wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference, with three games in hand on the Philadelphia Flyers for that coveted spot. Finally, it seemed, the Canes had turned the corner and were well on their way to a strong rest of the season and first playoff berth since 2009.
Well, in theory. The next five games quickly dispelled that notion. Heading into the All-Star break, the Canes dropped five of five contests, and only had a prayer of winning two of them, including a 7-1 shellacking at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins on home ice that was possibly the team’s worst performance since Bill Peters took over as head coach.
The Canes entered the break seven points out of a playoff spot, and all hope seemed to be lost. But, the beauty of a roller-coaster season like this is that when a team falls down a cliff, it begins to climb back up. The Canes roared out of the break with a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, led by rookie forward Sebastian Aho’s first-career hat trick. That key win over the very team it is chasing for a wild card spot gave Carolina the spark it needed, as the team won its next two after that, including another crazy one over the Islanders, a 5-4 overtime win on Saturday.
That three-game winning streak has the Canes back in the hunt, at the time of this writing, the team sat four points back of the Flyers with three games in hand. The Canes have two more tough ones on the road, against the Washington Capitals and Dallas Stars, before their NHL-mandated five-day break. After that, it’s five straight at home, where the Canes are 17-6-1 on the season. Got all that?
If the team can finally stretch this current winning streak into a much longer run of winning hockey to finish the season, aided by a home-heavy schedule, and avoid another big dip, then the roller coaster ride that the 2016-17 season has been has a chance to end at the top of a hill. If the Canes can finish the year on a climb, then the ultimate goal of playoff hockey in Raleigh for the first time since 2009 may be realized after all.
