It is officially New Year’s Eve, meaning that the calendar year of 2023 is coming to a close. Over the past year, there were some ups and downs for the Carolina Hurricanes. Some bright spots hosted the Stadium Series at Carter-Findlay Stadium on Saturday, February 18th, winning their third-straight division title and making a run to the Eastern Conference Final. The downside was losing in the Eastern Conference Final and struggling to start the 2023-24 season. However, the Hurricanes did finish off 2023 on a high note.
Coming into the Dec. 30 game versus the Toronto Maple Leafs, they were in the middle of winning their previous two games versus the Nashville Predators (Dec. 27) and the Montreal Canadiens (Dec. 28). They hoped to win their third-straight game to cap off the year. That is exactly what they did on the road in Toronto. When the dust settled, the Hurricanes defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2 to win their third game in a row to claim their 20th win of the season and end 2023 as victors.
Welcome Back, Michael Bunting
The Hurricanes traveled north of the border to face the Maple Leafs for the first time in the 2023-24 season. There were storylines coming into the game that were too good to ignore. Outside of Carolina looking to claim their third win in a row, forward Michael Bunting played against his former team for the first time since signing with the Hurricanes this past summer. The Scarborough, Ontario native, who grew up as a Maple Leafs fan, was looking to score against his former team for some “revenge,” as they say in hockey circles. Before signing with the Hurricanes back on July 1, Bunting played the previous two seasons in Toronto, tallying 46 goals and 122 points for his hometown team in 161 games.
As if the NHL scriptwriters knew how important this one was for Bunting, they made it known that things would go his way, as he scored the first goal of the game to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead 2:24 into the game. He essentially went right down Broadway in the middle of the faceoff circles to one-time a shot past Maple Leafs netminder Martin Jones. Sebastian Aho, who has been on a tear in his own right, placed a perfect pass from behind the net right onto Bunting’s stick to score on the power-play for Carolina.
Related: Hurricanes Sign Michael Bunting to 3-Year Contract
That is certainly one way to make a return memorable for a former player of their previous team to net the first goal of the game. Bunting ended up getting only one point in the game, but it was a huge one for Carolina and himself, as that was his eighth goal of the season, along with his 25th point in 36 games.
Bunting was not the only “former” Maple Leaf to make his mark against the blue and white. Seth Jarvis, who was selected by the Hurricanes in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, was part of the trade between the two teams that sent Patrick Marleau to Toronto, who sent the 13th overall pick to Carolina in return. That does not make Jarvis a former Leaf in a sense, but he was the pick in that trade, which makes the storylines more interesting. Jarvis scored the second goal of the game for the Hurricanes, which was also a powerplay goal, to give them a 2-0 lead in the second period.
The Maple Leafs did score one back to make it 2-1 in the third period, but ultimately, it was the Hurricanes’ hottest player who sealed the game for them to claim their 20th win of the season.
Sebastian Aho Does it Again
As mentioned earlier, Aho was the primary assist on the Bunting goal to make it a 1-0 game for the Hurricanes. He also managed to get the secondary assist in Jarvis’s goal to get him halfway to his current four-point-per-game pace since the Predators game. He, along with Andrei Svechnikov, assisted on both of the power-play goals for the Hurricanes going into the third period. The game was 2-1 going into the final minute, and the net was empty for the Maple Leafs. After a puck was blocked by a Hurricanes player, Aho went into a foot race with a Toronto player to get the loose puck that was in the neutral zone.
Aho ended up winning the race and shot the puck into the Maple Leafs’ empty net to make it a 3-1 lead for the Hurricanes. It seemed that he ultimately iced the game for Carolina to secure their third straight win and the aforementioned 20th win of the 2023-24 season. It was his third point of the game, his 11th over the last three games, after getting two assists earlier in the game.
Related: Sebastian Aho Should Be on Shortlist for NHL Awards in 2023-24
Aho has been on a torrid pace in the last week of December and in 2023 in general. After the Maple Leafs game, he has not tallied at least three points over the last three games. His 11 points saw him go from 499 points entering the Predators game on Dec. 27 to 510 after the Toronto game. He has to be the hottest player in the NHL right now with the insane pace he has been on.
Aho currently leads the Hurricanes in goals (15), assists (27), and points (42) going into the 2024 calendar year. The next closest player on the team in each category is Jarvis (13 goals & 27 points) and Bunting (17 assists). What makes this feat even more insane is that he has done all of this in 34 games, which is three less than what Carolina has played as a whole. Aho missed three games back in October during the team’s West Coast Road trip and is 15 points clear of the second-place guy on the team. It goes to show how elite he has been this year for the Hurricanes and why he is a superstar in the NHL.
What’s Next for Carolina?
The next game for the Carolina Hurricanes will be in 2024, as they have New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day off. Their first game will be on Jan. 2, 2024, versus the Metro Division-leading New York Rangers. The Hurricanes sit in second place in the division with 44 points, seven behind the Rangers, who have 51 points. The Rangers also have two games in hand on the Hurricanes, who’ve played 37 games compared to New York’s 35. The Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders also have two games in hand on the Hurricanes. Carolina is in an interesting situation, having played the second most games compared to the rest of the division outside of the Columbus Blue Jackets (38 games).
Carolina looks to start the 2024 portion of the season the same way they ended 2023 with a win over a very good Rangers team, which is 25-9-1 as of the time this is being written. If the Hurricanes can go into the first week of 2024 with how they’ve been playing as of late, they could have a chance to close that gap for the first-place spot in the Metropolitan Division. It all comes down to how they take their small two-day break going into the new year.
There are 45 games left in the regular season. Things will get interesting for the Hurricanes from here.
