Hockey is truly an interesting sport. The unpredictability is beyond anyone can fathom from month to month, day to day, even year to year. What people think will happen sometimes does or does not follow the consensus. Parity in hockey is the best in all of sports bar none. Regarding the NHL, no unpredictability from other leagues can come close to the top league in North America for hockey. For the Carolina Hurricanes, 26 games into the 2023-24 season have been one of early up-and-downs for the odds-on favorites to win the Stanley Cup. Analysts and people around the hockey world looked at Carolina as the team to beat this season.
While there are still 56 games to go in the 82-game season, it has been one of confusion and unpredictability of what will happen from game to game. If anyone asks Hurricanes fans, they will even give the sense that they have no idea what is happening with the team. When trying to point to one thing or another that could be causing the early season struggles, there seems to be a clear answer. It’s not down to a certain player or even a position group, this seems to be an overall team issue.
Hurricanes Feeling the Western Canada Winters
They say that it’s unbearably cold during wintertime in Western Canada, especially in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and even in Alberta. That could be true because the Hurricanes have gone ice-cold against the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers, and Calgary Flames. Those three teams started the six-game, 12-day road trip for Carolina in December after their game versus the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, Dec. 2. In the span of those three games, they have been outscored 11-4. Out of the 11 goals, six of those came in their 6-1 loss to the Oilers on Wednesday, Dec. 6. Unfortunately, the Flames game did not go much better as Carolina ended up losing the game 3-2 after being up 2-0 going into the third period. It was the first game of the season where the Hurricanes were leading going into the final period and lost.
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After the team’s loss versus the Flames, head coach Rod Brind’Amour stated, “Not good enough. We’ve got a lot of guys that aren’t pulling their weight. It’s plain and simple. You can read into it what you want, but we’re not going to win if we don’t have 20 guys going. We have some guys working hard every night, contributing, doing what they do, but there are a lot of others that need to look in the mirror.”
This is not the first time that Brind’Amour or even the leadership of the team has stated that guys need to step up and buy-in. Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal has come out a few times expressing that same statement that Brind’Amour gave. It was even after the 5-1 loss to the Oilers that Staal said, “It wasn’t pretty, the whole game. Embarrassing, really. [It’s a] good thing we play tomorrow, I wouldn’t want to sit on that one for too long. They got two goals in the first minute and it’s tough to come back [after that] in this league. They were fresh and ready to go. We were slow and not buying into anything we do. That’s what that’s going to look like.”
After hearing this a few times, will changes be coming soon for the Hurricanes or will there be a players-only meeting to finally straighten these issues out?
Where Things Stand
Overall, the Hurricanes are still in a playoff spot despite being 0-3-0 to start their six-game road trip. They are currently in the second wild card spot with 29 points and a record of 14-11-1. Furthermore, they are fourth in the Metropolitan Division tied with the New York Islanders in points. However, the Islanders do have a game in hand over the Hurricanes. Nonetheless, Carolina is still in a decent spot 26 games into an 82-game season.
When taking a quick look at the team rankings within the NHL, the Hurricanes are ranked:
- 13th in NHL with 29 points
- 10th in Goals For (84)
- 22nd in Goals Against (86)
- 16th in GF/GP (3.23)
- 20th in GA/GP (3.31)
- 16th in PP% (20.7)
- 19th in PK% (78.3)
All of that to say, the Hurricanes are still in a good spot in the NHL. They’re still in the playoff hunt and a team that can still score at a high rate. However, there are some issues the team is facing right now. Carolina is used to having a shutdown and suffocating defense that limits grade-A chances for opponents. They are one of the rare teams that run a man-to-man defense. When it is going, no one can beat them as they can shut down even the most offensively potent teams in the league.
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Unfortunately, that is not the case right now. The issues do not come down to one player or even one position group. There is an overall team problem and the first three games of the four-game Western Canada portion of the road trip has exposed it. When it comes to the Hurricanes’ defense, it has gotten somewhat better once they started running with the same pairs over the last few games starting back in the last week of November. In the Oilers game, that seemed to massively breakdown but overall it has gotten better for the defensemen.
The forwards seem to be struggling to help out the defense and have been in a place of inconsistency that is not seen very much for a Brind’Amour-led team. After the 3-2 loss versus the Flames, alternate captain Jordan Martinook stated, “Where we’re at right now, there should be a huge sense of urgency going into a period like that. We’ve got a two-goal lead to close it out and for us to sit back, come, and not push back, especially for where we’re at right now, it’s hard to fathom. Obviously, we’re in a rut right now. We’re going into a team that’s playing really good as well. We need to do what we need to do tomorrow to figure it out and come back Saturday with the mindset that we’re going to dominate and not lose a battle.”
Martinook said it perfectly, this team is in a rut and has no sense of urgency. Over the previous five seasons, no one could say that the Hurricanes did not have any urgency or drive to close out games. The team and the fanbase are in uncharted waters as they are used to defensively-minded Hurricanes hockey that wears teams down but right now, it is not. It could be what everyone from the leadership group and Brind’amour is saying that players are not buying in.
Could it be something else? Are the guys just not meshing with the system that is so used to being suffocating? Whatever the reason is, the clock is ticking on the Hurricanes. Carolina is in win-now mode as they have some huge decisions to make when it comes to the roster this upcoming offseason.
Tough Decisions Coming Soon
The upcoming offseason will see an increase to the salary cap as it goes up $4.175 million for the 2024-25 season. That being said, the Hurricanes will have to figure out who they want to bring back from their upcoming unrestricted free agent (UFA) and restricted free agent (RFA) list. Carolina will have 12 players (three RFA, nine UFA) as free agents in some capacity. What makes things more interesting is that Jaccob Slavin will be a UFA after the 2024-25 season so they will need to take that contract extension into account. What does it mean for the current season? It means that they will need to figure out if they need to unload players that might not come back for guys who could take them to the next level.
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That does not mean that this team currently cannot win a Stanley Cup. However, if there is an avenue for the Hurricanes to maybe upgrade somewhere on the roster, there is a discussion to be made for it to happen. Could Carolina turn it around with this team? Very much so as long as everything clicks into place and the team can fire on all cylinders. That will have to come down to the players and what the coaching staff is teaching them in the locker room and at practices.
The world is not ending by any means for the Hurricanes. As mentioned before, they are still in a playoff spot and are still scoring goals as a team. Once they can get the defensive side of the game going. That is all positions of the team not just the defensemen, the Hurricanes can be the lethal unit people predicted before the season started.
When it’s all said and done, the Hurricanes will right the ship. General manager Don Waddell, the front office, and Brind’Amour and his coaching staff have made the Hurricanes what they are right now. Three-time defending division champions with deep playoff runs. Always in Stanley Cup talks every season. Always top-10 in the league and are a measuring stick opponent for anyone who has to play them. PNC Arena is the toughest place in hockey to play because the fanbase loves this team and will always support the guys no matter what.
It is better to be going through this now in December than in March. There are 56 games left for Carolina before the playoffs start. Leave no doubt about it, the Hurricanes will be in the playoffs come the middle of April, and rest assured, they will be the team everyone predicted them to be. It comes down to the 22 or 23 guys in the Canes locker room to come together as a team and show the NHL that they are not to be trifled with. Once they do, it’ll be a Category 5 storm that will take over the NHL with force.
