The other worst team in the NHL visits the RBC Center tonight, with the Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs each stuck on 11 points. Technically, the Hurricanes are 30th, having played one more game than the Leafs, but the real difference between the teams is expectations.
The Maple Leafs expected to be in this position - perhaps not this position exactly, but this was a rebuilding year in Toronto from the beginning.
The Hurricanes did not, needless to say at this point. The lofty goals of the offseason have been replaced by a more immediate task: Get to .500 by Christmas. That will require a mere 13 wins in 17 games by a team that hasn't won in regulation in more than a month.
As the Hurricanes fall farther and farther behind the pace, it's getting harder and harder to sketch out best-case scenarios. To get to 91 points, which got the Anaheim Ducks into the playoffs in the Western Conference last season, the Hurricanes need 80 points in the next 62 games.
The Hurricanes closed out last season on a similar pace at 24-10-2, so it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility, but last year's team started that run as a solid, if underachieving, .500 team.
There's no such foundation this year.
So what do you do? The only thing the Hurricanes can do is wait, and hope.
For most teams, the first option would be to fire the coach, as the Hurricanes did last year. Don't expect that maneuver again. The Hurricanes can't afford to pay a third coach, for one thing, and Peter Karmanos and Jim Rutherford have made it clear they have no interest in firing Paul Maurice again anyway.
If you can't change the coach, change the players, but even if they wanted to dump salary for prospects and draft picks, there are precious few courses of action.
Among the Hurricanes' 10 potential unrestricted free agents, Whitney, Scott Walker and Niclas Wallin have no-trade clauses. Aaron Ward isn't going anywhere. Michael Leighton and Manny Legace aren't in demand. Tim Conboy and Stephane Yelle went through waivers unclaimed.
That leaves Joe Corvo, who may have some marketability to a team needing power-play help, and Matt Cullen, whose name already has started popping up in trade rumors. Even if the Hurricanes dealt both of them - and convinced Whitney, Walker and Wallin to waive their no-trades - it's hardly cleaning house.
If those veterans are dealt for draft picks, now or at the trade deadline, bringing up kids who aren't ready isn't going to help. Brandon Sutter, arguably Carolina's best forward from the time of his call-up, had a year of NHL experience under his belt.
The others in Albany do not. They don't even have AHL experience yet.
There aren't many alternatives for the Hurricanes. The only one left is to stay the course, get Eric Staal and Cam Ward back and hope the past two games were a step in the right direction.
The Hurricanes have backed themselves into a corner: on the ice, in the front office and in the standings. The cavalry isn't coming over the ridge. At this point, the Canes can either start winning or spend the next six months in hockey purgatory.
