Play again or not, there’s much to like about the Canes’ season
While the NHL season remains on pause and we all wait to see if there will be more hockey, it’s a good time to reflect.
Even if the Carolina Hurricanes’ season should be called after 68 games, if the coronavirus pandemic makes it unsafe to finish, there will be much to like about 2019-20.
Sebastian Aho has scored a career-high 38 goals. Forward Martin Necas, so swift on the ice, was having a strong rookie season and defenseman Haydn Fleury established himself on the blue line. Before the March 12 suspension of play by the NHL, Justin WIlliams had goals in five straight games before the season was abruptly suspended.
The Canes (38-25-5) had won three straight games and held the top wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference in Rod Brind’Amour’s second year as head coach.
Here are five of the most memorable hockey moments from 2019-20:
An “Average Joe” named Ayres
It was alarming when starting goalie James Reimer was injured in a collision in the net, leaving the Feb. 22 game in Toronto. For the Canes, it became much worse when goalie Petr Mrazek was left facedown on the ice after an even bigger collision away from the net, suffering a concussion.
What now? An emergency backup goalie? And whom might that be at Scotiabank Arena, many wondered.
Meet David Ayres. He’s 42, played some junior hockey, has helped the Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies at times as a practice goalie. Once drove a Zamboni. Survived a kidney transplant.
Ayres put on his goalie gear after Reimer was hurt and then was on the ice after Mrazek left in the second period. Brind’Amour’s dejected expression was telling but Ayres, seemingly asked to do the impossible, made a victory possible. After allowing two goals in the second period, he stopped all seven shots in the third as the Canes hunkered down and won 6-3.
It wasn’t just a feel-good NHL or hockey story. This was an Everyman kind of story, one that inspired, one that might have some resonance today with the world facing a pandemic crisis.
The Canes also lost defenseman Brett Pesce to a season-ending shoulder injury in the Leafs game -- another huge gut-punch for Carolina. But Ayres’ success, his smile, his story, helped ease the pain a little, at least for a few days.
“It’s a special moment that lot of people have been able to share and can relate to,” Canes forward Justin Williams said. “Just an average guy living his dream, an ‘Average Joe’ coming out and playing in an NHL hockey game, is pretty awesome to see.”
The old pro returns
Justin Williams had everyone guessing from the end of the Canes’ 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs until January 2020: what will No. 14 do?
Some believed Williams, after three Stanley Cup rings and a long career, after serving as captain of the Canes’ first playoff team since 2009 and making them the talk of the NHL, would retire. Others never believed it, saying Williams was only in “semi-retirement” and would come back to the Canes at some point.
Williams, 38, came back. The winger then won his first game of the 2019-20 season on Jan. 19 at PNC Arena, scoring the deciding shootout goal against goalie Thomas Greiss and the New York Islanders for a 2-1 win. And everyone had a good laugh later about Williams being the eighth shooter -- eighth? -- picked by Brind’Amour.
“I was nervous the whole game,” Williams said after the game. It didn’t show.
The Svech
Many had tried, none succeeding. Not in the NHL. Not until Andrei Svechnikov pulled it off.
Brind’Amour said Svechnikov had a “green light” to do anything with the puck in the offensive zone. What the winger did Oct. 29 against the Calgary Flames at PNC Arena was go behind the net, scoop up the puck and jam it, lacrosse style, over the right shoulder and off the mask of goalie David Rittich.
Mike Legg, for one, was impressed, telling the N&O, “Wow, that was up tight in that corner. So cool, so awesome.”
Legg is the former Michigan hockey player who first made the move famous in a 1996 NCAA tournament game against Minnesota. Called “Michigan,” the shot was attempted in the NHL but no one had scored -- until Svechnikov. And then he did it again, Dec. 17 against Winnipeg.
“People ask which I like the best but I don’t care,” Svechnikov said in an N&O interview. “For me, it’s hockey, it’s a goal. A good goal.”
The Svech.
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Dougie goes down
Rod Brind’Amour believed defenseman Dougie Hamilton might have been the Canes’ most irreplaceable player. Named to represent the Canes at the 2020 NHL All-Star Weekend, Hamilton had 14 goals and 26 assists in 47 games before the Jan. 16 road game against Columbus.
Hamilton played in every situation -- even strength, power play, penalty kill -- and was considered a potential Norris Trophy candidate. And then he was gone.
With 22 seconds left in the second period, Hamilton and Kevin Stenlund of the Blue Jackets got their legs tangled as they chased after the puck near the boards and Hamilton fell backwards, bending his left leg under him. Hamilton fractured his left fibula, requiring surgery.
“A huge loss obviously,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s arguably our No. 1 guy on everything.”
The Canes were 27-18-2 with Hamilton in the lineup and 11-7-3 without him.
Hamilton did make one noticeable appearance at a Canes game and had Canes fans roaring at PNC Arena sounding the warning siren before a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 14.
Let’s play hockey outside
Tom Dundon wanted it, badly, and the sooner the better. Like many, the Canes owner asked why Carolina couldn’t be chosen to host an outdoor NHL game.
The Canes had the site: N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium. Why not a Stadium Series game?
The answer came Feb. 15, when the NHL announced an outdoor game would be played Feb. 20, 2021 at Carter-Finley. The opponent for the Stadium Series game was not named but the excitement level was high, was palpable for everyone.
“We’re proud to be the first NHL market in the Southeast to host an outdoor game,” said Dundon, who also promised an “epic tailgate” before the game.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said “all the boxes were checked” when it came to considering Raleigh, the stadium and the bid by the Hurricanes. It should highlight the 2020-21 season, once the crisis hopefully has passed, once hockey is being played again.
