How are the Hurricanes doing at the halfway point of this NHL season?
The Carolina Hurricanes have reached the midpoint of the NHL season, and there are a lot of good feelings surrounding the team and what it has done.
The record is a good one: 20-7-1. The Canes are well positioned among the Central Division leaders. It’s a solid team.
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour, in the final year of his contract, should be a candidate for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s Coach of the Year — and in for a sizable raise and extension.
“We’ve been pretty successful when we just go out there, play our system, trust it and work hard,” center Sebastian Aho said this week.
The Canes have done that more often than not. A 4-2 loss Tuesday to the Detroit Red Wings was a sour one — and every regulation loss is a dagger — but it came after the Canes had won eight consecutive games.
“I think in the first half we’re finding ways to win games, and it’s not always our best hockey when we’re doing it,” Canes forward Brock McGinn said. “I think we’ve just got to learn through the next half of the season that we’ve got to play a full 60 (minutes). I think that’s the way you’re going to win in the playoffs and that’s the way you’re going to win championships, if you play a complete game.”
Here’s a look at the Canes after the first 28 games, the good, the bad and the indifferent:
The bad
In a word, injuries.
The Canes went into the 56-game season prepared to rely on goalie Petr Mrazek as their No. 1 guy in net and on forward Teuvo Teravainen to again be one of their best playmakers and a steady point producer, a player valuable on the power play and in penalty killing.
That was the plan.
Mrazek, who shut out the Wings 3-0 in the season opener, has played four games after dislocating a thumb and needing surgery. Teravainen has had issues with COVID-19 and then a concussion, missing 15 games.
“Overall we have to be pretty happy with how things have gone, particularly with some of the injuries,” Don Waddell, the Canes president and general manager, said Wednesday in an interview with the News & Observer. “When Petr went down there were a lot of questions about what was going to happen in goal.”
Waddell said Mrazek has had pins removed from his thumb and has been medically cleared to return.
“Now it’s a matter of him being comfortable,” Waddell said.
Center Vincent Trocheck has more recently been sidelined with an upper-body injury. Best guess: sore ribs after taking a cross-check March 9 against Nashville. He has been out the past three games and Waddell said his status is “week to week.”
“If you had said those guys were going to be out long term, and now add (Trocheck) in the mix, you would have said, ‘Uh oh,’ for sure,” Brind’Amour said this week. “We obviously need everyone back to be the team I think we can be.”
The good
The Canes were a one-line team Tuesday in Detroit as Aho’s line with Nino Niederreiter and Martin Necas carried the play.
But the Canes have gotten scoring this season from the group and needed it. They’re eighth in the league in scoring.
Trocheck, before his injury, had 13 goals and 24 points. Niederreiter is having a strong bounce-back season with 13 goals after a mediocre 11 in 67 games last season. Brock McGinn has eight goals, topping last year’s 68-game total of seven.
Jordan Staal, the team captain, has 10 goals and 22 points but also has done all the gritty work of being a defensive force, winning the key draws and killing penalties. The team MVP at the midpoint? Odds are, he’d get Brind’Amour’s vote.
The Canes’ power play leads the NHL (31.9%) and they’re ninth in penalty killing (81.8%). Forward Jesper Fast, signed in the offseason, has been a good addition and given the Canes a net presence in screening goalies. As Brind’Amour put it, “He knows how to play.”
Necas has world-class speed, great hands and terrific offensive instincts, and earned Brind’Amour’s trust — and more ice time — by being stronger in the defensive end. No. 88 can be a blur and can solve a lot of zone-entry problems.
With Mrazek out, rookie goalie Alex Nedeljkovic has gotten the chance to perform and done it well in a rotation with James Reimer. If there was an unsung award at the midpoint, “Ned” would get it.
Aho has called it a “fun group” that has closeness about it this season. That’s good, too.
The indifferent
Andrei Svechnikov captivated the NHL and hockey fans last season with his two lacrosse goals, an NHL first, and his blend of power and skill. As he began his third NHL season, Svechnikov was seen as a star in the making.
The forward looked that way the first eight games, with six goals and three assists. And while he has 11 assists in the past 20 games and has been effective on the power play, his goal production has not been there, and he has not been the dynamic player many believed he could, and would be, especially five-on-five.
If Svechnikov has been trying to play through some injuries, no one has said — or likely will say. He has taken a number of hits, and delivered them, as teams try to rattle him physically and get him out of his game.
It’s also tough gauging Dougie Hamilton’s overall play. The defenseman, an NHL All-Star selection last season before breaking a leg, leads the Canes with 19 assists but has lagged in scoring goals despite getting his chances — Hamilton had a career-high 11 shots Tuesday at Detroit.
“Obviously, I want to help out offensively because I can, but I’m just trying to do my best at that,” Hamilton said this week. “It comes and sometimes it doesn’t. I’m just trying to help the team out in whatever ways I can.”
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What’s needed
The NHL trade winds are stirring as the April 12 trade deadline approaches, but Brind’Amour offered up an opinion this week: “I like our team right now. I don’t know why we would be looking at too much.”
Waddell said Wednesday that he’s always actively looking for ways to improve the team but that salary-cap considerations must be considered, with the NHL cap to remain flat next year.
“We have a little cap space but not a lot of cap space,” Waddell said.
Waddell said once Mrazek is healthy and playing, the Canes would carry all three goalies on the roster, which also will eat some cap space.
One name that popped up recently in connection with Carolina has been former Canes captain Eric Staal, now with the Buffalo Sabres. Jordan and Eric Staal once envisioned leading the Canes back into Stanley Cup contention after Jordan Staal was traded to Carolina from Pittsburgh in June 2012. That didn’t happen.
Brind’Amour was asked about an Eric Staal return in a roundabout fashion on a Zoom media call this week. Staal’s name was not mentioned and the NHL frowns on comments made about players under contract to other teams, but Brind’Amour handled it well enough.
“That’s a question that’s probably for further up the chain than me, but I think we know he’s an awesome person,” Brind’Amour said of Staal, his former teammate who succeeded him as captain.
If the injuries continue — forward Warren Foegele left Tuesday’s game with an upper-body issue — that could change the trade equation and there could be moves. The Canes could look to add a veteran forward at the right price. The goaltending situation might have to be addressed.
But the Canes are 20-7-1 and have 41 points midway through the season. If they can match that in the second half, and start having more fans allowed in PNC Arena, and make the playoffs again ... who knows what comes next.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
