Hurricanes looking to regain form, win Metro Division and gear up for playoffs
One theme among the Carolina Hurricanes the past few weeks has been that while winning the Metropolitan Division would be nice, it’s more about playing the right way, winning games, collecting points and seeing where it lands them when the regular season ends.
How important is it to finish first in the Metro?
“It could be the least important year ever,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said last weekend. “This could be a weird year where you could be eighth, and it seems like it’s been like this a long time, and that if whoever came in eighth won the Stanley Cup you wouldn’t be shocked.”
After Tuesday’s games, the Washington Capitals held the second wild-card playoff spot and eighth position in the Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes were first in the Metro with 98 points, two points ahead of the New York Rangers, with one game in hand.
“When you set a goal at the beginning of the season you have to set it at the highest standard if you want to be the best,” Canes forward Derek Stepan said Wednesday. “But at the end of the day, the initial goal is to get in the playoffs. Obviously, winning the Metro, that would be a cool thing to do, but more so just doing things the right way and putting ourselves in position with a chance to win it is the most important thing.”
But some unsettling words were used Tuesday after the Canes’ 4-2 road loss to the Buffalo Sabres by Brind’Amour and a couple of the players, including “terrible” and “unacceptable.” Those are not the words any playoff-bound team wants to be using 12 games away from the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Hurricanes have had a tremendous season. They’re 45-17-8 and on the verge of the franchise’s second 100-point season — the 2006 Stanley Cup champions had 112 points.
They’re generally healthy and should have injured forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi and defenseman Ethan Bear available soon — Kotkaniemi practiced Wednesday. All good things, yes?
But some recent trends, and some malaise in their special-teams play, could be trouble spots if not rectified before the playoffs.
In 10 of their past 14 games the Canes have failed to score a power-play goal — Carolina going 6-5-3 in those games. In only six games did they have more than two power-play opportunities. Overall, they’ve been 5-of-36 (13.9 percent) in the 14-game stretch.
The Hurricanes continue to lead the NHL in penalty killing, but their percentage has dipped to 87.9 after allowing six power-play goals in their past six games. The Sabres all but sealed their victory Tuesday with a power-play goal by Dylan Cozens with 4:49 left in the third period.
“As a team we must be better,” forward Jesper Fast said. “We know what makes us successful. A good thing is we play them again on Thursday, so I guess we can make it right.”
The Hurricanes never expected to be playing a statement kind of game in April against the Sabres at PNC Arena but Thursday’s game might be one. Back-to-back losses to a team 21 points out of playoff position could be another blow to their confidence, and the Canes want to avoid that.
Granted, the Sabres have a different late-season vibe about them. They’re 6-1-3 in their past 10 games and playing with an energy and looseness, their eyes on next season.
But the Hurricanes need to smooth out some things and correct some “bad habits,” as forward Nino Niederreiter said after Tuesday’s loss, that can creep into a team’s play. Brind’Amour may continue to tinker with his lines, as he did against the Sabres, looking for some more offensive punch.
Jordan Staal’s line carried the Canes on Tuesday as Niederreiter and Fast both scored, and the line had a string of productive shifts. The Canes’ top line of Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis and Teuvo Teravainen did not and Brind’Amour broke it up during the game.
Sabres goalie Craig Anderson had 32 saves in slowing down the Canes. Recently, Alexandar Georgiev of the Rangers and Scott Wedgewood of the Dallas Stars have done the same, both with 44 saves in recent wins over Carolina.
The Canes play three games at home in the next four days — against Buffalo, the Islanders and Anaheim Ducks — and have the chance to get back to their best habits.
“We’re happy with where we’re at, and we can always work on getting better,” Staal said this week. “But the main thing is we’ve got to be playing our best hockey going into the playoffs and that means you have to stay sharp and be ready every day.”
