Same result, different year for the Hurricanes. A regular season with 50 wins and somewhere north of 110 points, a nice playoff series win before fizzling out.
The final line for the 2023-24 Carolina Hurricanes: 52 wins, 111 points, a First Round win over the Islanders in five games before being sent packing by the Rangers in six. Another fruitful yet fruitless year in Raleigh.
Where things stand after six years of the Rod Brind’Amour era (head coach version):
- 278 regular season wins (only the Bruins and Lightning have more)
- .664 point percentage (only the Bruins are better, at .695)
- Three 50-plus win, 110-plus point seasons
- Four seasons with a point percentage of .677 or higher
- Eight playoff series wins (most of any team to not win a Stanley Cup over that span)
- No wins beyond the Second Round
It’s that last bullet that becomes more glaring each year it stands. Again, to repeat, the Hurricanes have not won a game beyond the Second Round in this six-year run. They’ve made two Conference Finals appearances, in 2019 and 2023, only to be swept out both times by the Bruins and Panthers, respectively.
When you consider what came before it – an 11-year playoff drought where there was very little buzz around the franchise, with the future of hockey in Carolina being called into question – does it make it all not nearly as bad? Sure. You can make the case this run under Brind’Amour saved hockey in Carolina.
But if you’re a Hurricanes diehard, this group is the reminder of the early years you waited over so many years for. A group that went to the Stanley Cup Final twice in the decade after the franchise relocated to Carolina from Hartford, losing to an all-time Red Wings team in 2002 before going back in 2006, that time capturing the Cup by beating the Oilers. That group was solidified by Brind’Amour being dealt to Carolina from Philadelphia in January 2000. Not unlike the way Brind’Amour’s hiring to lead the bench in summer 2018 solidified this one.
Come playoff time, it’s been good but not good enough. That was never more evident in this series.
Chief among the ‘good but not good enough’ comes in net, where the goaltending – from Petr Mrazek to James Reimer to Alex Nedeljkovic to Freddie Andersen – has been very good. You don’t achieve the success they’ve achieved without being strong in net. But it hasn’t been good enough to overcome the likes of Tuukka Rask, Jaroslav Halak, Andrei Vasilevskiy or Igor Shesterkin. It was more of the same in Thursday’s Game 6 loss that eliminated the Hurricanes, where a leaky Andersen (4 goals allowed on 23 shots) was outplayed by Shesterkin (33 saves), who stopped all 16 shots he faced in the third period as the Rangers sealed the series with a 4-0 rally in the final 20 minutes.
The third period might be the biggest head-scratcher of them all, allowing four unanswered goals, including a natural hat trick to Chris Kreider. The Hurricanes came to the rink on Thursday as the best third-period team in the playoffs, outscoring the opposition, 18-5, in the final 20 of regulation in the postseason. The Canes had outscored the Rangers by a similar 4-0 scoreline in the third period of their Game 5 win.
Always world beaters until they’re not.
Just like the world-class penalty kill, which couldn’t stop a nosebleed in the first two games of the series, ultimately putting the Hurricanes in a hole they couldn’t get out of. And of course, that penalty kill got put to work by discipline issues that plagued them for much of the series. On the other end, the power play produced just two goals on 21 opportunities. That won’t win you many series. As strong as they were at five-on-five, they always seemed to be running into something (sense a theme?).
When the Rangers needed a save, they got one. When the Rangers needed a shift, they got one. The Hurricanes weren’t able to get either of the two nearly enough.
What the Hurricanes will look like come fall remains to be seen. Brind’Amour remains without a contract for next season. Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas are set to be restricted free agents, both due significant raises. Jake Guentzel, the prize of the trade deadline and a big part of the top forward line, is set to be an unrestricted free agent along with Jordan Martinook, Stefan Noesen, Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei and Teuvo Teravainen. Meanwhile, Sebastian Aho’s eight-year, $78 million deal and the $9.75 million cap hit that comes with it kicks in next season. So there’s a lot to be sorted out.
However things look when the puck drops on the 2024-25 season in October, the Canes will continue to be the ‘how have they not won one’ club.
Puck Watching 