The Carolina Hurricanes Should Not Make Any Drastic Changes

The Carolina Hurricanes ran into a hotter team this postseason when the New York Rangers beat them in seven games to go to the Eastern Conference Final. While the ending might sting, now is not the time to make any crazy changes with the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes were one of the top teams in the league this past season. They finished first in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 54-20-8, they were the best defensive team in the league allowing the least amount of goals against at just 202. Their power play and penalty kill were both strong, and they beat the Boston Bruins in the opening round of the playoffs in seven games.

The Hurricanes ran into some injury problems, particularly with their starting netminder Frederik Andersen who missed the playoffs this past season. They were led by Sebastian Aho who had 81 points during the regular season and an additional 11 points in 14 playoff games.

Overall this team has been a lot of fun to watch and while they fell short again this season they shouldn’t make any big changes.

The Hurricanes have made the playoffs four seasons in a row now. During their first trip to the postseason in 2018-19, they made it to the conference final, then in 2019-20, they lost in round one. Now in their last two seasons, they have lost in round two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Last season they lost to the defending champs, the Tampa Bay Lightning. This season they lost to the New York Rangers, a team with some of the best goaltending in the league. A team that is now making the two-time defending champs look like a struggling former shell of themselves.

They simply ran into the hotter team this year as they also did last year. That is not an issue of character or whether or not this group is capable of winning, they already proved that point by beating the Boston Bruins in round one, the team they lost to in 2019 and 2020. If the Canes had wanted to roll over and call it a season it would have been in round one against their previous kryptonite.

The Hurricanes’ season was not perfect. Not winning a playoff game on the road is definitely not a recipe for success and not being able to get things done when up 3-2 in a series is always going to burn. But this group definitely still has another season before they are going to have to make some changes.

Tampa Bay and Washington both eventually got over the hump and won their championship, this team is still young and is built to succeed.