State of the Hurricanes: Win Streak Wonders and Rival Makes Bold Move
After the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Boston Bruins, Boston Head Coach Jim Montgomery offered a succinct explanation as to how the Hurricanes won 4-1 against the best team in the league.
“I thought they checked us right out of the rink,” Montgomery said.
For this week of the Hurricanes, physicality and determination defined their success.
This week for the Hurricanes had them face strong team after strong team, and yet the team overcame adversity and came out stronger for it.
The game against Boston serves as an example, and the Hurricanes did thoroughly dominate other good teams like Buffalo. However, the multi-goal victories did not showcase the team’s capability.
Their talent showed when they were down against teams like the Kings and Sharks. They came back to win those games in brilliant fashion, and it shows the ceiling of this team.
Earlier in the season, Carolina had a stretch when they went 2-4-4 on a five-game losing streak, where they struggled to score. Their wins against contenders this past week shows how the team evolved from that point.
Though the Boston game alone may not define this current stretch of Hurricanes hockey due to the absurdity of some other games, it should simply because it says one thing about the team.
The state of the Hurricanes could not be better heading into the All-Star break.
The Lede
Since the last recap, the Hurricanes went on a torrid undefeated streak, as they went 5-0-0 against quality playoff opponents like Dallas, Boston and Los Angeles.
However, the way the Hurricanes won their games define this stretch more than anything. Three of these games went to overtime, but more importantly, two of the games came from improbable comebacks.
The Hurricanes beat the San Jose Sharks after going down 4-2 on an empty net goal with two minutes remaining. In those two minutes, the Hurricanes scored twice and promptly finished off the Sharks in overtime.
Then, the Hurricanes faced the Los Angeles Kings and fell to a 4-1 deficit by the end of the second corner. Impressively, the group came back and scored three goals in the third period to take the game to overtime, where they ultimately won.
The Hurricanes won in improbable and exhilarating fashion, giving their send off to the All-Star break a little more flair.
In other, smaller news for the Hurricanes, the only lingering injury that remains comes from star defenseman Jaccob Slavin. He missed every game since they played the New York Islanders on January 21st, but it sounds like he should be back after the All-Star break.
Here are some headlines for this past week in Hurricanes hockey.
A division rival makes a bold move
With the trade deadline coming in a month, many linked Carolina with forwards on the market, and the most prominent of those forwards got moved to a division rival.
The New York Islanders traded forwards Anthony Beauvillier and Aatu Raty as well as a top-12 projected 2023 first-rounder for Canucks forward Bo Horvat.
Horvat got linked to the Hurricanes plenty due to his availability, but the Islanders struck first on the move to get him.
How likely was it that Horvat ended up a Hurricane? Carolina typically does not like to deal for pending free agents at the cost of Horvat without an agreed extension. Even with all the connections between the two, the speculation may not have aligned with the front office’s thought process.
Horvat’s fit with the Islanders seems odd, though. The Islanders are outside of a playoff berth and have tough odds of making it. Even if they sign Horvat long-term, they made their team older and do not exactly have a Stanley Cup ready roster.
What does this mean for Carolina, though? They need to make another move, obviously. The Islanders took off an easy target for the team, and now they need to pivot toward another option. Will they target a pending free agent similar to Horvat that they can extend, or will they chase after players with multiple years already locked into place? That has yet to be seen.
Even if the team did not consider Horvat as much as NHL media thought they did, it does not help them to have less options. Let’s see how they move forward.
Aho keeps scoring
As the Hurricanes went 5-0-0, they received massive help yet again from forward Sebastian Aho, as he tallied an immense amount of goals this week.
In the past five games, Aho tallied six goals. He scored one in all games except the one against San Jose, where he scored two.
Many of his goals were timely, especially in the aforementioned San Jose game where his goal after an empty net goal from the Sharks put the Hurricanes back in that game.
Aho now leads the team in goals at 23 and trails Martin Necas for the team lead in total points at 46. Aho’s scoring pace bodes well for the Hurricanes as they hit the All-Star break.
Aho’s success seems obvious to any outsider due to his image as one of the stars of the team. However, he faced goal droughts many times over the course of the season and missed some time due to injury. Since his return, he has looked like the best player on the Hurricanes.
Every week, Sebastian Aho keeps playing better. If he continues his torrid scoring streak, he will remain a topic of discussion simply because of his large impact on the team and its success.