Carolina Hurricanes End the Regular Season With Hope for the Future
This week the Carolina Hurricanes ended the season again out of the playoff picture. This time though it feels different.
Weekly Summary
It’s a story that is all too familiar. For the seventh straight year the Carolina Hurricanes won’t be participating the in NHL playoffs. Instead of being met with the traditional animosity from disappointed Canes fans the overall reaction towards 2015-2016 has been positive. Would that positivity continue through the last week? Well, here’s what happened.
Trying to play the role as spoiler Carolina flew up to Boston. The Bruins were desperate for two points to secure their spot in the playoffs. Things started off wonderfully for the visitors. Jaccob Slavin threw a weak wrister towards the net and it snuck past Tuukka Rask. This was Slavin’s second goal of the season.
Loui Eriksson, a pending free agent, scored for Boston in the third to knot it up at one. The score stayed at one through regulation and overtime. The shootout took five rounds and was finished with an unlikely winner from Boston native Noah Hanifin.
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Unfortunately for the Bruins they never recovered and were unable to cement themselves in the playoffs. Carolina successfully played the spoiler.
On Thursday the Montreal Canadiens visited the Canes for the last home game of the season in Raleigh. Like in Boston the Hurricanes started well. Riley Nash punched in from the slot off a slick Jeff Skinner feed. The Habs tied it at the very end of the period, but Hanifin scored in second to give Carolina a 2-1 lead.
From then on Carolina lost all steam with blown coverages and bad goaltending from Cam Ward spelling disaster for the Canes. In potentially his last start in a Hurricanes uniform Ward looked uncomfortable in net. He stormed off the ice once the final whistle blew and refused to talk to media for a while. It was a really unfitting way for Ward to go out.
On Saturday the Hurricanes laced up for game number 82, faced off against the Florida Panthers and never looked threatening all night. The Panthers blitzed goalie Eddie Lack in the first with three goals, including one from former Hurricane Jussi Jokinen. Elias Lindholm scored a tap in to make in 4-1 after two periods of play.
To open the third period Jordan Staal netted his 20th goal of the season. A deserved mark that rounds out what is arguably Staal’s best season as a Hurricane. He will be in the Selke conversation this off-season.
Florida scored for a fifth time before the game was up and defeated Carolina 5-2.
Cane of the Week
Noah Hanifin – 3 Games, 1 Goal, 1 Assist, -2 Rating
The Hurricanes rookie star is the final Cane of the Week for 2015-2016. Starting in his hometown of Boston Hanifin put together a solid night and beat Tuuka Rask with a beautiful shootout goal on the backhand. He followed that up with a goal against the Canadiens in the final home game. To close out the season he had one of the better overall games for a Hurricanes player registering an assist.
Hanifin finished his rookie season with 4 goals and 22 points in 79 games played, a very strong stat line for a rookie defenseman, especially one who is 19 years old. What is most special about Hanifin is his consistency on the ice, both with his technical play and work ethic. Those traits were on display this week. He also exhibited some surprising puck skills with his shootout winner. Carolina has a gem on the blue line.
Next: Is Nail Yakupov an Option for the Carolina Hurricanes?
The Forecast
The National Hockey League Playoffs, the NHL Entry Draft and in October the 2016-2017 regular season. Also expect a 2015-2016 season review from Cardiac Cane in the next week as well as interesting and debate provoking opinions all summer.