Carolina Hurricanes: 10 thoughts after first quarter of the season

How are the Carolina Hurricanes doing 21 games into the season, with three quarters of the 2017-18 campaign still remaining?

The Carolina Hurricanes are coming off a mediocre start to the 2017-18 NHL season, where the team won nine of the first 20 games. For head coach Bill Peters, it is his best start since taking over the team a few years ago. Carolina officially started out the first quarter of the season with a 9-8-4 record, after a convincing 6-1 defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers.

In the 21st contest of the season, the Canes lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 24, with a heartbreaking 5-4 defeat. The last time the Canes faced the Leafs resulted in a 6-3 win on the road. Yet, the Leafs are still one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference with 15 wins.

Entering the season, the Canes were a favorite among fans and the media to be a dark horse coming out of the Metropolitan Division. The start to the season has been very up and down, with only the Philadelphia Flyers having less points than the Canes right now.

The New Jersey Devils, Columbus Blue Jackets, and New York Islanders have the three playoff spots out of the Metro. Columbus was expected to have another big year, but the Devils and Isles are big surprises at this point.

For the Canes to keep up any sort of momentum they’ve built over the past two weeks, the goaltending needs to be more consistent and the offensive production needs to stay where it’s been recently.

Here’s 10 thoughts for the Carolina Hurricanes through the first quarter of 2017-18.

10. Bill Peters is on the hot seat

Peters did not get the start he intended for the Canes this season. He has not led the Canes to much success during his time in Raleigh. Yet, it would be a bit early to go ahead and call his time with the Canes a complete failure.

With how long the current playoff drought is with the franchise now, the clock is still ticking on Peters’ time with Carolina. This team needs a coach that the players can rally around and finally make a playoff push.

One encouraging sign is the unity shown from the first line. Offensive production and chemistry are not staples of what Peters brings to the table. He shuffles the lines frequently and mixes and matches all of his forwards.

Since Paul Maurice was fired, the Canes have shuffled coaches around and that trend might not end if Peters cannot get some excitement in this fan base. Kirk Muller did not find much success over a short period of time and was fired after only one full season with the team.

9. Scott Darling is having a hard time settling into the starting role

Acquiring Scott Darling was a big move from general manager Ron Francis over the off-season. Yet, Darling’s start to his time in Raleigh was very inconsistent, to say the least. He currently owns a .900 save percentage and gave up six in his last start.

Darling gave up one of the worst goals in recent memory in that loss where he gave up six to the Rangers. On what was supposed to be a dump in from Mika Zibanejad, the puck fluttered by Darling’s glove into the net.

A few other struggles that Darling is having includes closing the five hole and controlling rebounds. You cannot blame the entirety of the loss to the Rangers on Darling, or even the 6-4 loss to the Islanders last week. But, he needs to play better.

For Darling to secure the starting job, he’ll have to start proving himself on a nightly basis and not be so streaky. He’s starting to look like Eddie Lack did during his time with the Canes and that’s not what he was brought in for.

7. The Metro might be a mess

Two of the best three teams in the Metro last season, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals, are not in the top three in the Metro this season. Washington can’t put any consistent run together and Pittsburgh’s issues on defense are massive.

The problem for the rest of the Metro is that chances are either the Penguins or Capitals will catch fire sometime soon. Pittsburgh are the reigning Stanley Cup Champions and Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will not have this team out of the playoff picture for long.

Meanwhile, behind Alex Ovechkin and Braden Holtby, the Capitals should find their groove soon as well. The scary thing is that the Devils and Jackets are looking so good. Columbus has reigning Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky looking just as good as last season the Devils are young and hungry.

It’s not going to be an easy run for the Canes in the Metro this season. This division is hard to figure out and know where Carolina fits in. It would be no fluke if the Canes were able to get into the playoffs while playing in the Metro.

6. PNC Arena needs more seats filled

Weekend games seem to be the only ones that have more than half the seats filled in PNC Arena. The attendance is one of the worst parts of this franchise over the past few seasons and it’s caused some bad rumors to start swirling.

There’s some bigger cities in the northern part of the country and in Canada that would love to have the Canes relocate to their city. Yet, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman did confirm the league’s backing of the team in Raleigh in January.

Carolina averages around 400 less fans per game than the Islanders, who are in second to last place in the NHL in terms of average attendance. However, the worst number for the Canes attendance is the 60.3 percent of PNC Arena getting filled to capacity each game.

The next worst team in the league in terms of filling to home capacity is also the Islanders at just over 74 percent. The Florida Panthers are close to the Isles at 74.6 percent. This front office needs to start doing something to fill the heats during home games.

5. Haydn Fleury has a bright future

Among all the young defenders, the only that’s a rookie is Haydn Fleury. While Fleury’s offensive production is not huge to start off his career, that’s not where he’s needed. He’s got four points in 19 games played.

The best part about Fleury’s stat line is his plus/minus at a plus 6. He’s tied with Teuvo Teravainen for second on the team in that regard. Jordan Staal leads in plus/minus at a plus 8. Fleury is a positive presence on the third defensive pairing.

In fact, Fleury was recently put up on the second defensive pairing alongside co-captain Justin Faulk. Fleury’s defensive prowess helps make the other defender playing with him look much better. He picks up where Faulk or Noah Hanifin lacks in the defensive zone.

As the 2014 first round pick, Fleury looks ready to be a big part of this team moving forward. He has the potential to be one of the best defenders in his own zone in the league. And, it might not take long for him to reach that point.

4. Noah Hanifin is developing nicely

With his third goal of the season against the Leafs, Hanifin extended his point lead among all Canes defensemen, with 11. He’s on pace to pass his career-best mark from last season with 29 points. His goal in the loss to the Leafs was clutch as well.

Playing alongside Faulk is helping the Canes and Hanifin out a lot. His eight assists are a direct result of putting a talented young defender in a good situation. When Hanifin played with Fleury, there were too many mistakes from two young players.

For a player that was the subject of quite a few trade rumors before the 2017 Trade Deadline, Hanifin has responded very well. Even if the Canes decide to ultimately dish out Hanifin, he’s going to be worth a lot to potential suitors.

Carolina might be able to get the first line center or superstar the franchise has needed for a while now. For the time being, Hanifin is the best offensive producer that the Canes have on the blue line.

3. The team needs more energy

Something that has been missing for the Canes the entire season is the resilience to follow through in the third period. When Carolina won the Stanley Cup in 2006 and made a run to the Finals in 2002, the Canes were at their best in the final period.

It was good to see the Canes put forward such a spirited effort in the third period, with three goals in the loss to the Leafs. However, the problem of getting too far behind and not having enough energy through the second period caused that defeat.

Peters might not have the energy needed to get this team playing for him. We’ll see how the Canes respond to these two straight costly losses moving forward. Yet, Peters is not the type of head coach to wear his emotions on his sleeve.

Anything needs to give for this Canes team to start playing with a more spirited effort on a game-by-game basis. Fix that, and the Canes instantly become a contender in the Metro and make the playoffs in 2018.

2. Take advantage of scoring chances

Nov. 24 was just another instance of the Canes out shooting and out playing their opponent and still falling short. The loss earlier in the season to the Colorado Avalanche on the road sticks out as the prime example of the Canes not capitalizing on scoring chances.

In that loss to the Avs, the Canes out shot Colorado 60-27. Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov just outplayed Ward in net. That was the case again for Ward against Frederik Andersen of the Maple Leafs.

Moreover, it’s more than just those two games where the Canes out shot the opponent and still lost. Whether it’s not capitalizing on the chances at hand, or not getting enough quality looks for the amount of shots taken, something needs to give with this offense.

Continuing to lose while spending more time on attack that the opposition is a recipe for disappointment among the fans in Raleigh. It’s on Peters and the first line for the Canes to start finding the net more.

1. Continue the momentum generated from the first line

The TSA line (Teravainen-Staal-Aho) has easily been the best of all pairings for the Canes this season. Staal got the Canes on the board, and nearly powered the team to even things up against Toronto. Teravainen also notched another point.

One of the biggest keys to success for the Canes is getting the most out of the three forwards that Peters seems to trust the most. Staal does need to find more consistency than the random breakouts of points he’s had early.

But, the three leaders in points for this squad are all on this first line. The other three lines of forwards needs to solve the problem that the first line already has. More than just Williams and the first line needs to come through as well.

Next: 5 Canes to be thankful for

Especially if Aho and Teravainen keep up the type of production seen recently, the rest of the forwards are sure to pick up the pace. Carolina does have something special here with one of the best offensive lines in the Metro.