Carolina Hurricanes: Why the Playoffs Should be Priority Number One

We are now almost halfway through the 2018/19 NHL season and the Carolina Hurricanes are dangerously flirting with the concept of missing the playoffs for a full decade. Just how important is it to this franchise to make the playoffs, even if it means getting swept in the first round?

The current record for consecutive years missing the playoffs is ten years, held jointly by the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers. The Carolina Hurricanes, who hold the active record, are at very serious risk of making it a trio if they fail to make the playoffs. They are currently only a few points outside of a playoff spot in a Metro division that has been terrible all round. The question becomes: how much should they risk to get those extra points to ensure they get into the playoffs this season?

For many, the perceived reward of making the playoffs only to be knocked out early are minimal. After all, you aren’t included in the draft lottery the following year. There are many unknowns in regards to the rental players you collected to make it that far. The worst loss would be in whatever picks or prospects you traded away to get those rentals as you skate away will nothing from the playoffs.

While these are all true for a larger market where making the playoffs isn’t a foreign concept and the concern is lifting 35 lbs of silver in ultimate victory, for a smaller market like Carolina, the rewards outweigh the risks. The rewards that the Carolina Hurricanes can attain will bring benefits that can change the entire culture revolving around the sport in Raleigh for generations to come.

So how much of the Carolina Hurricanes’ future should Tom Dundon and Don Waddell risk to achieve something that hasn’t been achieved in almost a decade? Here are a few massive reasons why sacrificing some future potential is worth playoff hockey returning to the Carolinas – even if the playoffs end on a sweep in the very first round.

The Value of Playoff Experience

The most immediate value the team will receive as they play their first playoff series in almost a decade is playoff experience. When you break down the current roster, you’ll find that playoff experience is very short. I was going to talk more about who needed playoff experience on this roster, however as I compiled my list, I realized that it was easier to discuss who actually had playoff experience.

Starting from the top down, the man with the most experience is the captain Justin Williams. Having made the playoffs with four separate teams, winning the Stanley Cup with two of them (including our own Carolina Hurricanes in 2006), his experience has translated to leadership. Of the rest of the offense, only Micheal Ferland, Jordan Staal, and Teuvo Teravainen have any NHL playoff experience; the most recent being Ferland in the 2017 playoffs with Calgary. That’s a total of only four of the eighteen forwards the Carolina Hurricanes have put on the ice this year – only 22%.

Defense looks a lot better thanks to trades and free agency pickups. Calvin de Haan, Dougie Hamilton, and Trevor van Riemsdyk all have playoff experience with their former teams. That makes it three of the nine defensemen that have played this year. Problem is that two of them just showed up to replace Noah Hanifin and Klas Dahlbeck, neither of whom had any playoff experience.

All three goaltenders, funny enough, have playoff experience. Whats even funnier is that of the three, it’s only Scott Darling that has had the pleasure of lifting the Stanley Cup when he won it with the Chicago Blackhawks.  While it may not have translated to better performances from Scott Darling, Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney have both played really well in recent games. Both played at least one playoff game last season.

The biggest thing to notice is that our biggest and best players on both sides of the puck do not have any playoff experience. Players like Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin, arguably the best players on this team, have zero playoff experience. Justin Faulk, multiple All-Star, former co-captain, and current alternate captain has zero playoff experience. Simply making the playoffs will elevate their game, and elevate their value.

The expectations of their performance will be that of a player with playoff experience. They would know it and we would know it. Suddenly the playoffs aren’t a mythical beast for them to conquer, it’s a been there, done that situation where the expectations are to make a deep run.

Winning the Fanbase Back

Players aren’t the only ones that need convincing that the Carolina Hurricanes are a team worth being a part of. Fans of all types need that convincing as well. A decade of missing the playoffs can put a dent into even an Original Six fanbase. Even the most hardcore of Carolina Hurricanes fans are having their patience tested. The fair-weather fans are definitely not hanging around. The fans outside of the immediate vicinity of Raleigh are finding less and less reason to make the trip once, let alone purchase season tickets. Implant fans have no reason to switch allegiances from their hometown team.

Once upon a time PNC Arena was the loudest, most obnoxious place to play in. Now it consistently ranks towards the bottom of the league in attendance. The drop didn’t actually start to happen until the 2013-2014 season, five years into the playoff drought. Funny enough, the year before that saw the Carolina Hurricanes set its own personal record for average attendance, beating out half the league including Original Six teams like the New York Rangers. This season and last has seen attendance pick back up with promising seasons that looked and is looking like a playoff berth might actually happen.

The 2012-2013 season saw 17,500 fans on average fill PNC Arena. That alone is evidence that the fan base is out there. With over 20 years under their belt the fanbase should have grown from there. The playoff drought put a huge dent into an already-questionable market. So, what if the drought were to end? How soon can the Carolina Hurricanes at the very least return to league average attendance numbers?

The answer to that question lies more in the marketing abilities of the team’s front office than anywhere else. They have been doing an incredible job of it over the last two seasons. My first article here on Cardiac Cane was about how attendance improved on-ice performance and vice versa. Much of what I spoke about then has come to fruition in various forms. Tom Dundon, the new owner, has been a huge part of why attendance is already picking back up. They have had so many exciting things to market. New rookie Andrei Svechnikov, the new post-win traditions, new third jerseys, and new slogan have been beneficial to their efforts.

However the most marketable concept, the true breadwinner, is a playoff run. That is something everyone wants to be a part of. With the Carolina Hurricanes, it is something everyone will want to witness first-hand. The magical 2006 run that lead to the Stanley Cup had moments that fans who were in the stands will cherish forever. Magical moments that are constantly used to bring back happy memories. Even if the Carolina Hurricanes were to be swept in the first round, that is still two home games that can give the fans a “taste” of the future.

Let’s be completely honest about something. No one wants to be a fan of the team that gets the rude end of the jokes in the league. Having to constantly have to defend their support for their team though a decade of mediocrity. The “we have a Cup” clause can only carry a fanbase so far. Simply making the playoffs can erase all of that and give people a reason to be a proud to be a Carolina Hurricanes fan. Even if they have only a concept of what the rules of the sport are.

There is a chance for something incredible to happen in Raleigh with the Carolina Hurricanes. They can be the symbol of the city in sports. No other major league sport exists for the Capitol City. The swirl of red, black, and white can grow to represent the identity of the city the same way the Carolina Panthers represents the Queen City of Charlotte. The fanbase isn’t only the amount of seats sold. Its the amount of merchandise sold across the state as people proudly rock the Red, Black, and White. That starts with a playoff berth. Sooner rather than later, or else all the other exciting marketable things about this team just become gimmicks.

The True Change in Culture

The biggest and, in my humble opinion, most important gain from making the playoffs regardless of how deep a run we make, is the change of culture that surrounds this team. That comes from all the other things I spoke to earlier in this article. Culture is not something that changes overnight. Nor is it something can can make a full transition from one season to another. But one thing for sure with the Carolina Hurricanes is that it needs to change.

The team has already taken steps toward this. Ownership has traded hands, as have the General Manager and Head Coach positions, albeit it both those positions were taken over by individuals already within the organization. However, captain Justin Williams has taken it as his personal mission to force a cultural change that has threatened to rock the entire league. Of course I am speaking to the post-win celebrations that has had old-timers breaking down in anguish.

The Carolina Hurricanes have also broken an unspoken rule set by former majority owner Peter Karmanos, and broken the seal on the Whalers history, selling Whalers merchandise and even playing a few games in throwback Whalers jerseys against their old nemesis the Boston Bruins. But how does making the playoffs play into the change in culture?

The culture of the Carolina Hurricanes doesn’t start and end with the front office and their actions. It includes the players. How do they go into the game? What is the expectation of them? What keeps them up at night? Same goes for the coaching staff. Is the expectation just a “well-played” game? Is losing in overtime or by shootout an acceptable loss of a specialty point?

Or is the expectation a win? That no matter how many goals they are down and no matter how much time is left, they will at least tie it to force overtime? And is the expectation in overtime that they will be the ones that force the mistakes and take full advantage of them to bring home two points? That culture starts with the mentality of winning for the sake of winning, not for the sake of trying to make the playoffs, which should be a given side effect of winning.

That kind of mentality and culture comes from better players. Players who are not worried about the playoffs because they have no doubt that come April, there will be more hockey to play. It comes from having made the playoffs. Where players are no longer worried about the proverbial “monkey” on their backs and can play with the sheer purpose of dominating the opposing team.

It comes from a more engaged fanbase. The kind that runs opposing teams out of PNC Arena night after night. There are no opposing fans, because there is no room for opposing fans. Fans aren’t counting points between themselves and a playoff spot, they are counting on a team that will give them the entertainment they paid for. Tickets are near impossible to secure. Parents put their newborn children on the waitlist for season tickets in hopes that when they grow up their number will finally be called.

This culture change will definitely not happen overnight. A single playoff berth will definitely not make all of this happen overnight. But it will definitely be the first massive step in the right direction. The longer it takes to make this step, the more work will have to be done in order to set things right. So let’s delay it no longer. Tom Dundon and Don Waddell have to do everything in their power to get this team to the playoffs come April. The costs of doing so might be high, but the costs of doing nothing will grow exponentially with each missed opportunity.