Carolina Hurricanes: Three takeaways from brutal loss to Pittsburgh

1. Where has Aho Gone?

Sebastian Aho has been a dominating force for the Hurricanes this season, solidifying himself as the Hurricanes number one center of the future. He is the Hurricanes’ first 80 point getter in quite some time. However, he hasn’t scored in three weeks. He hit the post last night and did participate in some fabulous chances against Philadelphia on Saturday, but he has not been the same player in a while.

It has been well documented on this site, as well as others, that Aho has not been himself lately.

This is the most important hockey Aho has played in his career and he likely has started to grip the stick a little tighter and get inside his own head. He has still been a presence on the ice. It hasn’t been much more than a lack of putting in goals, but that was a big part of his game. The importance of him to this team is obvious.

As mentioned, this team has lost four of six. Certainly, at least part of this is due to Aho’s lack of production.

If the Hurricanes are going to make the playoffs, all of a sudden this is a big if, we need Sebastian Aho to be Sebastian Aho. I know I still want him on the ice in crunch time and I trust RBA to make the personnel decisions he thinks are best, but we need Aho more than ever.

Part of it could be that he is no longer playing with Teuvo Teravainen. The two Finns played extremely well together this season and teamed up for a beautiful shorthanded chance on Saturday against Philadelphia. Since Teuvo has been paired with Andrei Svechnikov, Svech has been a much more frequent name on the scoresheet. Perhaps, that is because Teuvo does more than we think.

Regardless, we need to get things figured out for at least three games.

2. Wake Up

The last six games the Hurricanes have played have been the biggest six in recent memory. They have lost four of them. They probably should have lost five. The only remaining game was against a wallowing Philadelphia Flyers team with Cam Talbot in goal. And we gave a late third period goal to make things somewhat interesting in that game too.

Justin Williams attempted to wake his team up late in the first period, taking a roughing penalty after mixing things up with Patric Hornqvist, but to no avail. Somebody needs to say something to somebody else if the Hurricanes are going to squeak out the last playoff spot.

Micheal Ferland has been a non-factor for a long time and I am not exactly sure what to make of it. Perhaps it has been lingering injury issues from December or perhaps he has not found chemistry with new linemates in Lucas Wallmark and Jordan Martinook, but something is off.

Goaltending, I don’t think, has been the issue, but it has not saved us in some ways that it had in the past. I am reminded of the March game in Florida where Petr Mrazek had a diving poach check in overtime that led to a Sebastian Aho game winning goal. Man, does that seem like a long time ago.

Not to mention, Calvin de Haan left the game early with what looked like a bad injury to either his wrist or shoulder. He did not come back to the game and does not look to be anywhere near healthy enough to finish the road trip:

Presumably, this means that Haydn Fleury will get a call up for at least the Toronto game. He has played well in his time in the NHL this season and hopefully he can bring it tomorrow night. We need everything we can get.

3. Still Control Our Destiny

After all this, the Hurricanes still control their own destiny in making the playoffs. No more than the second wild card, and less than a week ago, we were talking about winning the division, but still.

If someone in September said, “The Hurricanes will be in a playoff spot with three games left and control their own destiny in making the playoffs, but you’ll be extremely worried for like two weeks,” I think I would have taken it. But I am extremely worried.

The remaining games look like this:

Carolina: at Toronto, v New Jersey, at Philadelphia

Montreal: vs Tampa Bay, at Washington, vs Toronto

So, they have tougher opponents, but two at home. We have the weaker opponents, but two on the road. We have two non-playoff teams, they have zero, but their opponents could be resting stars as everything for them is likely clinched. In other words, I kind of think the schedule is a wash. Which means one team will probably go 1-2 and the other will go 2-1. The 2-1 team will make the playoffs. Basically that simple.

If any of you have been following the team for long enough, you may recall a day in April of 2011. It was the 82nd game of the 2010-2011 NHL regular season, and the Hurricanes controlled their own destiny. They needed to win. They did not. They missed the playoffs. At that time, I was disappointed, but we had just made a run to the conference finals in 2009, so things weren’t all bad. Here we are ten years after that conference finals run.

I was a freshman in high school the last time the Hurricanes made the playoffs and I am now graduating law school this May.

It is honestly difficult to write these recaps after such disappointing losses. After a decade of frustration, the frustration just seems to pile up. I still haven’t gotten used to this. I don’t know if we’ll make the playoffs. A week after being convinced we had them locked up, it is depressing to say those words. But we’re still in it. We can still have playoff hockey back in Raleigh. We still have a chance.