Carolina Hurricanes: Cardiac Mail: End of Round One

The Carolina Hurricanes have done the improbable. They have removed the Stanley Cup Champions from the playoffs and restored parity to the league. But so many fans were ready to look past this game. This week we answer a couple of questions on the first round.

Has anyone gotten sleep since that goal by Brock McGinn? I haven’t.  Seriously, that game was enough to have killed me, revived me, and send me to heaven all at once. Seventh Heaven, as John Forslund would call it.

But what if that never happened? What if McGinn never gotten to that trickling puck and the game ended in regulation 4-3 Washington instead of a heart-throbbing double overtime thriller that sees the Carolina Hurricanes take a plane ride north to take on the Islanders instead of south to clear their lockers?

That is the question and more that I will answer today for some of the fans that were not as convinced as Justin Williams that the Carolina Hurricanes can come out of a game seven against the Stanley Cup champions with a win and a ticket to the second round.

Let us start with a question from Aidan, who asks what would be the teams greatest accomplishment this season had that goal from McGinn not taken the top prize so far:

The biggest accomplishment easily would be to have taken the Stanley Cup champions to a game seven series. But equally as big were all the other accomplishments that got them there to begin with. Each part of the team has an accomplishment this season that is equally as big as that.

Let’s start from the top of the pecking order. Tom Dundon. He has accomplished to turn around a team that was dead in the water, completely forgotten, and completely ignored by the hockey world and turn it into a viral sensation. Now that is due to all the accomplishments of the people who work for him, thats true. But none of this happens under the old guard and Peter Karmanos.

Simply put, he have his team free will and freedom to do what they felt was going to work and allowed all ideas and input at all levels. That has gotten all the right people in the right places to make this team what it is today. That includes Don Waddell and Rod Brind’amour.

Waddell’s biggest accomplishment was all the decisions he made when it came to signings and trades. All together those were worth more than the sum of their parts. Each move, outside of the Nino Niederreiter trade, was met with scrutiny. Petr Mrazek? Jordan Martinook? Calvin deHaan? All unproven names. Yet all now vital parts of the team.

Rod Brind’amour was met with even more scrutiny. He was a part of the old guard under Bill Peters. Towards the end of December there were many, myself included, who were ready to perhaps demote RBA back to his old position out of respect for the man and perhaps bring in another coach to try and save the season.

Quinville was freshly fired by the Chicago Blackhawks, and who better we thought to come in and take a team with so many faces familiar to him to take over. Rod Brind’amour’s biggest accomplishment was winning us all back in such a way we are all ashamed to have had those thoughts. At the very least I am.

Now that we looked behind us and saw what would have been the greatest accomplishments of this team, let’s look ahead. This question from @Zombieguy19871 askes what the team would have needed to do to get back on track had they been eliminated:

The best answer I can give knowing what I know now, is keep on keeping on. That means bringing back the heroes of this series. Guys like Petr Mrazek and Justin Williams need to be resigned. Aho is a given. The rest need to be managed in such a way it doesn’t hurt our cap and allows us to grow better. That means the hard decisions about guys like Saku Maenalanen or Micheal Ferland.

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They also need to give Rod Brind’amour more time with the prospects this camp. Let them buy into his program and coaching style. Because it works. Everything from injuries to mistakes on the ice were kept to a minimum this year. When the Carolina Hurricanes were beat this season, more often than not, it was because the other team outworked them, not because they defeated themselves.

That is something that needs to return, in order for them to return. This team is so young and talented. They will only get better. And now with at the very least eleven postseason games under their belt, they will only get even more better. This is a team that is no longer treading water. They have tasted the postseason. They want more of it every year. They will do everything in their power to get it.

That brings us to our final tweet. This is coming from @YamisamofAsura. It’s not a question, but the perfect statement to close out this week’s Cardiac Mail.

Anything is possible when you make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was very possible that it was going to be a Tampa-Washington ECF and Calgary-Nashville WCF. Not anymore. Now its very possible to see a Columbus-Carolina ECF and Denver-Dallas WCF. And that is because a ticket to the postseason gets you a chance at the cup. No skipping rounds. No one game series. And you have to go through your most hated rivals.

That is the beauty of this game. Love it or hate it, the divisional rivals against the 1-8 has given us many great stories. This double overtime game winner in Washington is just another great story for Caniacs today to tell future generations. Had it gone the other way around, the story would still be there, just not as good.

A big thanks to everyone who asked us questions this week. Do you want your Question answered in the next Mailbag? Simply use the Hashtag #CardiacMail on Twitter or post the question to our facebook page using the same Hashtag! Let’s go Canes!