Carolina Hurricanes: No Need to Worry About Sebastian Aho

Through the first four games of the Carolina Hurricanes’ season, star forward Sebastian Aho has a single goal. But you shouldn’t worry about his season.

Through 251 minutes of hockey to start the season the Carolina Hurricanes have amassed 16 goals (not counting the shootout goal by Dougie Hamilton). Of those 16 goals and their associated assists, only a single point belongs to Sebastian Aho coming off an empty net goal in the 250th minute of game time for this team.

Now I know what a lot of people are thinking. Is this a matter of concern? Many Fantasy Hockey players who have him in their roster are starting to wonder why they drafted him so high. There might be a couple of individuals who are secretly loving his lack of production so far as they sneer into their poutine.

The reality is, there is really nothing to worry about. We have been spoiled by Sebastian Aho’s franchise record matching point streak to start the season last year. That led to a career high 83 points and put him on the map. Of course that map placement led to a huge dramatic affair with the very bold, yet somehow condescending Montreal Canadiens who placed an offer sheet for him.

The point is, we have had to wait on production from him before. During his sophomore year fans had to wait 16 games for him to light the lamp. During that period he had only eight points on assists. Only four games into this season has he has found the back of the net already, albeit on an empty netter.

But perhaps that the push he needs to get him going once again. Luckily for us we can afford to wait for young Sebastian Aho to find his grove. There are many other who are more than happy to fill in the void while he finds his game. Ryan Dzingel, Dougie Hamilton, Teuvo Teravainen, and Andrei Svechnikov are each at least a point per game so far.

Sooner or later opponents are going to realize that this team isn’t a one man show. Shutting down Sebastian Aho does nothing for your chances of survival against this Carolina Hurricanes roster. It just opens the door for the rest of the team to score whenever they want to it feels like. Soon enough teams won’t know who to ice their best defensive pair against.

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That will open the floodgates for Sebastian Aho. Before the empty net goal last night, he has been knocking on the door hard. Each shot better than the one before. Each shot stopped by what seemed like an act of a higher being to rob him of his chance to crack the scoring sheet. Even without the empty netter it is only a matter of time before he cracks the doors on a stellar season.

At the end of the day we are still really early in the season. The season that saw him wait 16 games before scoring a single goal? He went on to score 29 goals, just one shy of last year’s total. Defenses are going to give way for him eventually and when they do, it’s going to be the dawn of another career high set of goals, assists, and points. Last night was the goal that set the tone.