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Rewind: Revisiting the 2000-01 Carolina Hurricanes

By Jeb Bohn

15 Apr 2001: Dave Karpa #33 of the Carolina Hurricanes collides with John Madden #11 of the New Jersey Devils during Sunday's first round playoff game at Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Hurricanes with a final score of 2-0. Digital Image. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Squire/ALLSPORT
15 Apr 2001: Dave Karpa #33 of the Carolina Hurricanes collides with John Madden #11 of the New Jersey Devils during Sunday's first round playoff game at Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Hurricanes with a final score of 2-0. Digital Image. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Squire/ALLSPORT /
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Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh of the Carolina Hurricanes
3 Nov 2000: Sandis Ozolinsh #8 of the Carolina Hurricanes inmoves with the puck during the game against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. THe Avalanche defeated the Hurricanes 5-3.Mandatory Credit: Jon Ferrey /Allsport /

The Defense

So we’ve established that the Hurricanes scored fewer goals than the year before.  Not great.  To add to their troubles, they also gave up more goals (225), placing them 16th in the league.  Ten defensemen saw action in at least one game, though the top-six consisted of the usual suspects: Wesley, Ozolinsh, Malik, Tanabe, Karpa, and Hatcher.  This season also marked the rookie campaign of Niclas Wallin, who dressed for 37 games.

Plus/minus, while not a perfect stat, was not pretty for the Hurricanes.  Point of fact: take a look at every defender who suited up in 2000-01:

Ouch.  That’s a combined -78.  No matter what your opinion on plus/minus may be, that is ugly.  One bright spot on the defensive side was the penalty kill.  The Hurricanes finished second in the league, killing 87.18% of the penalties they were assessed.

Despite the defensive woes (more on that in a second), the Hurricanes held their opponents to 2 or fewer goals in a staggering 42 games (28-7-7).  Now, Arturs Irbe deserves a ton of credit here, and he’ll get it, but not until the next page.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Carolina surrendered 5 or more goals 12 times, losing all but one (a 6-5 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning).  Out of that bad batch were 4 games in which the Hurricanes gave up 7 goals.  No, that’s not a typo.  They gave up 6 on 3 more occasions.  I think it’s best we not talk about those.

Instead, let’s take a look at time on ice and a few key defensive categories and how the Hurricanes ranked:

Meh.  Aside from the penalty kill, that’s really all there is to say.  The Hurricanes had an off-year defensively, but they had an ace in the hole in net.

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