There’s No Need for the Carolina Hurricanes to Panic

After reeling off five consecutive wins to open the season, the Carolina Hurricanes have slid into a rough patch.  Despite this, things are far from dire as we move towards the final week of October.

The first eight days of the 2019-20 NHL season brought more hope to a fanbase that already had increased expectations.  After a dominant second half and a run to the Eastern Conference Finals, Carolina Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell tweaked the roster in an effort to maximize results.

The Hurricanes found ways to win, including overtime victories against the Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning.  In the latter, Carolina held a potent Lightning team to only 13 shots.  Things were looking good as the Hurricanes came into a matchup against a Columbus team that suffered an exodus of talent over the summer.

Despite losing their top scorer and goaltender in that purge, the Blue Jackets outworked the Hurricanes, handing them their first loss of the season.  The Carolina power play, which had managed four goals in five games, went 0-for-3.  James Reimer played well but was ultimately outdueled by Joonas Korpisalo.

Carolina followed that up by shutting out the woeful Los Angeles Kings, highlighted by Petr Mrazek‘s 31 saves and Martin Necas‘ second goal of the season.

The rest of their west coast trip was, well, not good as they dropped a 5-2 decision to the San Jose Sharks and a 4-2 clunker against the Anaheim Ducks.

Let’s take a look at the first five games versus the next four:

While the goals-against has crept up slightly, the bigger concern is the offense.  With a 55% decline in goals-scored and a mind-breaking 22.3% drop in power-play conversion, the biggest areas of opportunity are clear.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at things and see what’s been working and what hasn’t.

The Defense

A cursory glance at the defensive stats doesn’t garner a ton of enthusiasm.  Going strictly on face value at this early point would, however, be a mistake.  With new faces like Edmundson and Jake Gardiner getting acclimated to a new system and Haydn Fleury filling in well for the recovering (and now back) Trevor van Riemsdyk, a few hiccups were to be expected.

These changes, along with the departure of Justin Faulk, have given the Hurricanes’ defense a bit of a facelift.

Mainstays Slavin and Pesce have continued their solid play, each player contributing some offense while keeping their defensive play at the level that’s become expected of them.  Pesce is averaging a team-high 3:43 of shorthanded ice time so far while blocking 19 shots (tying him with Edmundson for the team lead).

Gardiner got off to an auspicious start, netting the overtime game-winner in the second game of the season, though his offense has stalled since.  Primarily slotting into the #5 spot thus far, Gardiner has shown some flashes on the power play which indicate that he can help the Hurricanes out once he finds his touch.

Despite the depth and talent on the Hurricanes’ blueline, things haven’t been perfect yet in the young season.  As with the forwards, the defense has looked flustered at times.  As such, they have occasionally made poor choices with puck management.

While not confined to the defense alone, this loose play has led in part to the Hurricanes taking an unnecessary number of penalties.  The penalty kill has been okay, but the discipline has to be addressed before it becomes a bigger problem.

All things considered, the defense hasn’t been a hindrance, but there is still room for improvement.  With everyone getting healthier, seeing that improvement should be a given.

The Goaltending

For the first time as a head coach, Rod Brind’Amour pulled his goalie in favor of replacement.  While you can’t lay the brunt of the blame at Petr Mrazek’s feet, he had an off night.  Still, his record and GAA aren’t anything to sneeze at, thought his sub-.900 save percentage is less than ideal.  Even then, Mrazek has done a good enough job of keeping his team in the game and giving them a chance to win, and that is the most important thing.

Then you look at James Reimer’s numbers and it gets a bit funny.  His record sits at 500, his GAA is pretty much in line with his platoon mate, but his save percentage is considerably better.  Reimer has faced more total shots (147 vs. 112) and his advanced stats (goals against %, goals saved above average) are better than Mrazek’s.

Both goalies have shown some incredibly solid stretches mixed in with some weak goals.  Again, it’s still very early in the year and Mrazek’s last start against Anaheim did a number on his stats.  We haven’t seen the best that the goalies have to offer but, as the season wears on, the Hurricanes are going to need just that in order to keep pace in the Metropolitan Division.

Final Thoughts

Look, the Hurricanes have won six of their first nine games and they’ve done so while not firing on all cylinders.  Their star center has managed only two goals and three points.  A top-six winger who is expected to be a prominent fixture is also stuck at three points.  Not ideal and, in years past, this may have spelled doom for the team.

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Not this year.

While Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter have struggled, Andrei Svechnikov has had a phenomenal start.  Erik Haula and Ryan Dzingel have clicked with the team right off the bat.  Dougie Hamilton has been a star at both ends of the ice.  Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce have been, well, themselves.  For every shortcoming, there has been a response.

Yes, some of these torrid starts will even out over the course of the season but so will the struggles.  This team has the talent, character, and work ethic to make sure of that.  So they’ve lost two games in a row, two very unimpressive outings.  Two games that raised my blood pressure but ultimately mean very little in the grand scheme.

As fans of this franchise, we have all too often grown accustomed to expecting the worst, looking for the black cloud behind every rainbow.  I can’t fault anyone for that because I’ve been along for the same ride, but this isn’t 2014-15 team.

I know the California trip wounded our collective confidence, but it’s over.  This team has 73 games left to fulfill their promise and there are plenty of reasons to believe that they will.

So take a breath, there’s no need to panic.

How do you feel after the dismal California swing?  Who do you think has had the biggest impact on the Hurricanes’ early-season success?