Rewind: The 2002-03 Carolina Hurricanes were a Natural Disaster on Ice

The Carolina Hurricanes, fresh off of what was their best season (at the time) brought back much the same lineup that had just gone to the finals.  How did they follow up their surprise playoff run?

This is the sixth installment in my Rewind series, taking a look at the Carolina Hurricanes of seasons past.  To check out my prior articles, click a season:

The Carolina Hurricanes took the hockey world by storm (please ignore that) during the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  On their way to the franchise’s first appearance in the finals, the upstart Hurricanes bested Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils before toppling both Canadian Original Six teams.

Though falling short of the ultimate prize, the team had shown cohesion and perseverance.  More importantly, they had given their fans a reason to have hope.  One could surmise that management shared in that hope as general manager Jim Rutherford didn’t make any changes to the roster over the summer.  The biggest offseason news came in the form of drafting a young goalie from Alberta, though he wouldn’t make waves for a few years.

The Hurricanes opened the season at home against the New York Rangers in a game that saw the visitors put up a 3-goal second period.  The game also had 64 minutes in penalties, topped off by a fight between Rod Brind’Amour and New York pest Matthew Barnaby.  The brawl was the result of a scrum immediately following Brind’Amour’s third period, shutout breaking goal.  Barnaby earned a 10-minute misconduct penalty, however, the Rangers went on to win the game 4-1.

The Hurricanes had an uneven October, wrapping the month up at 5-4-1-1 while being outshot 28-26.  November started off with something that the summer hadn’t seen: player movement.  On November 1, 2002, Rutherford sent 6’6″ defenseman Marek Malik and bruising winger Darren Langdon to the Vancouver Canucks.  In return, the Hurricanes received forwards Jan Hlavac and Harold Druken.

Hlavac was seen as a reclamation project, having put up 28 goals and 64 points for the New York Rangers in the 2000-01 season.  Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out for him in Raleigh.  In 52 games with the Hurricanes, the Czech winger only managed 9 goals and 15 assists.

Druken also had a career year in the 00-01 campaign, notching 15 goals and 30 points in just 55 games for the Canucks.  The proceeding years saw him unable to maintain an NHL job, appearing in only 58 games between 2002-2004.  In 14 games with Carolina, Druken tallied one assist.

So, with the early season table set, let’s take a look at the offense.

The Offense

Oof.

Despite my knack for storytelling, that’s the best word that I can think of to summarize the 02-03 Carolina Hurricanes’ offense.  Jeff O’Neill maintained his production, leading the team in goals and points.  Ron Francis suffered a 20 point drop from the previous season despite playing in two more games.

That said, it’s hard to fault a 39-year-old from seeing an offensive decline, especially when you consider that he still finished first on the team in assists and second in points.  He was also fresh off of scoring one of the biggest goals in Carolina Hurricanes’ history.  He’s also one of the best captains in the team’s history and, as GM, drafted some phenomenal talent.

Brind’Amour managed to put up 37 points, a total that was hampered by a hand injury that cost him 34 games.  Veteran defenseman Sean Hill also saw a decline, furthering a trend that hampered the Hurricane’s season.  Sophomore winger Erik Cole, who was on pace to best his rookie numbers, suffered a broken leg that cost him the final 29 games of the season.

Perhaps the biggest and most unwanted surprise was Sami Kapanen.  The two-time NHL All-Star, who had amassed 314 points since the Hurricanes’ arrival in North Carolina, struggled to find his game.  Standing at 6 goals and 18 points after 43 games, Rutherford shipped the Finnish winger to the Philadelphia Flyers along with prospect Ryan Bast.

In return, Carolina received 21-year-old winger Pavel Brendl and 22-year-old defenseman Bruno St. Jacques.  Brendl had struggled to live up to the expectations of being the fourth overall pick at the 1999 Entry Draft.  Things were no better for him with the Hurricanes.  Brendl saw action in just 8 of Carolina’s 27 games after the trade, managing only one assist despite averaging 15 of ice time.

In contrast, St. Jacques dressed for 18 games, averaging a career-high 18:15 minutes per game.  The young defender, never known for his offensive touch, managed 2 goals and 7 points after arriving in Raleigh.

Rutherford executed another deal with a dozen games left in the season, shipping fan-favorite Bates Battaglia (who himself was in a bit of a decline) to the Colorado Avalanche for 21-year-old winger Radim Vrbata.  The new addition performed well, notching five goals in ten games after the trade.

Let’s take a look at the Hurricanes’ top scorers and league ranking for the 2002-03 season:

The Hurricanes scored five or more goals in five games, winning all but one.

Now, let’s take a look at the defense.

The Defense

The Hurricanes improved their team defense in the season leading up to their Stanley Cup Finals run.  It didn’t last.  After limiting their goals-against to 217 during the 01-02 season, they saw that number balloon to 240 in 02-03.  That’s a -69 goal differential.  Not good and, by that, I mean NHL-worst -69.

The top-4 did the best that they could and the blame doesn’t fall solely on them; the team defense as a whole was atrocious.  As imperfect a stat as plus-minus is, the fact that Sean Hill was able to post a +4 on this team should have earned him a handful of Norris votes.

The previous season saw Carolina limit their opponent to 2 or fewer goals in 44 games, winning 29 of those.  The 02-03 crop of Hurricanes managed that feat 37 times, losing 14 times (16-14-7).  I’ll concede that barely being above .500 in those games speaks volumes about the team’s woeful lack of offense.

On the flip side, the Hurricanes surrendered 5 or more goals on 15 occasions, including a stomping to the tune of 8-2 at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings.  Their record in those 15 games?  You might want to have a sit-down, grab a drink, and make sure a trash can or toilet is within sprinting distance.

1-14.

I’m sorry, I really am.  I should be considerate and spare you such horrific stats but then I wouldn’t be telling the whole story.  Go back to that thrashing by the Kings, a team that boasted two forty-point scorers.  Not goals, points.  They were a middling team that missed the playoffs yet, facing the Hurricanes, they spent an evening cosplaying as the 83-84 Oilers.

With the Hurricanes clearly out of contention for a spot in the playoffs, veteran Glen Wesley was shipped off to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a second-round draft pick.  Of course, he returned to the team in the offseason, but I imagine the six weeks spent in Toronto were a nice detour from the train wreck of the Hurricanes’ defensive corps.

Get the Pepto ready:

Maybe the goaltending was a bright spot…

Postmortem

22-43-11-6; 5th place in the Southeast Division

It’s hard to fathom how quickly stagnation set into a team who was fresh off a Stanley Cup Finals appearance but the Carolina Hurricanes found out that it can happen.  Injuries certainly didn’t help, nor did the decline in Arturs Irbe’s play, but the season’s failure ultimately permeated every area of the team.

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Things started off okay, with the team carrying an 11-7-4-3 record into December but eight losses in the final month of 2002 exposed every weakness the Hurricanes had.  The dawning of 2003 saw them enter a death spiral, winning just 2 out of 15 games.

Things didn’t get any better, as a one-win February bled into a horrific final five weeks.  March and April bore witness to a 4-12-2 record where the Hurricanes were shut out on three occasions.  On top of that, they were held to one goal six times during this stretch while allowing an average of 3.17 goals per game.

Scoring 46 fewer goals than the year prior while surrendering 23 more is a recipe for disaster.  Better days were on the horizon with the 2002 drafting of future Conn Smythe winner Cam Ward and the selection of Eric Staal in 2003.  Unfortunately, the team was stuck in hockey purgatory for the time being.

What were your expectations for the Carolina Hurricanes heading into the 2002-03 season?