Hurricanes: Five Unanswered Questions from a Forgettable January

The Carolina Hurricanes are backed against a wall going into February and have many must win games ahead. Here are the top unanswered questions for the last month.

January took forever to end it seems. The Carolina Hurricanes did not like that month. While that month saw the return of Justin Williams, it also saw the loss of their All-Star Dougie Hamilton. In the eleven games played in that month the team went exactly 0.500 at 5-5-1 and found themselves in need of a win to get back into a playoff spot.

They did so early yesterday against the Vancouver Canucks but are still locked in a battle for a playoff spot over halfway through the season. That has left many questions yet to be answered.

Last month we had several unanswered questions and for the most part many were answered in some shape or form during the 96 day month of January. For once Erik Haula seems to be back and fully healthy with the only game missed being to allow Justin Williams to come in for his first game back of the season.

The battle between Trevor Van Riemsdyk and Haydn Fleury seems to have come to a standoff with the loss of Hamilton. Both defenders are now paired up on the third pairing trying to keep the ship from sinking. Teuvo Teravainen was once again robbed of a ‘Last men in’ vote despite continuing to light up the scoreboard and being the team’s most versatile offensive threat.

As of if the 2020s will be a better decade, so far it has both given and taken from us in the first month of the new decade. Almost everything has come to a complete deadlock. Perhaps with February on the Horizon, this team will see better days.

That brings us to this month’s unanswered questions. There is so much to still try and figure out, especially with the season steamrolling toward the finish line with the All Star Game break done and out of the way. But will the Hurricanes find answers to these questions sooner or later?