Hurricanes: Five Unanswered Questions After a Lackluster February

The Carolina Hurricanes did not have a good month of February going  6-5-2 and sitting three points out of a playoff spot. Here are a few unanswered questions.

Three. As of writing this article that is the number of points that the Carolina Hurricanes are out of a playoff spot by. It is also the number of games in hand they have on the second wild card team, the Columbus Blue Jackets. Considering they left 12 whole points on the table this month, 14 since the All-Star Break, they should count themselves lucky.

Let us be frank, home ice in the playoffs is a dream for next season at this point. That said, they are still only 11 points out of division lead with a game in hand. But let’s focus on the main target, the closest one, simply making the playoffs in back to back years. Something that hasn’t happened for this franchise since the Bush administration first took office.

The entire fanbase is conflicted right now. There are a few fans who think that Rod Brind’amour isn’t doing enough to help this team win while others point to the injuries and perhaps even Don Waddell.

There are others who think that it’s on the offense that could and should be scoring more. Some fans would point to the injury list, now featuring five players, including both netminders and three defenders as the reason for the lackluster performance.

There are those that will point out the defense, once touted as the best in the league, is continuously leaving high danger shots uncontended.

There are those who naturally are drawn to the fact that our last winning netminder was an Emergency Backup Goalie and 42 year old Zamboni Driver and that the Canes should have addressed the position with a trade.

Regardless of which camp you belong to, we all can agree that this season, which started with a winning mentality out the gate, has gone off the rails.

But luckily, it is still salvageable. It can still be turned around. The season can be saved and a ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs can still be punched. The final stretch of hockey is upon us and the Hurricanes are in a good position to own their own destiny. It starts with the answers to these five questions.

When will Sami Vatanen Play?

When the Carolina Hurricanes traded for Sami Vatanen, they knew they were getting an injured player, after all they put a condition on the draft pick. They also knew they were getting a rental player.  But when will the star defender actually suit up in Carolina red for a change and help this team make the playoffs?

As of right now, that is still an unknown. He is yet to practice with the team in any sort of capacity joining Brett Pesce and Dougie Hamilton as an injured defender. Perhaps with the extra days between games he can get well enough to start doing exactly that.

When he does return to the roster expect him to start picking up some of the goals that have been left behind by the loss of Dougie Hamilton. Expect the powerplay to pick back up. Expect Sami to do amazing things like this:

I can watch that all day. Now for him to do that in a Carolina Hurricanes Jersey, it would be a god send.

His return to the roster would be pretty much marked by if he travels with the team on this extended road trip starting Thursday. We all know that this roster would be ages better with him in it rather than without.

What’s Going on With the Rest of the Injuries?

Speaking of injured Canes, what about the other four guys on the injury report? To make room for the new guys on the roster, Don Waddell has placed Dougie Hamilton on the Long Term Injury Report, so that ends any chance of seeing him back in action until the beginning of next season.

But what of Brett Pesce, Petr Mrazek, and James Reimer? All three were seen during the Canes Annual Bash, walking, laughing, and gambling with the fans so they seem to be not as serious as Dougie Hamilton who was still wearing a boot on his leg, albeit he was walking on it.

Rod mentioned that Pesce and Reimer were not going to be short term injuries earlier last week and just today mentioned that Petr Mrazek was not going to be coming back anytime soon. So they might all be back before the end of the season, but for now we will have to stick with the replacements in net and Brady Skjei, who has been performing wonderfully in Pesce’s absence.

If all goes well perhaps this roster can get back to full health in the next few weeks and earn enough wins to carry good momentum into April and playoffs.

Who knows, perhaps we can go into summer hockey with a good full roster of healthy players (minus Hamilton) and take things deep and far enough into the summer to see guys like Sami and Pesce return to full power.

Until then let’s give them the rest and recovery they need to get back as soon as they can.

Who Would Be the Odd Defender Out?

So when the defenders eventually get back to being healthy, who, from those currently on the roster, will be the odd man or men out? Someone is going to have to make room for their Vatanen or Pesce when either of them return, and when the other does as well, it will be another defender sitting out.

Lets go backwards here. Who is definitely not sitting out? It absolutely won’t be Jaccob Slavin or Brady Skjei. Both have shown more tenacity than any other Hurricane on the ice. Slavin continues to be a master of shutting down offenses and Skjei has done everything but score recently.

Another man that you shouldn’t count on being an odd man out is Haydn Fleury. He is starting to find his NHL composure and confidence finally and has been crushing the opposition.  So who does that leave us with? Just three guys.

Trevor Van Riemsdyk, Jake Gardiner, and Joel Edmundson. To be fair, this is a very difficult choice to make on who to keep. To be fair, with a full and healthy roster, expect there to be a rotation of some sort from game to game. But for now let us pick one guy who would not be on the outside looking in when the first injured defender returns.

That man is Jake Gardiner. Stop booing. The problem with Jake is that he puts a lot on himself. More often than not he attempts something crazy. When it works, boy does it pay off. When it doesn’t it ends in disaster. If he simplifies his game, he would arguably have the most goals among defenders not named Dougie Hamilton.

Ideally the defensive pairings would look like this:

Slavin-Vatanen
Pesce-Skjei
Fleury-Gardiner/ TVR/ Edmundson

But who is the final man? We really won’t find out until at least one defender gets back to being healthy.

Can Alex Nedeljkovic or Anton Forsberg Be the Heroes We Need?

In the meantime the Carolina Hurricanes are going to rely on a whole new Tandem in net. Nedeljkovic and Foreserg have yet to record a win collectively but they have been both yanked from the AHL to playing against a much faster and more talented league. It is not insane to think they would take a game or two to adjust and start playing at full speed.

Right now both are dueling for a starting position and just when it looked like Anton Forsberg was going to steal the limelight by going back to back after almost beating the Avalanche on Friday Night, he was pulled for Ned who kept the rest of the game scoreless until OT where a bad turnover turned into a failed opportunity to complete a comeback.

Both netminders have been the victims of a defense that has failed to keep the opposing team out of the most dangerous spots on the ice. Let’s be frank, if this team can win with a David Ayres they should be able to win with any other goalie. But right now Ayres is the last winning goalie on record for the Canes.

They need to replicate the defensive urgency they showed against Toronto every single night in front of either Ned or Forsberg. The Ayres story is incredible but without that urgency in front of him that night ends with frustration for the Hurricanes instead of talk show appointments.

Right now Ned has the better GAA and save percentage. He has been the future of the Hurricanes for a while now and is the only goalie to secure a point in the standings that is healthy and signed by the team right now.

It’s going to be a long road trip, but perhaps these guys can become the heroes we need after the rough start they both got over the last three games.