Carolina Hurricanes: Forecasting the Month of March
By Luke Schull
Marching Forward
To say that March will be daunting for the Hurricanes is honestly an understatement. The few games in hand are nice, but they won’t mean much if they aren’t converted to wins. Let’s break it down.
The Carolina Hurricanes will play 16 games in a span of 27 days in March. Then, they have one final back-to-back on April 3rd and 4th that definitely doesn’t get it’s own article. At no point this coming month will the Hurricanes have more than one night off. That can be a good thing for establishing a rhythm, but “finishing up with Billy” will be of the utmost importance.
The Canes open March with a 5-game road swing that takes them through Philadelphia, New York, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and New Jersey. Speaking of Pittsburgh, the Canes will play them four times this month, which is odd at the very least.
You know what else comes in fours? Back-to-backs. The Carolina Hurricanes have one of those every weekend this month, and they have to travel for the second leg of it each time. Of the 16 games this month, 9 of them are against metro division opponents. That makes for a lot of “4-point games,” if you will.
The Canes have been pretty good about playing up to their competition and rising to the occasion this season. In the face of this adversity, I’ll go out on a limb and predict a record of 10-5-1 for March. They’ve proven before that when they play desperate, they can beat anyone.