Carolina Hurricanes: Three Keys to Starting the Season with a Win

Every Sixty Minutes is Now Worth Eighty-Eight

Fifty-Six Games. That’s it. No more, no less. That is the number of regular-season games that each team will get to try and compete for the four playoff positions in each division. That means each regular-season game is more important.

By how much? In comparison to a regular 82 game schedule, every sixty minutes of regulation time this season is now worth eighty-eight minutes in a normal season.

For those who are struggling to wrap their heads around this as I have, a good friend of mine simplified it for me. Every two-game set is worth three games in the regular season. Now I know that doesn’t actually add up to 82, but it’s close enough.

So what does this mean and how exactly is it a key to winning this game?

It means that this isn’t just the first game of the season where the team can loosely figure out where they stand and where their opponents stand, it’s the first game and half of the season where two points are worth three. A win is more than critical to setting off the season on the right foot.

In 16 short weeks, we will know who will be going to the playoffs and who will be looking forward to the offseason and its activities. If the Carolina Hurricanes want to keep talking about how they won’t have any adversity until they make it to the Stanley Cup Finals because that’s the only way for them to run into the Bruins, they need to play a full game and a half tomorrow.

This team has it in them. They are completely capable of dismantling the Red Wings and send them off to another bid at the number one overall draft pick. But this is a brand new season and each team will have to rediscover themselves and what they are capable of. If they give Detroit any chance at this game, they will take it, they aren’t the Philadelphia Eagles.

Jokes aside, every team is looking to win and compete for the Cup. In no way is the fact that a team is rebuilding discourage that team from competing and winning every game they go into. In a shortened season like this, every game requires more effort and more diligence.

For the Carolina Hurricanes that means every single line competes completely. Every pairing plays shutdown defense. Every play should be to score. Every shift is worth one and a half. Detroit knows this. Every team in the league understands this. It’s time to apply it.