Carolina’s sports teams have a Tampa Bay problem
By Jon Shearer
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – JUNE 08: The Tampa Bay Lightning shakes hands with the Carolina Hurricanes following Game Five of the Second Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at PNC Arena on June 08, 2021, in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)Since 2019, Raleigh and Charlotte have had a Tampa Bay problem. The Carolina Hurricanes gold standard has been the Tampa Bay lightning. With the Lightning winning two Stanley Cups and knocking out the Canes en route to the most recent title, the Canes now know where the bar is at.
The Carolina Panthers have had their own issues with Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers are 3-1 vs the Carolina Panthers since 2019. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers went 2-0 vs the Panthers this past season en route to winning the Super-Bowl.
The Hurricanes and the Panthers not only have similar problems with Tampa but they have similarities when it comes to personalities. Both teams are gritty, hard-working, blue-collar organizations that get the most out of their players. Since 2019 the Hurricanes are 7-11 vs the Lightning including 1-4 in the playoffs.
The Carolina Hurricanes will look vastly different than they did when we last saw them in the playoffs. Roster change was imminent for the Canes but not ideal for the Caniacs. The roster clearly was not strong enough to beat the likes of the upper echelon teams so the Canes went out and improved in the area of role players.
Derek Stepan and Andrew Poturalski are two players specifically that should give the lower lines a boost in terms of doing the little things and helping to put the puck in the back of the net, two things that the Canes struggled with during the postseason from their 3rd and 4th lines.
The Hurricanes and Lightning will do battle three times in the 2021-2022 regular season and could see each other again when the postseason comes around in May. The Canes and Lightning were 4-4 against each other in the regular season in the 2021 regular season. The playoff matchups between the Hurricanes and Lightning were tight contests that the Tampa Bay Lightning ultimately closed the deal on. Why bring all of this up?
Carolina is not far off and yes they made roster moves that made people uncomfortable. Management kept the majority of the core intact and improved the aforementioned role positions while Tampa Bay lost key pieces as well. Both teams should have an interesting 2021-2022 season, but the Hurricanes are able to relish the underdog role while Tampa Bay has a target on their back.
Rod Brind’Amour will have a difficult task getting his team back in the discussion of winning the President’s Trophy, but Rod gets the most out of his guys and the Canes as we have seen in the past go as Rod goes. Departures of guys like Dougie Hamilton and Alex Nedeljkovic surely weigh on Caniacs minds but as Brind’Amour has preached in the past it’s the next man up and that will have to be how the Canes get to where they want to go.
For all the great things that Dougie was for Carolina, Dougie was an extra offender that struggled defensively and took hard slap shots with not much creativity to his shot. Yes, of course losing Dougie hurts when trying to keep up with the Tampa Bays of the world, however, the Canes could not afford what his asking price was and long-term we will applaud Canes management for letting Hamilton go and keeping the rest of the core intact.
The Hurricanes will reside in the Metropolitan Division with the likes of the Rangers, Islanders, Blue Jackets, Flyers, Devils, Penguins, and Capitals. The Canes thrived off of the bottom-feeders in their respective division in 2021 but they will face new challenges in terms of the Penguins, Caps, Isles, and revamped Devils with Dougie Hamilton. The Canes seem to have their backs against the wall heading into the season after all of the off-season turnover and doubters, but Rod gets the most out of his guys and the Carolina faithful will be ready on October 14th at PNC Arena.
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