The Carolina Hurricanes have been a lot of things already this season. One thing they haven’t been: Home.
Currently, the Hurricanes sit second in the Metro Division behind a surprisingly hot New Jersey Devils team. While that might not be good enough for some Caniacs, we can all take solace in some pure logic by calmly looking at some facts.
Carolina has been better on the road than they have been given credit.
The road weary Hurricanes are coming off a West Coast road trip that saw them take 7 of a possible 8 points, or more depending on when you are reading this.
On top of that the Hurricanes are currently better than .500 on the road with only three regulation losses.
Any team in the NHL would take that.
And now the best part.
Carolina will be at home for the majority of the remaining schedule while the Metro leading Devils while be..que Willie Nelson….on the road again.
Over the next four months, the Carolina Hurricanes will play 31 games in Raleigh and a total of 18 road games. If that’s not enough, the Hurricanes will basically be home the whole month of February.
Guess what???
In that same period of time the Devils will be home roughly 50% of the time. They face a tough month of January that sees them traveling to tough Metro Division rivals, including the Canes at, you guessed it, PNC Arena at least twice.
Nothing cools off a hot team than getting on a plane and traveling. Compounding the matter will be that getting in a plane in the doldrums of the season.
On the inverse, the Canes will be tending the home fires at a critical mid point in the season. Just when anyone would want to be skating at home, the Carolina Hurricanes will be suiting up at the loudest arena in hockey.
We would be failing if we didn’t mention this will be exactly when several key Hurricanes will be returning from injuries.
Home is where the heart is and Carolina will be home in the very heart of their season. Thanks in a very big part to having a fantastic road record and digging out critical points when needed most.
Calm down Caniacs and enjoy some Hurricanes home ice hockey.