Hurricanes winger Teuvo Teravainen will miss the remainder of the first round after suffering a broken hand in their 4-3 overtime win against the New York Islanders.
The Hurricanes are up 2-0 in the series, but they will be without one of their top-six forwards as Teravainen was injured on a slash from Islanders forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau. It happened when Teravainen took control of the puck on the inner half of the left faceoff circle and launched a shot on net, and Pageau’s stick struck Teravainen’s hand almost instantly.
Despite Pageau not being penalized for the slash, Teravainen will have surgery on Thursday morning. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour expressed his frustration after the game.
Losing Teravainen for the rest of the first round is just the latest setback for a Hurricanes team that has been dealing with injuries to its top-six forwards since the start of 2023.
It all started in January when the Hurricanes lost Max Pacioretty for the season due to a non-contact Achilles injury. The Hurricanes had traded for Pacioretty in the offseason, hoping that his six-time 30-goal-scoring record would boost their championship aspirations. Pacioretty had three goals in his first five games before tearing his Achilles in the last minute of a 5-2 win against the Minnesota Wild on Jan. 19. He required Achilles surgery that kept him out for six months until he returned on Jan. 5.
On March 13, the team announced that they would be without one of their leading goal scorers, Andrei Svechnikov, after he injured his right knee. Two days later, they announced that the 22-year-old star would miss the rest of the season due to reconstructive ACL surgery.
Despite these injuries to Pacioretty and Svechnikov, who scored 23 goals and 55 assists in 64 games, the Hurricanes still managed to win the Metropolitan Division by a single point over the New Jersey Devils.
However, they will now have to try to make it out of the first round for the third time in the last four seasons without Teravainen.
Teravainen, who plays both offense and defense, recorded 12 goals and 37 points in 68 regular-season games. He also played over 100 minutes on the penalty kill for the Hurricanes, whose penalty kill had a success rate of 84.4% and was ranked second in the NHL entering the postseason.