10.#300 for Brind'Amour (12/28/24)
Coming out of the Christmas break, the Hurricanes chased history for their head coach as they battled the Devils in a home-and-home back-to-back. New Jersey got the better of the Canes in Newark and looked on their way to doing the same in Raleigh the following day. New Jersey led 2-1 after scoring early in the third period, but the Canes' top line took over.
Jack Roslovic (2G, 1A), Seth Jarvis (3A), and Sebastian Aho (1G, 1A) combined for eight points in the game and seven points in the third to score four unanswered goals and win, 5-2. With their victory, Rod Brind'Amour became the fastest head coach in NHL history to 300 wins. The Canes' bench boss needed just 488 games to reach the milestone, passing Bruce Boudreau to set a new benchmark.
9. Tokarski shines in Hurricanes debut (12/15/24)
With Frederik Andersen already out following knee surgery, the last thing the Hurricanes needed was Pyotr Kochetkov getting hurt. Alas, the Russian netminder went down in late November, forcing Spencer Martin to assume the starting job for the time being. Needing a backup option, the Canes signed veteran journeyman Dustin Tokarski after he lit up the AHL during his PTO with the Wolves.
Tokarski made his team debut in Raleigh against Columbus in mid-December and was nearly perfect. Backed by a phenomenal night from the Canes' penalty kill and domination from the Staal line, Tokarski made 27 stops as the Canes beat the Blue Jackets, 4-1. The start was his first in the NHL in almost two years, though Tokarski hardly looked like he missed a beat.