The Carolina Hurricanes have taken steps forward in the past two years. Last season, the team, despite missing the playoffs for an eighth-straight year, showed growth with a 13-game point streak late in the season to at least get into the race.
This year, the team finds itself right in the thick of the playoff fight, currently sitting two points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Canes have battled through combinations of poor special teams, poor goaltending and a lack of offensive firepower over the past two years; however, one thing the team hasn’t had to fight much of is injury adversity.
In the 2016-17 season, no regular contributor up front or on defense missed more than 10 games. Other than several injuries to former backup goalie Eddie Lack, the team stayed relatively healthy.
The same has been the case so far this year. Other than forward Lee Stempniak (who is not a core piece) missing the first three months and change of the year, Carolina has been relatively healthy with no lineup regular missing more than six games.
However, that is about to change as the team will be without a key piece on both forward and defense for likely the foreseeable future.
Forward Sebastian Aho sustained both a concussion and lower-body injury on a hit from Calgary Flames defenseman Mark Giordano in Sunday’s loss to the Flames, and defenseman Brett Pesce has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury sustained in a morning skate last week.
Injury obstacles are a foreign concept the Hurricanes have not had to deal with a lot of, especially to key players, in the last couple years; but it’s a part of professional sports, particularly one as physical as NHL hockey. The injury bug has found the Canes, and while it’s unknown how long Aho and Pesce will be out, others will have to step up while they are.
Losing Aho for any significant length of time will hurt, considering he leads the Canes with 16 goals and 37 points through 45 games this year. He’s been the team’s most dynamic scorer, capable of creating offense for himself and making his linemates better.
Although Carolina does have several other talented players up front, and they’ll have to carry the load in the Finnish sophomore’s absence. Fellow Finn Teuvo Teravainen has had a strong year alongside Aho, with 11 goals and 35 points this year. The team will need him to continue, if not increase, that production.
Jeff Skinner, still perhaps the team’s best pure goal scorer, needs to do more. He led the team with a career-high 37 goals last year, and has 14 this year; however, Skinner only has seven goals since the end of October. Simply put, the Canes need more from him.
The same goes for Swedish forwards Elias Lindholm and Victor Rask. The duo has combined for just 40 total points this year, and will need to boost their production to help the team score enough to stay in the playoff fight in Aho’s absence.
It’s a similar story on defense. Pesce plays big minutes alongside normal partner Jaccob Slavin, shutting down the opposition’s top players on a nightly basis. The team will miss his shutdown prowess a lot and others will have to fill that void.
Third-year Noah Hanifin has had a rough few games, with two turnovers leading directly to late goals for the opponent that cost the Canes points in the standings.
The one man the team will need an improvement from most of all is defenseman and co-captain Justin Faulk.
Frankly, Faulk’s had a dismal year for Carolina. His usual scoring prowess from the blue line has not been there, with a mere four goals and 14 points. He’s had a rough go of it on the defensive end, with too many instances of turnovers or him being out of position leading to a goal against to count this year. The Hurricanes were always going to need better play down the stretch from Faulk, but even more so now with Pesce out.
The Canes are getting their first real bite from the injury bug in the last couple seasons, something that’s simply part of life in the NHL, and the team will have to fight through it. In professional sports, it’s often a “next man up” mentality when a key player is lost to injury.
How the next men up for the Canes in Aho and Pesce’s absences perform will be a key determination as to whether Carolina finishes the year on the right or wrong side of the playoff cut line.
