For the seventh-straight season, the Carolina Hurricanes fell short of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs, this time by 10 points. While players, management and fans alike were disappointed, the team surpassed the expectations of national media and even made a strong playoff push down the stretch.
Let’s take a look back on the 2015–16 season: what went right, what went wrong, what has improved and what needs to be addressed in the offseason.
The Canes couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, losing six of their first eight games, then winning three straight, before dropping 10 of the next 14 games. A big reason for Carolina’s early-season struggles was subpar goaltending.
During that stretch, Cam Ward posted a .898 save percentage and a 2.53 goals against average, while Eddie Lack struggled even more so, with an .865 save percentage and a 3.54 goals against average.
But even with those below-average numbers, the Canes outplayed opponents in numerous losses, and if it wasn’t for bad luck, they would have won many of those games.
“The first two months, I think we were 8-13-4 the first 25 games,” general manager Ron Francis said at Tuesday’s end-of-season press conference. “I thought we were better than our record indicated. I thought there was at least a minimum of five games that I thought we dominated the game and didn’t win.”
With improved goaltending, the Canes’ record was vastly better starting in December, going 16-8-4 from a rock-bottom 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils Dec. 3 to the loss of defenseman and, at the time, leading-scorer Justin Faulk to injury in early February.
The team’s positive run was fueled by the recall of defenseman Jaccob Slavin and forwards Phil Di Giuseppe and Brock McGinn. Though McGinn did not stay with the team, Di Giuseppe and Slavin did, and each made a huge impact.
Slavin joined fellow rookie blue-liners Noah Hanifin and Brett Pesce in giving the team incredible play from the back end — it is nearly unheard of for a team to get such strong play from one, let alone three, rookie defensemen. The three, along with Faulk, helped form a strong nucleus on defense that should be the team’s foundation for years to come.
“When we brought the young kids in on the back end, when you look from there to the rest of the season, our goaltending was pretty solid,” Francis said.
Di Giuseppe formed a line with forwards Victor Rask and Jeff Skinner, and as the three developed good chemistry, they helped to lead the charge offensively, as Skinner in particular enjoyed a huge scoring surge in the second half of the season, finishing the year as the Canes’ leading scorer with 28 goals and 23 assists.
The dynamite two-way line of Joakim Nordstrom, Andrej Nestrasil and Jordan Staal helped lead the way at forward over the improved run. While they didn’t put up as many points as the Di Giuseppe, Rask and Skinner line, they proved to be the team’s best defensively, going against their opponents’ top line and more often than not, keeping them off the scoreboard.
Despite flashes of scoring from many players, Carolina forwards struggled to consistently score goals, as the team ranked 27th out of 30 NHL teams in goals per game, making it a key area management must address in the offseason.
“The area we fall short in is probably the goal scoring,” Francis said. “We had 16 overtime losses, between 3-on-3’s and shootouts; if we can find more scoring there, that’s a big difference for us. We need to find a way to score more goals, at the right time.”
The Canes’ special teams units were a tale of two stories, with the penalty kill being the bright spot, ranking sixth in the NHL, and the power play struggling — a recipe for failure for a team that already struggled to score 5-on-5 — ranking 24th.
If Francis and his management team can add an elite goal scorer or two and shore up the goaltending situation — Ward becomes an unrestricted free agent July 1 — this is a Hurricanes team built for long-term success, starting next year with a playoff appearance.
