As the NHL summer winds down and training camps approach, offseason accolades continue to pour in for the Carolina Hurricanes. The moves general manager Ron Francis and his team have made since April have fans and national media alike proclaiming the team as a playoff contender for this season.
If the team wants to end its eight-year playoff drought and get back to the big dance in 2017-18, there are a few specific areas of the game it needs to improve upon. Let’s take a look at five numbers that represent those areas.
1. .901- At the risk of beating a dead horse, goaltending has been an issue for the Canes of late. The team had the fifth-worst save percentage in the NHL last year, and has ranked in the bottom five in each of the past three seasons. That number needs to climb in 2017-18 if the team wants to make it into the postseason for the first time since 2009. League average save percentage last year was .913, and the Canes need to raise their save percentage to around that number to get in.
A team that was dominant in possession and shot suppression last season was consistently done in by poor performances by goalies Cam Ward and Eddie Lack. The team needs the newly acquired Scott Darling, who shined in a backup role with the Chicago Blackhawks, to perform well as the new starter, and for Ward to transition smoothly into a backup role to raise its save percentage this year.
2. 2.59- In addition to doing a better job keeping the puck out, Carolina needs to find the back of the opposing net with more regularity this year. The team’s 2.59 goals scored per game last season put them at 20th in the league, with only one team below them reaching the playoffs. Conversely, 12 of the league’s top 15 scoring teams made the postseason.
Forward Jeff Skinner set a career high with 37 goals last year, but he needs more assistance up front. Bringing back former Hurricane Justin Williams, who is still a productive scorer at the age of 35, should help in that regard. The team will also hope for another step forward from Finnish forward Sebastian Aho, who had an impressive rookie campaign last year with 24 goals and 49 points, and continued growth from other young forwards such as Victor Rask, Elias Lindholm and Teuvo Teravainen as well to boost its goal total.
3. One- One way to improve the offense and get back to the playoffs is for the Canes to get more balance and depth of scoring. Skinner was the only player to break 50 points for the team last year. Carolina will likely need at least two or three more players to break the plateau to end the league’s longest-active playoff drought.
There are certainly options in that regard. The aforementioned quartet of Aho, Lindholm, Teravainen and Rask all have more developing to do and should have their most productive years ahead of them. Williams’ days of putting up 50+ are probably behind him, but he should be good for 40, and his playmaking ability should help others boost their scoring totals. Jordan Staal has an outside chance at 50 as well, particularly if head coach Bill Peters pairs him with better offensive linemates than he’s had so far in Carolina.
4. 17.7- A better power play would help the Canes improve their offense as well. The team’s man-advantage conversion rate of 17.7 ranked 21st in the NHL last year, with only five teams in the league’s bottom half up a man reaching the playoffs. On the flip side, 11 of the teams in the top half qualified.
The Canes certainly have ingredients for a better power play, with the addition of Williams, growth for the young forwards and a group of talented young defensemen in Justin Faulk, Noah Hanifin, Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce manning the points. Carolina needs those pieces to click to play more than 82 games this year.
5. 87- Perhaps an obvious one, but the goal of improving the aforementioned numbers is to win more games, earn more points in the standings and thus return to the postseason. The Canes finished eight points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final wild card spot last season, Toronto had 95 points, Carolina 87. That means the team, in theory, needs to win four more games to get back to the playoffs this year. One extra win per month will more than get the job done.
If the Canes raise each of the preceding numbers, this final, and most important number, should rise, and the Stanley Cup playoffs could return to Raleigh for the first time since Barack Obama’s first term as President of the United States.
