30 teams in 30 days: Carolina Hurricanes
Finished: 6th in eastern conference
Playoffs: Lost in conference finals to Pittsburgh
Leading scorers: Ray Whitney 77, Eric Staal 75, Tuomo Ruutu 54, Rod Brind’amour 51
Who did they add?: Tom Kostopoulos, Andrew Alberts
Who did they lose?: No key losses.
Overview: After their Stanley Cup win in the 05-06 season, the Canes rewarded themselves by missing the playoffs two seasons straight. Last season, they ended the trend. After they fired Peter Laviollette partway through the season, Paul Maurice took over and led the Canes on a second half surge that saw them finish 6th in the eastern conference and make it all the way to conference finals, needing 7 games to beat the Devils and 7 for the Bruins, before falling in 7 to the eventual cup champs Pittsburgh Penguins. The Hurricanes are a prime example of the notion that size doesn’t equal success. Eric Staal, Ray Whitney, Sergei Samsonov and Erik Cole lead a small, skilled group of forwards that are able to put up points while also adding an element of grit. Their blue line is a solid corps, with Joe Corvo and Joni Pitkanen logging the big minutes, followed by Anton Babchuk, Dennis Seidenberg, Tim Gleason and Niclas Wallin. This crew is solid right down to the teeth, able to support the offense by putting up points, while also shutting down the opposition. Minding the cage is Cam Ward, one of the best young goalies in the league and backing him up is Michael Leighton. This team will be very hard to score against because the bulk of their forwards are good two-way players, add in their D and goaltending and they won’t be fishing many pucks out of their net this year. It’s scoring, however, that might be a bit of a problem for the Canes. Carolina should make the playoffs this season, if all the pieces once again fall into place, and they have stellar productions from all aspects of the lineup.
Winners or losers?: It’s difficult to call because they are basically the same team as last year, but in my opinion the Canes are losers this offseason. They need some more scoring talent up front to help them improve on their 239 goals scored last year, which was second lowest of all the playoff teams. Carolina should be making a big push for Alex Tanguay, or trying to acquire some goals through trade.
