Hurricanes Displaying the Lessons Learned in Panthers-Inflicted Wounds

We saw flashes in the regular season that the Hurricanes could hang with the Panthers. In January, the Hurricanes beat them 9-1, and they should have held on to the 3-goal lead they had in Florida in December. There is no doubt the Hurricanes were trending in the right direction to handle the Panthers’ onslaught, and they then traded for an enforcer at the deadline, Nicolas Deslauriers, to ensure they had someone to fight back, which makes the next part awkward.

The Hurricanes are here, but the injury-ravaged Panthers are not. This Hurricanes team, which was built with the intention of besting their former Southeastern Division rivals, will not play the Panthers. So, they’re looking around for the team of monsters they are supposed to face in the Eastern Conference Final, and they’re not in the frame. No team remaining has ever bested the Hurricanes in a playoff series, which means there are no demons hanging overhead.

Spillover for Carolina

This is important because the Hurricanes have been so determined to shore up their playstyle that they’ve created one of the most dominant postseason teams we’ve seen in the salary cap era. I said it earlier, but it’s worth repeating; through seven games, the Hurricanes have allowed just eight goals. It gets nuts if we break it down further. The Hurricanes have allowed two power-play goals and an extra attacker goal on a delayed call. That means the Hurricanes have allowed five 5-on-5 goals in seven games.

Carolina has spent so long building a team that is not just deep enough to compete with the likes of the Panthers but also mentally prepared for the extracurricular activities the Panthers love to utilize, so they’ve become seemingly impervious to them. There was an illusion that you could bully Carolina physically; that was always a misnomer. This postseason, they’ve played two teams that want to drag you into the mud, and they stand a game away from sweeping them both.

Hurricanes Still Have Stuff to Prove

The Hurricanes are not done with their job yet. In fact, they will hope that a swift round two victory is just halfway to the prize they seek at the end of this rugged path. This is a team that has won only one Conference Final game since winning the Cup in 2006. That is a hurdle they have to overcome, but they look vastly improved from the team we saw get knocked out by the Panthers last season.

Without the war against the Panthers coming, the Hurricanes will have to play actual hockey to get through to the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in franchise history. They are the best hockey team left in the Eastern Conference, so if that is the case, they will be the favorites to emerge from the wasteland and break the glass ceiling of the conference final. If they do, they’ll play four games for the most iconic trophy in sports.

That, however, is a long way off. The Hurricanes will seek to make history tonight when they play Game 4, trying to become the first team ever to sweep the first two series in best-of-7s. Can they do it? Absolutely. No team in the NHL has a better chance than the Hurricanes do. The Hurricanes will not be looking ahead; they’ll take each game as it comes, as they have done for a decade under this head coach. They can put the demons of the past to rest this postseason. Whether they do or not, we’ll have to wait to find out.