Hurricanes make history with second straight sweep to open playoffs

Thanks to Jackson Blake's overtime goal on Saturday evening, the Carolina Hurricanes advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals with a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. It not only gave the Hurricanes their second consecutive sweep to open the playoffs, it also helped them make some history.

Since the NHL switched to its current playoff format of four best-of-seven series in the late 1980s, no team had ever opened a postseason by sweeping two best-of-seven series.

The Hurricanes are now the first to do it.

They are also the first team to win eight consecutive games to open a postseason since the 1984-85 Edmonton Oilers. Edmonton opened that postseason with nine consecutive wins, but the first-round that season was a best-of-five series before switching to a best-of-seven in the second-round.

Prior to sweeping the Flyers, Carolina swept the Ottawa Senators in the first round.

Eastern Conference Final familiar territory for Hurricanes

The Hurricanes are now in the Eastern Conference Final for the second year in a row and the fourth time in the past seven years.

They are still looking for their first Stanley Cup Final appearance during that run. They figure to be favorites against either the Buffalo Sabres or Montreal Canadiens in the next round, and this might finally be the year things have fallen into place for them. 

There have been two big issues Carolina has had in previous playoff runs that have held them back.

The first is that there was always just one team that always seemed to be a tier above them that would get in their way in the Conference Final series. Last year it was the Florida Panthers. This year, however, they have clearly been the best team in the Eastern Conference all season. 

The second is that they have not always had enough high-end finishers and elite talents that can turn their territorial dominance into goals. Their style of play always works against the lower-tier playoff teams, but runs out of steam against the top-tier playoff teams.

That also looks different this season thanks in part to the emergence of Logan Stankoven (seven goals in eight games) and the arrival of Nikolaj Ehlers in free agency. 

So far, all of it has produced a perfect start to the playoffs.