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A Tale Of Two Hockey Teams

Stumpy

By Stumpy,
in Carolina Hurricanes

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Stumpy Grand Master

Stumpy

Posted
Posted

Which one are we...?

ARE THE HURRICANES A BETTER STANLEY CUP CONTENDER THAN THE BRUINS?

Adam Proteau makes the case for the Carolina Hurricanes as a stronger Stanley Cup contender than the dominant Boston Bruins.

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It’s time for our yearly 'Don’t buy Carolina Hurricanes stock' column

The Hurricanes are on fire, as they always are this time of year, and it’ll get them the same handful of themselves it always does

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Where We Stand

Proteau:

Quote

The Hurricanes currently have the league’s second-best record (34-9-8), but there are very good reasons to believe they’re the team with the best chance of knocking off Boston in the post-season.

Fels:

Quote

And here they go again. Since the turn of the year, they’re 11-4-2. They didn’t lose in regulation in all of December. They’ve got within touching distance of the Boston Bruins for top seed overall, and the Bruins are going “Rampage!” over the rest of the league. We’ve seen this all before, and it’s certainly alluring if you didn’t know better. It’s a fugin siren song.

Who We Were

Proteau:

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We can, of course, point to the 2022 playoffs, in which Carolina eliminated the Bruins in an extremely competitive, seven-game first-round series. Boston is a better team than they were last year, but you can say the same thing about the Hurricanes. 

Fels:

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That’s the Canes. Last season, they went 17-5-3 between Dec. 1 and this point in the calendar. Credit needs to go to Brind’amour, who keeps his charges rolling through the dregs of the season. But it doesn’t make the Canes special at the time when they need to be.

The Future That Awaits...

Proteau:

Quote

Waddell has the assets to outbid other teams at the deadline – the Hurricanes have all three of their first-round draft picks in the next three years, and their prospect pool, while not the very best in the game, still has sufficient depth to tap into in a trade or two. They don’t need to deal away NHL-level talent to make moves fit under the cap. They can simply add to the group they have right now.

Fels:

Quote

The Canes make it easy for themselves to get goalie’d in the playoffs, because so many shots come from the point. And good goalies all the way tuned in during the playoffs suck those up and don’t leave the rebounds the Canes thrive on. Last year, when they ate it to the Rangers without winning a road game in either the first or second round, Igor Shesterkin had a .949 save percentage over the seven games. They scored 13 goals in total. The previous year, when the Lightning kicked their ass pillar to post, Andrei Vasilevskiy had a .956 save percentage over five games. In 2019, Tuukka Rask managed the same number in a four-game sweep.

So, which team are we?

The one that has methodically built themselves into one of the best in the league, while maintaining a deep prospect pool to allow the types of moves that can push a team over the top?

Or, the try hards who blow their load in the regular season when the wins don't matter quite as much?

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