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It was a tough start to the year for the Carolina Hurricanes, who really didn’t look much like themselves through the first bit of the season.
Despite being 3-1-0 through their first four games of the year, issues were visible, and then a three-game losing streak followed to put the Hurricanes below .500.
However, Carolina has managed to rebound, with three straight wins over the Seattle Kraken, San Jose Sharks, and Philadelphia Flyers respectively. To be fair, the Hurricanes haven’t faced an overly high quality of competition during their win streak, but it’s the way they’re winning that’s different. We’re not seeing high-scoring games where Carolina is just swapping chances, and they’ve managed to do a better job shutting down opponents’ offense.
After allowing an average of five goals per game through their first six games of the year, the Hurricanes have allowed just four goals total over their three-game win streak, outshooting their opponents by a 118-74 margin.
The turnaround in performance can maybe even go back as far as their most recent loss, which came against the Tampa Bay Lightning. While the Hurricanes were shut out in the loss, they were the better team through a lot of the game, but couldn’t capitalize on chances and lost the goaltending battle.
Another huge factor over the win streak is that they’ve managed to stabilize their penalty kill after a disaster start to the year, having not allowed a power play goal through their last three games. The penalty kill was a massive part of their win over the Philadelphia Flyers last night in particular, going 5-for-5 on kills.
At the end of the day though, sometimes you also just need goaltending, and they’ve gotten it recently. Through much of the first six or seven games of the year, the Hurricanes just couldn’t get a save, no matter who was in net. But it looks like things are turning around in that department as well, with Frederik Andersen now back in action and having put together two really strong starts since returning.
Following the series of wins, I think there’s a lot more optimism for the Hurricanes getting back to the style of play we’ve come to expect. Also, getting a bit lost in the mix of their slow start has been just how much offense the Hurricanes have been getting as a result of members of their forward group stepping up. Coming into the year, the team’s ability to actual capitalize on chances was a concern, but the Hurricanes have had almost no scoring issues.
Jesper Kotkaniemi has solidified himself as a legitimate second-line center, while Teuvo Teravainen has bounced back in a huge way for eight goals already, and both Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis have four goals and nine points. Stefan Noesen has been great, Michael Bunting has been a good fit, Sebastian Aho is performing as expected, and now with Andrei Svechnikov back in action, the Hurricanes are in a good spot up front.
So while there may have been a bit of a rough patch, and it’s still important that the team is able to carry this momentum going forward (and against better competition as well), it seems like the Hurricanes have sorted things out after a rocky start.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
- 3 questions for the Hurricanes’ lineup heading into the season
- Hurricanes set season-opening roster
- Hurricanes trade Caleb Jones to Avalanche
- Could this be the Carolina Hurricanes’ year?
- Hurricanes open season with home win over Senators
- Hurricanes split weekend back-to-back with win over Kings, loss to Ducks
- Hurricanes explode with four-goal third period in win over Sharks
- Hurricanes' early-season troubles continue with 7-4 loss to Kraken
- Penalty kill and goaltending struggles among biggest issues for Hurricanes 
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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