Tickets are on sale to the public. A group has started the informal skates at Raleigh Center Ice. And the start of training camp is inside of a month.
Hockey is finally near!
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe longingly takes a look forward to the 2017-18 Hurricanes schedule on a couple fronts.
Key points in the Hurricanes 2017-18 schedule
Must capitalize on a friendlier start
The State Fair road trip at the beginning of the season has been a fixture on the Hurricanes’ schedule for a number of years now, but with the World Cup pushing back the start of the 2016-17 season, October of 2016 was a more extreme version. The Hurricanes did not get a couple home games before the road trip as in most seasons, and the trip was longer at six games and almost a full two weeks. When it was over, the Hurricanes had already dug a small hole at 1-3-2.
Fast forward to 2017-18, and the North Carolina State Fair and its companion road trip are still there, but the early-season challenge is significantly less. The Hurricanes play two games at home to start the season, and the road trip is a more modest four games.
Blame it on the road. Call the team slow starters. Pin it on Peters’ preseason preparation. But however you want to slice and dice it, the Hurricanes have entered November already in the minus column under Coach Bill Peters with 0-6-2, 5-6-0 and 2-4-2 October records in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively. The unimpressive 7-16-4 total and 54-point 82-game pace barely beats Colorado’s abysmal 2016-17 total of 48 points.
The Hurricanes need to find some combination of better preseason preparation, a greater sense of urgency a friendlier schedule or whatever else to get out of the gate without digging a hole.
A chance to make hay in November
If the Hurricanes do emerge from October in good shape, the front part of November could set up nicely for an early climb in the standings. Things can change significantly from year to year in the NHL and there are no ‘gimmes’, but based on the 2016-17 standings, the November schedule looks favorable. The Hurricanes play 7 out of 9 games against teams that missed the playoffs for the 2016-17 season and then finish the month with three home games around the US Thanksgiving holiday.
November represents an opportunity to enter December rising instead of seeing the season already on life support. This would be the first time that has occurred during Bill Peters’ tenure.
Biggest road challenge emerges in December
The Hurricanes faithful have a history of doing ‘Canes after Dark’ during a regular slate of Western Conference road games leading up to the end of year holidays. In 2017 between the conclusion of US Thanksgiving weekend and the week of Christmas, the Hurricanes play 10 of 13 games on the road including a 6-game western swing that represents the largest road trip of the season. The Hurricanes have only a couple of single home games in the middle of most of a full month of travel.
If the Hurricanes can chart a new course and NOT enter December already facing a deficit in the standings, the month might just require treading water to push into the new year still in good position. If the Hurricanes again start slow in October and November, December has the potential to deal another early death blow to the season.
“If you want to be the best, you need to beat the best” to start January
A scheduling quirk sees the Hurricanes play the Washington Capitals four out of their first six games to start the new year with a bout against the Pittsburgh Penguins thrown in for good measure. If Washington and Pittsburgh have rounded into mid-season form, the Hurricanes will need to be on top of their game.
The Metropolitan Division figures to be the best in the NHL again in 2017-18 which will present some tough stretches of games for the Hurricanes. If Washington and Pittsburgh return to form, the run at the beginning of January could be the worst of it.
‘It’s now or never’ the All-Star break in February
For teams on the fence, the difference between making and missing the playoffs often comes down to a handful of big streaks. The Columbus Blue Jackets rode a massive winning streak in 2016-17 all the way to the top of the competitive Metropolitan Division. And very often teams take themselves out of the running with one extended rough stretch.
More than anything, hot stretches come from a team finding a rhythm and just playing well and with confidence. In general, I think too much is often made of schedules. Often teams on a hot streak hit the road, suffer injuries, catch no breaks but just have that mojo going and find a way to win anyway. On the flip side and as Hurricanes fans know too well, teams that are struggling have an uncanny ability to lose home games to bottom teams.
But nevertheless, favorable stretches of schedule can help fuel the winning streaks necessary to push above the fray. Coming out of the All-Star break, the Hurricanes play eight in a row and 11 out of 12 at home.
February sets up as the most favorable stretch of schedule simply because of the volume of home games. If the Hurricanes need to make up ground in the second half of the season this might be the time.
A normal version of busy in March
The World Cup-induced schedule with the rescheduled Detroit game to boot pushed March of 2016 to a scheduling extreme that might never be repeated, but March of 2017 does offer a saner version of busy. The Hurricanes play five sets of back-to-back games and have a disjointed run of home and away that sees no more than two games in a row either at home or away.
March is usually a grind in the NHL, and the 2017-18 schedule looks no different.
As easy as 1-2-3 in April
If the Hurricanes enter April with playoff hopes still intact, the 2017-18 schedule closes out with a nicely spaced three-game slate for the first week of March. After playing in Florida on Monday and Philadelphia on Thursday, the Hurricanes finish with Tampa Bay at home on Saturday.
It’s time! Here is hoping that the Hurricanes are still playing hockey that matters in April this year!
Netting it out
If I had to pin the 2017-18 season on just one thing schedule-wise, it would be getting off to a better start. The Hurricanes have made a recent habit of proving the point that it is incredibly difficult to overcome an early deficit even with strong play during the winter.
In terms of thriving, I have November and February’s favorable stretches of schedule circled. In terms of surviving, December is tough with a bunch of travel largely on the West Coast.
What say you Canes fans?
1) What do you see as the most critical stretches of schedule?
2) Will a couple more home games early in October help generate a better start?
3) How much does schedule even matter? In the parity-filled NHL, is it really just a matter of playing well or not playing well regardless of schedule or other situations?
Go Canes!
1) The first 15 games or so–the team needs to embrace (and play like) the role of a playoff team and get 6 or 7 points every five games. An early stretch with only 3 points in 5 games will be hard to overcome and definitely demoralize the fans.
Also, that stretch to start 2018 (3 against Washington, with road games at Pitt, Boston, Tampa then finishing in Calgary before what I presume is the mandatory break. Last year going into and coming out of the break was a disaster (hat tip to tj).
2) Can’t hurt.
3) Again, I think the opponents are not as important as the “stretches.” Unfortunately, Arizona and Colorado helped sink chances last season. I like that Peters looks at each 5 games as a mini-season.
1. A winning October record, or it’s back to the usual existentialist Caniac angst, as all the hard work of the off season goes down the drain.
2. We have a better home record ,so it’s a easier 4 points to pick up.
3. Put together some win streaks, have a winning record, and go at least .500 on the road for the season.
The most critical stretch is the first 10 games. 5 are home, 5 are on the road. Of the home games, 4 are against playoff teams (from last season) and the other is against Tampa Bay: this is not an easy set of home games. While we don’t have a 6-game/2-week road-trip, 3 of the 5 road games are against playoff teams.
Having said that, most teams have a tough schedule because it’s a competitive league, so it generally evens out.
We should know what kind of team we have by November 1. Kind of sobering to think about it this way. A fast start, or at least a non-slow start is going to mean everything. With a decent start in October carrying into a favorable stretch in November, we can establish ourselves firmly in playoff position by Thanksgiving.
Actually, my guess is the pre-season practices and games may be the most important part of the whole year… !
This team is used to losing…they know that there is much to be optimistic about, but until winning happens…that isn’t TOTALLY EXPECTED!
After a little confidence is developed, and they know that the team WILL BE ABLE TO OUTPLAY THE OPPOSITION…the sky’s the limit!
What’s going to shake out pretty quickly, with the tough opponents in the first ten games, or so, is what we have with Scott Darling as a starter. We open at home with the Wild on a Saturday, then Columbus on Tuesday, then hit the tough road stretch with the Jets, the Oilers, Flames and Stars. Knowing Peters, if Darling is standing tall, I could see him starting 5 of those 6 games. Let’s all hope that’s the case… I haven’t anticipated the start of a Hurricane’s season this much for as long as I can remember. And I’ve been a fan since 2001. It can’t come soon enough!
1. I think the month of October, which offers a 50-50 split home and away games will give us a good look at what we have.
But I think the critical period is 11/27 to 12/22 – over almost 4 weeks we have only 2 home games. Does the team keep it’s focus? Or do we slip.
February will be our time to punch it, with all of those home games that month.
2. I think the October slump is overstated – I think you will find a typical stretch of the season with more away games is going to lead to most teams having iffy results. Plus the numbers for the past 3 seasons are badly skewed by the “0 for October” of 2014-15.
3. The season rolls in mini-trends. The key this season will be avoiding the losing streaks we suffered last week.
I didn’t see the Canes losing a single game last week. Admittedly, I didn’t see them winning a game either.
I agree, early confidence is key to the season, as well as avoiding the implotions of last year.
We are placing a lot of expectations on players to improve this season, and not all of them will come true (hopefully, at the same time, good things will happen we didn’t see coming).
I am still watching the situation with regards to adding one more top 9 talent to the team.
There are 4 interesting RFAs that have yet to be signed, 2 of them would be a good addition.
Alex Weinberg from Columbus (the kid played #1 center when rJ went down). The kid is a true center with a lot of upside. I can’t imagine Columbus not wrapping up that deal, but that kid would be a nice playmaking center addition for the canes.
Andre Athanesiu (ok, too lazy to look up the spelling) out in Detroit. That kid can score and he’s got elite talent. Admittedly the Redwings think 3 mill for 3 years is too high a price and want to avoid raising expectations for their RFAs next year. This could be an interesting situation for the Canes. We have some Detroit connections and might be able to pry him loose.
The other two, less interesting pieces:
Anthony Declare out in Az sounded like an interesting addition last year, but the canes have a lot of talent and the kid had a terrible season, but many people blame that on bad decissions by the Az coach, who was fired. Still, scoring touch for a bargain basement price if Az does not sign him.
Sam Benet out in Cal is another player that was a #4 pick in 2014 but the Flames are not eager to sign him.
I know this is off topic, and I am primarily amusing myself with something until the season starts in Traverse City.