After what seemed like a well-timed break, the Carolina Hurricanes are back on the ice at PNC Arena on Friday against the Vegas Golden Knights. The game is #51 out of 82 games, so the season has reached the front part of the stretch run.

Today’s Daily Cup of Joe takes a quick look at where the Hurricanes are right now and also what lies ahead schedule-wise.

 

Where the Hurricanes are right now

After a strong finish at home before the All-Star break, the Canes are in a growing bunch of teams sitting right at the playoff cut line. Adjusted for games played, the Eastern Conference has six teams battling third place in the two divisions and also the two wild card slots. The gap between those six teams (again adjusted for games played) is a mere four points. So simple math says that four out of six of these teams will make the playoffs, and two will fall into a mid-round draft slot after missing the playoffs.

The way I view it is that the Canes have avoided becoming one of the six teams in the Eastern Conference who are really long shots to win a playoff spot at this point. At the same time, the Hurricanes are not among the four teams who have built at least a small gap above the pack right at the playoff cut line.

 

The road ahead

The Hurricanes emerge from the break with two straight home games. But after that, the Hurricanes will finish the season with 17 out of 30 games on the road. Since the Christmas break, the Hurricanes are 7-2-1 on home ice, but 0-3-0 on the road. For the season, the Hurricanes are a treading water-ish 12-10-2 away from home. So that schedule split could prove to be significant.

The first test begins next week with a meandering four-game road trip that starts and ends in the Central Time Zone with two games on the West Coast in the middle. Once the West Coast trip ends, the Hurricanes will also play 12 of their last 26 games against Metropolitan Division foes. It is no secret to anyone who has tracked the 2019-20 Hurricanes that these in-division games have been a struggle so far.

 

What does it take?

At this time last season, the team was still trying to make up for past wrongs and climb up the standings. To make the playoffs for the 2019-20 season, the Canes need only finish top four out of six the rest of the way in a group that includes the Islanders, Blue Jackets, Flyers, Maple Leafs and Panthers (as long as all 3 Metro teams do finish ahead). Basically, the long race at the beginning of the season has been compressed in terms of games remaining and number of teams in the hunt.

At a style and quality of play level, I think the key is finding a rhythm like this time last year such that the team consistently plays well enough to stay in games and gets goaltending that gives them a chance every night. Consistency in those two areas make it possible to reel off winning streaks and avoid losing runs.

Player-wise, goaltending is always critical down the stretch. I think Sebastian Aho finding a higher gear could go a long way toward keeping scoring up. And with the injury to Dougie Hamilton, I think the play of the other two defenseman past anchors Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce are also critical.

 

What say you Canes fans?

 

1) How happy are you with the Canes starting point for the beginning of the stretch run?

 

2) What do you see as keys in terms of the team in general and also individual players?

 

3) How does it end? Is this team set to return to the playoffs?

Go Canes!

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