Suddenly ten games into the 2017-18 season, today’s Daily Cup of Joe ranks the top areas for improvement based on what we have seen thus far for the Carolina Hurricanes 2017-18 season.

In relatively short bullet form, here are the top areas for improvement:

 

1) The second pairing on defense

As much as Hurricanes want to talk about how great the young blue line is, the reality of the situation is that Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce have been legitimate top pairing defensemen, but the second pairing continues to be suspect at best. Fleury’s short audition in top 4 in Sunday’s game did not go well at all. He was not on the ice for a goal against, but he had multiple miscues.

2) The ability to create offense on the grinding nights when things do not come easy

One could argue that Sunday was an exception, but in general the 2017-18 Carolina Hurricanes have either clicked offensively or struggled to mount any attack. I wrote a longer version of this last week, but thus far the Hurricanes have preyed on teams who have been happy to open the game up. But when a game is tough for the Hurricanes, it tends to end badly. The team has generally struggled to either dictate style of play when a game starts slowly or to grind the couple ugly goals needed to get going.

 

3) Scott Darling’s play

To be clear, he is not the problem if there is one with the Hurricanes. But at the same time, he has mostly been ‘meh’ quality. Darling must push upward for the Hurricanes to climb in the standings.

 

4) The power play

Despite scoring on a Jeff Skinner play from the crease on Sunday, the power play really sputtered on Tuesday. I also think that game could potentially become a low point for the 2017-18 season in terms of power play time. The Hurricanes are suddenly having trouble even entering the offensive zone with control of the puck.

 

What say you Caniacs?

 

1) Do you agree with the top four areas that offer room for improvement? 

 

2) What about the order? Would you rank these four items in this order?

 

Go Canes!

 

 

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