Last week I said the following on Twitter:
1/2 #Canes have RAPIDLY transitioned from bad to rebuilding to promising to trendy pick to win. September will be FILLED with similar. https://t.co/asVd1mlHYA
— Canes and Coffee (@CanesandCoffee) August 3, 2017
2/2 Double-edged sword is that w/optimism, expectations are ratcheting up significantly for fan base that has endured long run of setbacks.
— Canes and Coffee (@CanesandCoffee) August 3, 2017
Early positives have already started to trickle in from the outside NHL hockey world, and by early October I think the Hurricanes are destined to become 2017-18’s trendy pick for a surprise playoff team, a dark horse or whatever other term writers want to tag to an up-and-comer. And the pundits are right. With the NHL team improving and the prospect pool incredibly deep with players with top half of the roster potential, the trajectory is unmistakably upward right now. And I fully believe that the path to the playoffs in front of the Canes faithful is much shorter than the eight years of misses behind us.
All of these things are good, and in the long run the optimism will be rewarded.
But short-term, the surging optimism is a double-edged sword. With boundless optimism comes the risk of painful disappointment.
Even if the Hurricanes do improve again in 2017-18 as expected, the difficult Metropolitan Division probably still makes a playoff berth a 50/50 possibility. I took an early look at the Metropolitan Division on July 20. I will not reshash all of the details, but in short I see even lesser Penguins and Capitals teams as at least playoff-worthy and put only the Devils out of the playoff hunt. If you take that at face value, it means the Hurricanes have a two or maybe three out of five chance of clawing up into the playoffs. That is obviously possibly but not a sure thing by any means.
The challenge for Hurricanes fans is to have the courage to be optimistic for 2017-18 but also to temper it with a realization that anything can happen in the NHL and that the 2017-18 season is not the be all and end all.
If you have not stopped by yet, the Thursday Coffee Shop has a similar theme asking if the optimism is overdone, underdone or just right, what is a break even result for 2017-18 and more.
Go Canes!
We left a lot of points on the table due to our goal tending issues last season. If we had even average goal tending we would have made the playoffs. Its all about Darling, can he make a successful jump to a #1 goalie. We have so many young players on the rise I think its reasonable to think wildcard team.
Hate to resurrect a dead horse. But the organization did more than acquire Darling. It replaced Marcoux with Bales. That should be worth a few points. Somehow Marcoux made Khoudobin, Lack, and Ward less effective. Bales did the opposite in Pittsburgh. If he can do that in Raleigh, both Darling and Ward will add to the success of the Canes.
I will take the “over” on the optimism. I thought we were a playoff team last season and except for that run of 6 weeks we would have been.
On that basis I think we will do very well this season and may very well crack the top 3 in the Metro – except for those 6 weeks we played very well (even to better) in games with those teams.
I posted this in the other in the coffeeshop area, but I’ll add my thoughts here too:
I agree on needing another offensive weapon. I think right now we have a decent chance of making the playoffs, but if we want to make it more likely to happen I think we should sign another scoring forward and add a solid top-4 capable defenseman. I think Vanek would be a great addition if we could sign him or Jagr if we can’t get Vanek. We need a top-4 capable defenseman in case Hanifin isn’t ready for everyday top-4 duty or someone gets injured. Same goes for Vanek/Jagr as far as putting us well into the playoff competition and being a safeguard against injuries/regression.
If we really want to be in the playoffs and not just hoping for the playoffs we need these backup plans in case of injuries, regression, or guys like Hanifin/Ryan/Darling aren’t good enough for their expected roles this year. Having said that I don’t think these moves are necessary to make the playoffs, but they would go a long way to making it more of a sure thing. Also, I’m not one of the people that feels like we have to make the playoffs this year or else the world ends. I do think that year is probably next year (18-19). We should definitely be in the playoffs by then barring significant injuries/regression. Although there might even be challenges that year if we have several prospects making their NHL debuts. Even though I think they should be ready by then, you just never know how they will adjust to the NHL.