Unlike last season, the Canes are entering April without an ‘x’ or some other notation next to their logo in the standings to signify that they are officially out of the playoffs. It takes only 4 points earned by the Flyers or 4 points lost by the Hurricanes to officially eliminate the Hurricanes, so it is obviously a near impossibility. But the key point is that the Hurricanes made it this far and sit at 84 points with 4 games to go. That is a HUGE improvement from 71 points last season. The team’s 6-2-6 mark in March after the trade deadline and mostly without Justin Faulk who just rejoined the team recently is also incredibly impressive.
And with the rising being led primarily by young players who should only get better, the future is as bright as it has ever been for the Carolina Hurricanes.
The ongoing effort to evaluate young players for 2016-17 and beyond continues to be the focus of my ‘what I’m watching’ points for today’s game:
1) Patrick Brown
After 3 decent but quiet games, Patrick Brown burst onto the score sheet with a goal and an assist in the Canes 4-3 win over the Rangers on Thursday night. He earned the first star for his effort and is the latest Canes prospect trending up in the 2016-17 roster watch with Chris Terry slowing a bit on the score sheet and Riley Nash and Phil Di Giuseppe still out of the lineup. Can he follow it up on Saturday, finish strong down the stretch and climb above the fray of AHL forwards who have seen NHL action over the past month?
2) Ryan Murphy
He has been up and down since being recalled from Charlotte at the beginning of March. He has actually had more good games than bad, but a couple of the bad games with the ‘blinking lights and loud noises’ variety of bad which is not a good thing for a player trying to win a #6 or #7 D slot where you mostly want sound play that pushes win/loss decisions to the top half of the roster. He enters with 3 points in his last 3 games. In the middle game, he actually filled in at forward and saw only 7:32 of ice time, so I think it is more accurate to say that he has 3 points in his last 2 games on defense.
To make and stick in the NHL, Ryan Murphy MUST be able to convert his skill and skating into offense such that he is at least above the average line offensively and fits as the offensive/puck-moving half of a new age NHL third pairing. Can he continue to generate offense in the last 4 games? Or is he destined to be up and down and therefore risky as a depth defenseman?
NOTE: I have not seen a 12th forward recalled yet, and expectation is that Nash and Di Giuseppe are still out. If that holds, there is a chance that Murphy could be a forward fill in again.
3) A strong finish from the leadership
Justin Faulk is gradually getting his legs back under him after a long layoff due to injury. Here is hoping that he and Jordan Staal can lead the team to a strong finish and hopefully a bit of momentum that carries over to next fall. Jeff Skinner also had a noticeable push after the trade deadline and finished March with a solid 5 goals and 7 assists in 14 games.
4) Chasing numbers
Canes trying to reach milestone type numbers include:
Jeff Skinner needs 1 point for 50 and 3 goals for 30.
Jordan Staal needs 1 goal for 20 and 4 points for 50.
Elias Lindholm needs 3 points for 40.
Justin Faulk needs 1 goal to set a new season record for a Canes defenseman.
Ron Hainsey needs 1 point for 20.
Jaccob Slavin needs 2 points for 20.
The puck drops at about 7:07pm at PNC Arena.
Go Canes!
