Carolina Hurricanes
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CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • March 20, 2021 What do the Hurricanes want — or need — as the NHL trade deadline approaches? By Chip Alexander “That’s a question that’s probably for further up the chain than me, but I think we know he’s an awesome person,” The NHL trade winds are stirring as the April 12 trade Brind’Amour said of Staal, his former teammate who deadline approaches, but head coach Rod Brind’Amour succeeded him as captain. offered up an opinion this week: “I like our team right now. I don’t know why we would be looking at too much.” Injuries have been tough on the Canes this season, with Mrazek missing a chunk of time due to thumb surgery, and Canes General Manager Don Waddell said Wednesday that prime setup man Teuvo Teravainen. he’s always actively looking for ways to improve the team but that salary-cap considerations must be considered, with the Mrazek, who shut out the Wings 3-0 in the season opener, NHL cap to remain flat next year. played four games before dislocating a thumb and needing surgery. Teravainen has had issues with COVID-19 and then “We have a little cap space but not a lot of cap space,” a concussion, missing 15 games. Waddell said. More recently., center Vincent Trocheck has been sidelined Waddell said once goaltender Petr Mrazek is healthy and with an upper-body injury. Best guess: sore ribs after taking playing, the Canes would carry all three goalies — James a cross-check March 9 against Nashville. He has been out Reimer and Alex Nedeljkovic are the other two — on the the past three games and Waddell said his status is “week to roster, which also will eat some cap space. week.” One name that popped up recently in connection with If the injuries continue — forward Warren Foegele left Carolina was former Canes captain Eric Staal, now with the Tuesday’s game with an upper-body issue — that could Buffalo Sabres. Jordan and Eric Staal once envisioned change the trade equation and there could be moves. leading the Canes back into Stanley Cup contention after Jordan Staal was traded to Carolina from Pittsburgh in June The Canes could look to add a veteran forward at the right 2012. price. The goaltending situation might have to be addressed. That didn’t happen. But the Canes are 20-7-1, and have 41 points midway through the season. If they can match that in the second half, Brind’Amour was asked about an Eric Staal return in and start having more fans allowed in PNC Arena, and make roundabout fashion on a Zoom media call this week. Staal’s the playoffs again ... who knows what comes next? name was not mentioned, and the NHL frowns on comments made about players under contract to other teams, but Brind’Amour handled it well enough. CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • March 20, 2021 NHL power rankings: No surprises at top or bottom of The Athletic’s first weekly edition By Sean Gentille and Dom Luszczyszyn Dom: They saw they could win the Cup without Stamkos and just decided they don’t need Kucherov to even make the As of today, The Athletic will have weekly NHL power playoffs either. And they were right. rankings. Yes, it’s happening. Calm down. 2. Colorado Avalanche Before we get into Installment 1 — and it’ll be the two of us tag-teaming this — we should establish a few things. Record:17-8-2, 36 points Dom rank: 2 • The methodology here is as simple as it gets. We each Sean rank: 3 rank the teams, from 1-31, then take the average, and voila. (Dom made a dedicated spreadsheet for this because of The Avalanche have allowed fewer than 30 shots in 19 course he did.) It’s not going to be based solely on past straight games and outshot opponents in 18 of those 19 performance, current hot streaks or future potential. (including Thursday night, when they outshot the Wild 55- Numbers will figure into it prominently, but if you want stat- 20). This has come with a largely depleted lineup; star model stuff, we’ve got you covered elsewhere. This is defender Cale Makar missed 12 of those games. He’s back something different. now, and the Avalanche have a chance to give the Lightning a run for their money. They lead the league in expected • From there, we’ll choose 10 or so teams to go back-and- goals percentage. forth on; that might be because we disagree on the placement. It might be because we each have something 3. Carolina Hurricanes meaningful to say. It might be because we each want to make jokes about the teams, or each other. We’ll see. Record: 20-7-1, 41 points Dom rank: 4 • We want this to be fun, and we’re not locked into a format Sean rank: 2 beyond going from No. 1 to No. 31. Some rankings might have themes. Some of those themes might be unexpected. If Sean: In this house, we respect the Southeast Division. RIP. you have ideas — or just suggestions on how to make this a The Hurricanes are a lot easier to understand if you accept destination for you, each Friday — we’d love to hear them. that their goaltending is pretty good. It’s been a multi-season You’re why we’re doing this in the first place. process for me, for whatever reason, but those guys — James Reimer, Alex Nedeljkovic, a soon-to-be-healthy Petr And with that, off we go. (All stats are through Wednesday’s Mrazek — have been solid as hell. It’s the sort of thing that games unless otherwise noted) makes an interesting team into a really, really good one. 1. Tampa Bay Lightning Dom: In all situations, the Hurricanes have allowed the seventh-fewest goals against per 60 and 0.31 fewer than Record: 20-6-2, 41 points expected. That may seem like a shock, but it’s actually the Dom rank: 1 third year in a row that the team has allowed fewer goals Sean rank: 1 than expected. Carolina’s goaltending is super underrated Dom: It feels insanely unfair that this team, literally the best and looks to be a legitimate strength this season. The team in the league without question according to these Hurricanes are an elite team without a doubt, but the next rankings, will get Nikita Kucherov back for the playoffs. team has been a bit stronger at five-on-five. Sean: They are, literally, the best team in the league. We 4. Toronto Maple Leafs said so in the rankings and everything. Done deal. Far as Record: 19-9-2, 40 points Kucherov is concerned, I can’t help but respect the hustle. Dom rank: 3 Didn’t see it coming, either; I made fun of the conspiracy Sean rank: 5 theorists on Twitter and everything. The bigger question, at this point, is what they’re bad at … because I’m not seeing Dom: The Leafs have struggled to get wins over the last much. (The biggest question is, if they pull off the Kucherov couple weeks after starting the year red hot, but the process gambit, whether it’s the most impressive bit of sleazeball is still very strong. Toronto is 1-5-0 in its last six, but in that gamesmanship in recent history. We’re talking about a stretch of time have earned 55 percent of the expected goals league that lost its mind over back-diving contracts, to the at five-on-five. The Leafs were due for some bad luck after point that they levied back-breaking penalties against teams having some great fortune early on. who pulled that lever when it was legal. This is sleazier by an exponential degree, and it’s on track to work. Amazing. Sean: I saw someone refer to them as “a juggernaut” right Wonderful. I love it with utmost sincerity.) before they lost all those games. Pretty funny. You catch that? Dom: Whoever said that is a complete clown. They should consider watching the games. CAROLINA HURRICANES NEWS CLIPPINGS • March 20, 2021 Sean: The truest test of the Leafs 5v5 machine might be Alex magical. With the age of the core group, this feels like the Galchenyuk. Inside each hockey writer is two wolves: One team’s best chance to make a run. Time to go all-in. who believes that Galchenyuk can still succeed in the right situation, and one who watched Galchenyuk play in 9. Florida Panthers Pittsburgh. Record: 19-5-4, 42 points 5. Vegas Golden Knights Dom rank: 11 Sean rank: 7 Record: 20-6-1, 41 points Dom rank: 5 Dom: The Panthers are a top-five expected goals team this Sean rank: 4 season and have an exceptional record, but have been pretty fortunate in terms of schedule strength and goal If we were going solely off points percentage, Vegas would sequencing. Their plus-18 goal differential ranks eighth in the be holding down the top spot. Yes, that means they’re ahead league. I also have a hard time putting them any higher as of the Avs. If we were going solely off expected goals, they’d long as Sergei Bobrovsky remains the starter. He’s in the be 12th. Might as well split the difference, and acknowledge bottom five for goals saved above expected this season after the role Marc-Andre Fleury has played in getting them here. finishing sixth last in 2019-20.