If you play with fire, eventually you’ll get burned. The Carolina Hurricanes learned this first hand as they saw their season end Monday evening after a disappointing 6-2 defeat to the New York Rangers.
The game 7 defeat was the first in franchise history for the Hurricanes.
Before Monday, everything had gone according to how this postseason has gone, with Carolina winning game five in Raleigh 3-1 before again failing to close out the series on the road in game six 5-2.
Game 7 was different, as the Rangers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with two power play goals to take control of the game before sending Canes’ fans to the exits early.
Things To Watch For This Offseason
UFA-RFA. Carolina has some interesting choices to make in terms of UFA’s Nino Niederreiter and Vincent Trocheck. RFA Martin Necas took a big step backwards after last season and has probably played his way into a low-end deal. Then there’s TDA…yeah.
Special Teams
The Hurricanes are sitting at home right now because of their special teams. It really boils down to that. Carolina was clearly the better team in 5 on 5 situations, but the highly ranked penalty kill fell apart when it was needed most…and let’s not even get into the man advantage or lack thereof. 7-54 in two series is a good way to lose games and that’s what happened. If Carolina wants to take that next step, RBA needs to bring in a power-play coach ASAP.
Even with the disappointing ending, it was a good season with many accomplishments. A fan base that was just happy with making the playoffs are now frustrated with a second-round loss. I think the organization is going in the right direction.