-Gabriel Dorris-

THE GROUP

The Carolina Hurricanes are entering this season as the number one betting favorites and one of the big talking head favorites to take home the Stanley Cup, and this is for good reason. The team is incredibly deep at defense, and it no doubt has the best top 7 defense group in the league, with Dmitry Orlov, a player fully capable of first pairing minutes and opponents, on the third pairing and Jalen Chatfield at #7. The Canes offense is also looking solid, even with Svechnikov projected to miss the first month or so of the season. Based on the last preseason game, the lines for game one should look something like

Bunting-Aho-Jarvis

Necas-KK-Teravainen

Fast-Staal-Martinook

Noesen-Drury

Slavin-Burns

Pesce-Skjei

Orlov-DeAngelo

Chatfield

Andersen

Although going 11-7 is unusual, it makes sense for the team until Svechnikov returns to the roster. You want to play your 18 best players on any given night, and for the Canes that just happens to include 7 defensemen right now. Chatfield and DeAngelo are both easily better players than Lemiuex. The Canes have a young, standout top 6 forward group, and every member of it, along with Svechnikov when he gets back, is fully capable of putting up at least 60 points. The third line consists of forwards who don’t usually score, but are still very strong players that grind the opponents down and don’t let the puck in the net. Noesen and Drury, starting on the 4th line, may end up putting up some points, especially with Noesen’s incredible skill in front of the net that led him to a career high 13 goals and 23 apples last year, with 7 and 8 of those respectively coming on the power play.

THE QUESTIONS

The Hurricanes should easily make the playoffs, and will be top contenders for both the metropolitan division title and the President’s trophy. What matters for the Canes is not the first 82 games as much as the 4-28 that come after. This team has come up short in the playoffs several years running now, but with more grit and the number one defense in the league, there is reason to believe that could change. The main things the Canes need to go far this season are more luck and better offense. Last year, injuries to Andrei Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty cost the team big time in the ECFs, where they lost 2 30 goal scorers that definitely could’ve helped them at least make the series closer. This plays into the offense struggles, which were , once again, what ended up eliminating Carolina. The Canes had the second least goals scored against per game, but were only 15th in goals for. An inconsistent power play was a huge reason for this, but the additions of Tony DeAngelo and Michael Bunting to the unit hope to help with that.

THE PREDICTION

I’m going to bet that this is finally the Canes year and they go all the way for a second cup. In the east, the only seemingly major threat right now is the New Jersey Devils. But if the Canes can expose their weak, virtually unchanged goaltending once again, then they can win that potential series. In the cup finals, if the Canes do get there, any range of teams including but not limited to Vegas, Edmonton, and the Avalanche could pose a serious threat, but I still believe that the Canes have the best all around roster in the NHL this year. 

As for tonight’s game against Ottawa, I see a close game, but I think Ottawa, hungry for a playoff spot, manages to fight until the end and take it to overtime, where it’s the Canes who manage to pull through. 3-2 final score.