RALEIGH, N.C. — Reports of the Hurricanes’ death were seemingly exaggerated.
No one could be blamed for thinking Carolina might take a step back this year, given its offseason losses. But few could also have predicted the Hurricanes’ 7-2-0 October record.
“I never fall for that stuff,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of the preseason chatter that his team was poised to take a step back this year. “The majority of people that make these predictions are never right. So it’s about us focusing on our stuff daily and trying to get better. And all that stuff takes care of itself.”
Since an opening-night home loss to Jake Guentzel — one of the players who left Raleigh this summer — and the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Hurricanes have won seven of eight.
Carolina was one of three teams with just nine games played through Friday’s games, and the standings show the team, with 14 points, in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division. Points percentage, however, is a better reflection of where the teams stand — and it certainly speaks to how well the Hurricanes have started the 2024-25 campaign.
With wins in seven of nine, the Hurricanes have a .778 winning percentage, tied with the surprising Capitals — who Carolina will host Sunday — for the best in the Eastern Conference. And they’ve done it with twice as many road games (six) as home games (three).
So how did Brind’Amour and his team exceed expectations in the first month? Let’s take a look.
Necas starts hot
Martin Necas looked like he was on his way out of Raleigh this offseason, but the two sides came together on a new contract. The $64,000 question — well, the $6.5 million cap hit question — was how Necas would respond to the summer of uncertainty.
Truthfully, I was concerned after two games. Necas didn’t have a shot on goal, and the revamped power play — which included Necas — was 0-for-5.
I guess I didn’t need to worry.
Necas responded with a goal and an assist — both on the power play — in the first game of Carolina’s six-game state fair road trip and hasn’t slowed down since. He has points in seven of nine games this season, totaling five goals and 15 points.
Power(ful) play
Which brings us to a big reason for Necas’ success.
The Hurricanes finished second in the league on the power play last season, but four contributors left via free agency. The reshuffled units — with Necas as a featured player — are converting at a 29 percent clip, fifth best in the league.
Shayne Gostisbehere, in his second tour with Carolina, is quarterbacking the top unit and has been a perfect fit. Andrei Svechnikov already has three power-play goals after scoring just five in each of the last two seasons. And Necas’ six power-play assists already exceed the five he had last year playing on the second unit.
There’s an ebb and flow to power plays, but right now the Hurricanes look to have successfully recreated last year’s success, despite a different look.
Still killing
The Hurricanes lost power-play firepower in the offseason, but they shed just as much — if not more — on the penalty kill. Last year, defensemen Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei were first over the boards on the kill, and Teuvo Teravainen had long been a top PKer.
Like the power play, the penalty kill hasn’t stumbled. Carolina was at 85.7 percent through nine games — seventh in the league through Friday’s games. Jordan Staal continues to be perhaps the best penalty-killing forward in the league, Seth Jarvis complements him with speed and as a short-handed scoring threat, and the defense has absorbed the 4 1/2 minutes Skjei and Pesce contributed without slipping.
Dig a bit deeper, and the Hurricanes’ performance on the PK is even more impressive. Of the five goals Carolina has allowed, two were on five-on-three kills and two more were scored by future Hall of Famers: Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid.
Still Corsi kings
Special teams are crucial, but most of a hockey game is played at five-on-five. That’s where Carolina has thrived under Brind’Amour, however, a third of the Hurricanes’ skaters this season are new to the team. Plenty has been made about how Brind’Amour’s aggressive system takes time to grasp fully. Or maybe not?
Nothing has really changed for Carolina. It leads the league in Corsi For percentage, along with both scoring chance and high-danger chance differential. The Hurricanes haven’t needed puck luck either.
Carolina’s PDO (the sum of a team’s five-on-five shooting percentage and save percentage) is .998 — slightly under the baseline of 1.000. The Capitals, on the other hand, are boasting an inflated 12.2 shooting percentage — nearly 50 percent better than their 8.48 percent last year — compared to the Hurricanes’ 8.4 percent, which is holding pretty steady to the 7.9 percent in 2023-24.
The numbers don’t lie, and the Hurricanes — despite the roster turnover — look like the same team they have always been under Brind’Amour.
Protecting the goalies
Here’s the beauty of always having the puck: Your goalies rarely see it.
The Hurricanes rank second in the league in shots on goal with 34.9 per game and are also second in shots allowed at 24.7. The NHL’s collective all-situations shooting percentage this year is 11 percent, so Carolina outshooting its opponents by 10 shots on goal per game essentially equals roughly a goal per game.
That shot differential also shields the Hurricanes’ goalies — which is especially crucial now that Frederik Andersen is week to week with a lower-body injury. In Carolina’s Halloween night 8-2 throttling of the Boston Bruins, Pyotr Kochetkov faced just 15 shots, which is the third time this season the Hurricanes have held an opponent under 20 shots on goal.
(Photo of Martin Necas: Derek Leung / Getty Images)
