The Carolina Hurricanes won the Metropolitan Division and finished the regular season with 116 points, third-most in the NHL behind the Florida Panthers (122) and Colorado Avalanche (119).
They’re a legitimate championship contender in the Stanley Cup playoffs, where they’ll face the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Eastern Conference bracket.
But that doesn’t mean Carolina is flawless. Even though the Canes’ strengths are far more apparent than their weaknesses, one active NHL executive recently surveyed by The Athletic believes their size could become an issue this postseason, with Boston among the teams capable of knocking off Carolina.
“Carolina’s problem — and it’s not quite the problem Toronto’s faced, maybe it’s the problem Tampa faced before they broke through — I’ve seen Carolina get pushed out of games this year,” the anonymous exec told The Athletic. “It took Tampa two years of not getting over the hump before they bring in Blake Coleman, Patrick Maroon, Zach Bogosian in a limited role. I don’t know why they wouldn’t have gone out and gotten a Nic Deslauriers.
“This team’s going to be all about matchups, they need to avoid the right teams. If Carolina plays a motivated Boston team, I’d be worried. The Carolina dream matchups are Toronto, the Rangers and maybe Pittsburgh. They’re Tier 1 for me, but with an asterisk that the wrong matchup is a real problem.”
The executive was one of five polled by The Athletic to break up this season’s playoff teams into tiers from 1 to 5. The Hurricanes finished in Tier 1, whereas the Bruins landed in Tier 3.
The betting odds suggest Boston vs. Carolina could be a tight series, and the battle-tested, veteran-laden Bruins certainly are capable of pulling off the upset. The path to doing so might involve playing a physical brand of hockey, even though the B’s aren’t necessarily the biggest team, either.
