Carolina’s new first team is one of the best in the NHL, writes NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä. The Hurricanes will face the New York Islanders in the opening round of the playoffs starting this weekend.
Tommi Seppälä NHL reporter
It took eight years – and now there is no intention to belittle anyone, with whom Sebastian Aho has played in the NHL over the years. It would still be fair to say that during Aho’s NHL career, Carolina has never once had the top-class hit weapon with which it is now mauling opponents.
In order to find it, a large player store had to be built, which made the continental tiles move around North America.
I do not believe By Jake Guentzel leaving Pittsburgh in the middle of the season wouldn’t have been easy for anyone. The Stanley Cup winner, who quickly became the league’s elite winger at the beginning of his career, was the Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby right hand and good friend.
Leaving Crosby’s side was certainly not easy, and Crosby did not hide his disappointment in public either. He even sank down in the rink for a moment, the likes of which has perhaps never been seen before. I got emotional, and for good reason.
Carolina has traditionally been tight-lipped about signing rental players in the middle of the season. Hired labor means a player whose contract is about to expire after the current season. The price for players who are able to shake the clock is usually very high, although there is no guarantee of success.
In terms of team dynamics, making big changes in the middle of the season is rarely a painless process. However, now it hit the pole ten.
Guentzel started at Carolina Yevgeny Kuznetsov and by Martin Necas next to it and it started well. However, this was the calm before the storm, because it was only the move to Aho that opened up the prospect of something bigger. With one player trade, Carolina could solve a problem that had been going on for years, which overshadowed this spring’s forecast as well.
For several years now, Carolina has profiled itself as a high-quality team in tough playoff spots, but as a narrow team at the top. Now, however, the view is different.
From the first exchanges together, Guentzel and Aho seemed to be on the same page. And let’s not forget the third leg of the trio, fast-footed, always developing Seth Jarvis. The chain forms a fascinating mixture of speed, game intelligence and puck-snapping and game-turning ability, two-way reliability and, most importantly, decision-making power.
The trio has won their games 12–3 with 5 vs. 5 and controlled, among other things, about 66 percent of the expected goal. It has won almost 70 percent of dangerous goal posts. After the player trade, each member of the trio has scored points with the highest per-game average of their careers. Jarvis has scored a point, Aho 1.25 and Guentzel 1.5 power points per match.
After the player trade, the trio shares second place in the NHL’s power statistics. The combined power statistic reading is a handsome +51.
The most important consideration is still related to spring.
Carolina has been counted among the championship candidates for several years now, but now for the first time the pieces seem to have truly fallen into place. If the Danish goalkeeper who is in a dizzying spring mood Frederik Andersen stays healthy, the base is cast in concrete, because the defensive equipment is also the league’s absolute elite.
Carolina’s offense has been well balanced for a long time. By Jordan Staal led by the triple chain is the best brake chains in the league. No top chain would want to play against it. The second and fourth lines are also up to par, which enables success in the spring.
However, finding a top class number one fist might be the most decisive factor. Based on the start, the number one team led by Aho and Guentzel can withstand comparison with the best in the series. And it probably doesn’t hurt that the latter is a seasoned Stanley Cup winner as well as the sixth-best scorer in the playoffs for the last eight years, and the third-best in game-winning goals.
Carolina has scored 24 hits in 20 games in the three previous playoff series that ended the season. In these series of matches, the group has run a game of about 13 percent superiority. In itself, a high-quality team has been missing a spearhead.
Now one has been found and it might change everything.
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