The Carolina Hurricanes made history, but the Stanley Cup is a different story

The Carolina Hurricanes are either the best hockey team or the biggest fraud in the Stanley Cup playoffs; It all depends on who you ask. The Canes made history Saturday night in Philadelphia with their eighth straight playoff win and second straight sweep. It made them the first team in NHL history to sweep their first two series since the best-of-seven format began in 1987, the first team to start 8-0 in the playoffs since 1985, and only the fifth team in NHL history to start the playoffs 8-0.

However, no one can decide if this equipment is In fact Stanley Cup favorite yet.

Many factors influence the acrimony when talking about Carolina. There is a long-standing bitterness over the existence of Southern hockey, especially after consecutive years in which the Florida Panthers hoisted the cup. There’s the fact that the team plays hockey in a way that goes against everything we know about success in the modern NHL. Plus, it’s simply a reality that the Canes have had a pretty easy path in the postseason so far, facing two teams that were poor strategic mismatches for them.

What that doesn’t mean, however, is that the Ottawa Senators or the Philadelphia Flyers are “bad teams.” Finishing with 99 and 98 points on the season, respectively, the Sens and Flyers were better than the entire Western Conference Pacific Division, better than the Utah Mammoth whom the Golden Knights beat in the first round, and just one win worse than the Bruins, whom the Sabers beat in the first round. However, until now it has become popular to hate the Hurricanes’ opponents as a way to discredit Carolina as a legitimate team, levying criticism that no other team in the field can receive.

It’s absolutely fair to say that both Ottawa and Philadelphia were thrown into a mismatched blender. Both teams thrived during the regular season playing on clean ice, with open passing lanes and space to set up plays. This is what the Hurricanes excel at stopping, executing brutal forechecks with brave defensive rotations that reverse formation to send defenders up the ice and bother the opposing defenseman on the puck, allowing the forwards to stay home.

One of the hallmarks of Carolina hockey is forgetting the game model that wins in the NHL and instead changing the game to Hurricanes hockey. They thrive by limiting the effectiveness of star players, making the game about depth rather than top line strength, and then take control when their third and fourth lines are stronger than their opponents. It’s no coincidence that hockey fans wondered why Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle disappeared in the Sens series, or why Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny ​​failed to advance in the second round. This was the work of the Canes and it worked.

Last week, Brady Tkachuk explained why the Hurricanes’ defense was nearly impossible to deal with in their series, and he noted it was happening to the Flyers, too.

“Their D… they have the best clubs I’ve ever seen in my life. It was crazy. Some of the plays you just said ‘I can do this,’ like Slav [Jaccob Slavin] He probably has the best stick in the league. I had two A grades [scoring chances] and they hit the post and up into the net. I thought, ‘How come that’s not in the back of the net?’”

The length of the Carolina blueliners is causing huge problems for any team trying to play nice puck rotation hockey. Throughout the Flyers series we saw how Philadelphia’s offense was decimated due to deflections from Slavin, K’Andre Miller and Alexander Nikishin, with their partners in Jalen Chatfield, Shayne Gostisbehere and Sean Walker serving more as the more traditional net-fighters. This layered defense has been impenetrable in the playoffs and has been offset by the Canes showing more fight and advantage than before.

So why are there so many doubts that this can be transferred to the cup? There are three fair statements to make:

Pardon the pun, but you can see the storm brewing for Carolina and that this incredible race could go south quickly (another pun, sorry). Beating Stützle or Konecny ​​is one thing, but when that caliber of player changes to Nathan McKinnon, Martin Nečas, Nick Suzuki or Kirill Kaprizov, can this same approach still work? Is there a breaking point in this defensive dominance where Carolina can get overwhelmed by star players, and if that happens, can the Canes bounce back?

That’s the real concern right now, and it’s fair to question what’s going on with Carolina’s top line. The playoff heroes so far for the Canes have been the Hall/Stankoven/Blake two-line, which has been phenomenal, but Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis have all expressed calmness on the top line, aside from a few flashes of magic. We know that the NHL playoffs have historically been won on star power, even by teams like the Panthers, who were fired up but still relied on Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand to carry them through.

If the Canes can’t put together that top-line performance, then there’s a chance they won’t be able to assert their will in the game, which has a ripple effect on the rest of the lines, thus putting more pressure on the defense to bail out the team.

The biggest questions about the hurricanes won’t be answered for some time, with Saturday being the earliest they can start their next series. Whether the Sabers or Canadiens come out of the Atlantic, either team will be the best opponent Carolina has ever faced, with more star power and deeper lines. If the Canes can maintain this dominance in the Eastern Conference Finals, then we can really talk about their chances of beating the Avs or Wild in the West.

So, are the Canes really favorites or contenders for the cup? They are both, and neither, and curiously somewhere in between. Carolina is a unique Rod Brind’Amour team that approaches hockey like no one else does, which means we can’t use the typical criteria to measure its potential. It’s all a big guessing game, but that’s what makes these playoffs so fun.