As Hurricanes stumble through loss to Leafs, impossible not to focus on what’s next
A week from Monday — most likely, but in any case within a day of that — the Carolina Hurricanes will be back at home, against the New Jersey Devils, engaged in the games that actually matter for the seventh straight season.
Their final home game of the regular season, all but meaningless at this point with playoff position and opponent long secured, was accordingly forgettable. They dominated the first period, gave up a goal in the final 20 seconds and folded after that as the Toronto Maple Leafs cruised to a 4-1 win.
And … so what.
The result was immaterial, other than missing a chance to break the record for home wins in a season set in 2006. But does anyone really care about regular-season records? And should anyone really care about fine margins in the standings? Two record-setting regular seasons and a third that was in that ballpark delivered nothing but postseason pain over the previous three years.
Hockey players are, despite their willingness to play through pain that would leave a normal person in convulsions, still human. It’s hard not to look ahead to the Devils, a playoff opponent for the sixth time in the 12 seasons the Hurricanes have qualified for the postseason since moving to North Carolina. Some of those meetings were more memorable than others; the Hurricanes have nevertheless won all but the first.
Unlike Saturday’s win over the New York Rangers, when the Hurricanes had a chance to eliminate their opponent, which given how last season ended was surely something to savor, there was nothing on the line Sunday. The odds the Hurricanes and Leafs meet in the conference finals are so small, there was no message worth sending.
“Everyone wants to be feeling good about their game heading into the real deal,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “We’ll learn from this and be sharper.”
The next two games, at the Ottawa Senators and at the Montreal Canadiens, will have the same lack of imperative, although you’d like to feel like you’re taking some momentum out of the second of those two into the playoffs, although the difference between the regular season and postseason is such a chasm that it’s anyone’s guess whether that’s even possible.
Every playoff series is a drama in up to seven acts, and while specific history tends to transfer over — old grudges and slights renewed — general history rarely does. Everyone really does start from zero next week.
If there’s anything interesting about the circumstances at the end of this season, it’s that the Hurricanes don’t seem to be anyone’s pick to win it. Analytically, they’re still among the top contenders, depending on whose number-crunching you believe. But the days when every savvy insider was lining up behind the Hurricanes appear to be over.
Then again, it’s hard to look at the Hurricanes’ postseason performance — two trips to the conference finals in seven years and zero wins there — and expect anything different. But that overlooks the way a rebuilding year became a retooling year, and how the Mikko Rantanen trade fell apart in a way that may not have hurt the Hurricanes all that badly after all.
“Everyone looked at our offseason, look at what we lost,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They’re sticking with what they predicted.”
Even some of their own fans seem overly focused on what this team isn’t, instead of what it has done. No one predicted the Hurricanes would be third in the conference standings. (No one predicted the Washington Capitals would win the division, either.) They cut out an entire year of transition. And they’re one overtime loss away from a fourth straight 100-point season.
Being in the 110s in the regular season delivered two second-round losses to the Rangers and a conference-finals sweep at the hands of the Florida Panthers. Will the year the least is expected of the Hurricanes be the one when they deliver the most?
Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at www.newsobserver.com/newsletters to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports
This story was originally published April 13, 2025 at 8:24 PM with the headline "As Hurricanes stumble through loss to Leafs, impossible not to focus on what’s next."
