It’s that time of year again. Costumes are made, bought, worn and (in some cases) torn. Candy is collected and consumed. Shenanigans are afoot.
It’s Halloween, y’all.
In honor of spooky season, let’s unpack the good and the bad — the trick or treats, if you will — surrounding the Hurricanes so far this season.
Treat: Teuvo Teravainen’s electric start
If you had Teravainen as the Canes’ leading scorer to this point, you’re lying. The Finnish winger’s high-flying start has him leading Carolina with eight goals through 10 games. A pass-first player for much of his career, this season sees him taking Turbo Time to a new level. By forcing defenses to account more for his bombastic shot, Teravainen elevates his game to the next level on a team looking to do the same.
Even 10 games in, when defenses now know to watch out for Teravainen as a shooter, he still can’t be stopped. Turbo made the Flyers his latest victim last night with a game-winner that seemed to break the sound barrier.
Obviously, no one can keep up this breakneck scoring pace (which clocks in at a 65 goal-season for those counting at home), but Teravainen’s newfound willingness to freely shoot the puck adds another highly dangerous weapons to a stacked group of forwards.
Trick: Defense has a lot of room for improvement
On the other end of the ice, the Hurricanes are having to work out several kinks. Normally one of the best defensive teams in the NHL, Carolina ranks fourth-worst on goals allowed per game with 3.70 through Oct. 30. That figure is ballooned by an uncharacteristically poor penalty kill, which again ranks towards the bottom of the league (23rd at 75%, for what it’s worth).
The Canes defense is trending in the right direction over the last few games, however. After allowing at least three goals in each of their first seven games, Carolina’s held its opponents to two, zero and two goals in its last three contests. That improvement translated to a three-game winning streak, showing the importance of getting the job done in your own zone. The Hurricanes will look to build on those results as the season progresses, hopefully making the defense look more like the ever-so-stingy outfit fans are used to.
Treat: Svechnikov is back
It’s hard to overstate the impact of Andrei Svechnikov’s return to the lineup. Mista Svechnikov’s consistently played a big role in the Canes organization since he arrived on the scene in 2018-19. His point production and physicality have been sorely missed since he went down with a torn ACL last March. Seeing him on the ice again brings a huge boost both to the team and to the fanbase.
His season debut came on the second half of a back-to-back homestand for Carolina. Rather than seeing the squad’s energy dwindle on the heels of an overtime win against Seattle the night prior, Svechnikov’s presence lit a fire under Carolina on its way to a 3-0 win over San Jose.
Svechnikov notched his first point of the season in his second game, logging an assist on Stefan Noesen’s opening goal. After waiting so long to get back into the action, Svech will undoubtedly scorch the ice looking to net his first goal as soon as possible.
Trick: Not a great stretch for Canes After Dark
One of the unfortunate realities of playing in PNC Arena is having to get the heck out of Dodge every October when the North Carolina State Fair comes to town. Caniacs have made something of a tradition out of the inevitable west coast road trip at the beginning of the year, indulging in a quasi-sarcastic fatigue-induced delirium online while following the Hurricanes’ exploits out west.
This year’s stretch of early-season “Canes After Dark” games did not prove fruitful for Carolina, however. The tole of such strenuous travel before getting a chance to really build up a rhythm reared its ugly head out west. The Canes earned just four points in its five road games against Western Conference teams, averaging over five goals allowed per game during that stretch. The team’s fortunes have since turned since heading back east, but the string of poor results put the Canes behind the eight ball a bit, at least for the time being. The Hurricanes will hope those lost points won’t come back to haunt them come April.
Treat: There’s (at least) 72 games of Canes hockey left!
Let’s end on a high note: we still have 72 games left in the regular season. Carolina has ample to hone its strengths and workshop its weaknesses before the playoffs roll around. Barring some catastrophic collapse, the Canes look poised to earn their sixth consecutive playoff berth, with the real test coming in the postseason in pursuit of the franchise’s second Stanley Cup.
In the meantime, let’s sit back in and enjoy the bevy of Canes games, events and experiences that lie ahead.