RALEIGH, N.C. — The fans chanted “Fred-die, Fred-die,” as Frederik Andersen, one of many midsummer arrivals for the Carolina Hurricanes, came out for a curtain call. At the halfway point of the season, the serenade was a vocal and visceral reminder of just how precisely things have gone as planned after turning over a third of the roster.
The playoff spots in the Eastern Conference are all but set with half the season to go, and as the Hurricanes head into the All-Star break off Sunday’s 2-1 win over the San Jose Sharks — their fourth straight win, all by one goal — a good chunk of the pressure is already being pushed ahead to April and beyond.
Sunday had a little bit of that postseason kind of feel — closely played, with the Sharks dumping Andrei Svechnikov into their open bench door and knocking Seth Jarvis off his skates — but the Hurricanes never looked uncomfortable for a second.
“It felt like playoff hockey there,” Svechnikov said. “The last couple games, three, four games, it was 2-1, very close scoring. It’s a grind game, we stuck with it, and that’s why it was a success tonight.”
This much we know: The Hurricanes are who we thought they were, and they are who they thought they were. The moves they made in the offseason, the remodeling in net and layering of depth up and down the roster, have worked almost exactly as planned so far, even if the real answer is still some 40 games and beyond away.
“We obviously like where we stand,” Hurricanes forward Vincent Trocheck said. “We’ve done a pretty good job in the first half, but there’s definitely room for improvement. We think we can get better from here.”
It was hard not to notice the way Antti Raanta played Saturday in a 2-1 win over the New Jersey Devils, and how Andersen played Sunday, while Peter Mrazek, Alex Nedeljkovic and James Reimer gave up a combined 14 goals elsewhere Saturday. (Reimer was excellent against the Hurricanes on Sunday for the Sharks.)
There were some who found the decisions to trade Nedeljkovic and let Mrazek walk either confounding or concerning or both, even if the Hurricanes lost the goaltending battle in the playoffs. The early returns could hardly be better, even if Raanta has run into some of the injury issues that have slowed him elsewhere. Rod Brind’Amour likes two guys he can trust. At this point, he should have full faith in both.
“Our record speaks for itself, and our record is that good because our goaltending has won us a bunch of games where we weren’t that great, or they were better, or whatever, it was even,” Brind’Amour said. “Yet we’re pulling out these victories because the goaltending has been that good. We’ve got a good team, but our goaltending has been a difference-maker.”
And the Hurricanes have likewise successfully navigated Dougie Hamilton’s departure with the bargain reclamation of Tony DeAngelo, who so far has avoided here the personal pratfalls that bounced him from franchise to franchise to the waiver wire, and the addition of Ethan Bear, Ian Cole and Brendan Smith.
As with Hamilton — whose presence in the building with the Devils, if not on the ice because of injury, was appropriately acknowledged Saturday — DeAngelo has established beyond a reasonable doubt his ability to run a regular-season power play, even if he lacks Hamilton’s polish and versatility. As with Hamilton, his ability to handle the postseason remains an open question. The last time the Hurricanes saw DeAngelo in the playoffs, Sebastian Aho turned him inside out like a pair of socks.
The combination of those questions and Bear’s post-COVID form could lead the Hurricanes to pursue another defenseman before the trade deadline in six weeks, but if not, the depth added in the summer is there. Cole and Smith have done what it said on the box when the Hurricanes grabbed them off the shelf.
So has Derek Stepan at forward. And no one planned on 18 points in 32 games from Seth Jarvis, who grabbed an NHL roster spot and never let go. Josh Leivo expected to be in the lineup when he signed in July, only to find himself behind Jarvis and Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the pecking order. Then again, he has three points in the five games he’s played.
The Hurricanes navigated their COVID issues with aplomb in December and without being cut some of the same breaks as other franchises. (The Philadelphia Flyers finally ended their winless streak at 13 on Saturday, but if they lose the rescheduled edition of that bizarre postponement, it should go in the record books as 14.)
This is how it was drawn up in July — or, in the case of Kotkaniemi, August. The Hurricanes were supposed to be one of the best teams in the NHL, and they have been.
The real test awaits, for the goalies and DeAngelo and Brind’Amour and everyone. The Hurricanes have put themselves in a position, not just this season but the previous three, where making the playoffs and winning a round or two will no longer cut it.
“We’re halfway through this race,” Brind’Amour said. “There’s another race we’ve got to get to later.”
The hard part is still to come, 40 games in 87 days, a run to the finish that would test the depth of any roster in any year. For the Hurricanes, it’s a challenge, but it’s not a test. The real test is still a way down the road. This is all just a soft opening for the real show.
It’s not just that the sky’s the limit for these Hurricanes. It’s that they’ve shown to this point anything else won’t be good enough.
