The Carolina Hurricanes have had an up-and-down start to their season. The team has faced issues with inconsistency, execution, and injuries to begin the season. The Hurricanes have tried to push through these challenges as much as possible and currently have a record of 14-10. Millbrook senior, Kathryn Hughes, a huge fan of the Canes shared her thoughts on the start of the season for the canes. “They’ve played relatively well, but they’ve played better games,” She said.
A huge challenge for the Canes has been the increased amount of injuries throughout the team. Andrei Svechnikov, one of their strongest players, had a major surgery last season which caused him to miss the end of the 2022 season Svechnikov began this season on injured reserve as he was still recovering from his prior knee injury. After the second game, injuries plagued the team as four players were added to the injury report. When asked how she feels injuries have impacted the team, Hughes said, “The Canes have always bounced back from injuries but it has definitely hurt them in the beginning.” At the end of October, Svechnikov was then cleared and able to play again.
The team’s goalies have also been a struggling point. Frederik Andersen and Antii Raanta were going back and forth being on the injured list. Andersen is currently on injured reserve due to a blood clot problem. Without their top goalie, the Canes are struggling. Pyotr Kochetov and Antii Raanta, have had some really good moments during the games but then other times, they are very inconsistent. All the fault doesn’t go to the goalies when a goal is scored, but there have been many chances where it could have been an easy save or they just weren’t prepared.
Playing on the road is another main challenge for the canes. They aren’t playing as strong and the execution of plays isn’t there. Millbrook junior, Samantha Redd is another fan of Canes and she shared her thoughts on execution, “They aren’t playing as well as they are this year. The games are very inconsistent with poor execution. Passes aren’t connecting and people aren’t in the right place.” The players need to find ways to work together and be the team that wins like they were last season.
For the past couple of years the Canes have won their division, but this season there has been more competition. The New York Rangers, Golden Knights and Avalanche are the teams to look out for this season. A team such as the Rangers are dominating their division and it’s going to be hard for the Canes to reach up to them.
The Canes started this season ranked No.4 in their conference, now moved up to rank No. 2. Let’s hope the Canes can keep pushing through and have a good rest of the season!
