The Carolina Hurricanes have struggled this season as they have only earned 37 points in league play and are ranked last in the Metropolitan division, second to last in the eastern conference and third to last in the entire National Hockey League (NHL).
“The Hurricanes may be struggling due to the fact that they have a new coach this season who doesn’t necessarily know their strengths and weaknesses like their former coach,” said Anna Rain, junior.
The Hurricanes came into the 2014-15 NHL season with a new head coach, Bill Peters. This is Bill Peters’ first time being a head coach for an NHL team but has previously been an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings and a head coach in the American Hockey League (AHL) for Rockford. In addition to the new head coach, the Hurricanes also hired a new assistant coach, Steve Smith, and new goaltending coach, David Marcoux.
Along with a new coaching staff the Hurricanes also have a fairly new team. They picked up seven players in the NHL draft, acquired five free agents and one player claimed via waivers.
“When you add a lot of new players to a team and a new coaching staff everyone has to learn how each other plays and learn how the coaches want the players to play so that they are able to come together and play as a team,” said Wyatt Summers, junior. “But even with these challenges they still have done some pretty positive things so far this season.”
These positive aspects include the Hurricanes currently being ranked fourth in the NHL for penalties killed and a few of the players have reached a couple of milestones. Captain Eric Staal scored his 300th career NHL goal and played in his 800th career game. New comer Victor Rask played in his first career NHL game and also scored his first NHL career goal.
The Hurricanes still have to complete the last half of the season which gives them time to earn more points, improve their rankings and add new players to the team to help them get better.
“ With a good draft pick, free agency season, and continued success the rest of this season, I can see the Canes turning it around next season. They just need to make sure they battle to the end this season and have a positive to go into for next season,” said Daniel Hrehor, fan and history teacher.
