Since you’re probably more familiar with Washington’s try-and-try-again tale, let’s bring you up to speed on Carolina’s backstory. The Canes, for a couple seasons now, have been an analytics darling, built largely on the back of a strong defence corps. Until this year, the numbers failed to translate into a playoff berth. It looked as though a similar disapointing fate would befall this edition of the squad, too, after the Canes started the year 15-17-5 through 37 games.
To understand how different the second half of the season was for Carolina compared to the first, consider this: Both players it got in a mammoth off-season deal with the Calgary Flames — Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland — were rumoured to be available again thanks to the team’s poor performance. A month before the trade deadline, it seemed certain Ferland — as a pending-UFA — would be dealt. But Carolina — with its usual solid underlying numbers — just kept moving up the standings. The only teams with more points than Carolina’s 62 in the 2019 portion of the calendar were St. Louis and Tampa Bay .
Not that the Caps were left in anybody’s dust down the home stretch. Washington — which added speedy winger Carl Hagelin and third-pair defenceman Nick Jensen at the trade deadline — went 14-5-1 from late February on, giving itself home-ice advantage in any Eastern Conference matchup in which it’s not pitted against the Lightning.
Both these squads, it should be noted, are guided by freshman coaches. Todd Reirden was promoted when Barry Trotz left after Washington won the title in 2018, while Rod Brind’Amour pushed all the right buttons after he, too, was bumped up from an assistant’s role with the Hurricanes.Part of what drove the Hurricanes to a playoff spot was the improved pay of goalie Petr Mrazek, who posted a .901 save percentage in the 2018 portion of the season and a .921 mark in 2019.
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