Hurricanes experience a postseason vibe shift: From happy participant to apex predator
Jordan Martinook was there at the creation, walking into a new team and a new market, not knowing quite what to expect before getting swept up in the whirlwind of a franchise changing direction.
He joined the Carolina Hurricanes in the summer of 2018, signing with a team that hadn’t made the playoffs in a decade, and has since been carried along as Rod Brind’Amour not only restored past glory, but set new standards.
Those standards, as the Hurricanes enter the postseason for the fourth straight season, have never been higher. Even from last year at this time, there’s a vibe shift, from interested participant to apex predator. A team that has advanced past the second round of the playoffs once in three tries knows that the bar is merely set there now.
“If you want to put it into perspective, I got here four years ago and I guess the goal was to be relevant again,” Martinook said. “Just to see, year after year, the change of expectations and what is wanted and expected out of this group is the biggest thing I could put into words for you.
“First year, we made the playoffs, and it was like the sky was falling. And then the next year, it was OK, we’re not going to be seventh or eighth, we’re going to be second or third. And now we demand to be the best. And moving forward we put ourselves in a good position, with home ice, and now we have to prove what kind of team we are.”
The Hurricanes have spent three years building toward this point, and now that they’ve reached the apogee of their competitive orbit, they actually have very few chances before they start to descend back to earth. It’s not so much that the days when they were just happy to make the playoffs are over — although they most certainly are — it’s that the Hurricanes have put themselves into a position very few franchises find themselves in, and no one gets that many bites at this apple.
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The days when the Hurricanes were playing with house money are over. Now is their time to strike, because their time in this position is, if not limited, certainly fragile. Some teams are able to flex and adapt with the times to remain at the top; many others come and go, finding their window to contend has slammed shut whether they thought it would or not.
One little window closed for the Hurricanes last summer, with the change in goalies, the departure of Dougie Hamilton and the turnover of Brind’Amour favorites like Brock McGinn and Warren Foegele. That was the last run for that group as it stood, just as this is likely the last run for a group that includes Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter, both key cogs in the machine whose contracts are up after the season.
The bigger window, the more important window for the Hurricanes — built around Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce and Andrei Svechnikov — will remain open for another two years after this, when the contracts of Aho and Pesce expire. That doesn’t mean either will leave, but it will require a financial remodeling of the rest of the roster to accommodate them in new tax brackets.
The long-term contracts for Slavin and Pesce were the greatest achievements Ron Francis had as general manager, and the Hurricanes are continuing to reap the benefits. Same for Montreal’s offer sheet to Aho, which may not have been as long a contract as the Hurricanes would have liked but kept him with the team at a reasonable price for a burgeoning superstar and future captain.
But all those bills will eventually come due, and shifting more money toward the top of the roster means less for the rest of it, which means these few years may be the deepest and most balanced iteration of the Hurricanes in the Brind’Amour Era, and therefore perhaps their best chances to contend.
So winning a series or two is no longer enough for everyone to go home feeling like they’ve put their best foot forward and built a good platform for the next season. Now is the time. This is it. These are the years when the Hurricanes know they have their best shot to contend for the Stanley Cup. Can they still get better? Yes. But there are no excuses, no training wheels, no steak knives for second place.
“We’ve had some tough losses in the playoffs,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s a motivator for sure. It’s not about coming second. They know where we want to get to.”
There are real expectations now, a real responsibility to make the most of these limited opportunities. The Hurricanes made difficult decisions and worked hard to take advantage and put themselves in this position. They are no longer up and coming but up and arrived, and their time is now. It has to be.
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This story was originally published May 1, 2022 at 5:47 AM with the headline "Hurricanes experience a postseason vibe shift: From happy participant to apex predator."
