Amid high expectations for new season, Hurricanes’ opening win checks many boxes
You could probably draw up a better way to start a season, but this didn’t take a whole lot of imagination or leave a whole lot of room for improvement.
The Carolina Hurricanes were back to begin in the same place the last ended, that disappointment not forgotten — never forgotten — but washed away first by the anticipation of a promising new campaign and then the jubilation of a raucous home win that checked most of the boxes the crowd wanted to see checked.
Also checked: Johnny Gaudreau, onto his posterior by Jaccob Slavin, Lady Byng chances be damned.
What did the people, a standing-room crowd of 18,824, want to see? A deft goal from Seth Jarvis. Andrei Svechnikov catching the goalie napping. A three-point night from Martin Necas as he begins the most important season of his career. It’s not a comprehensive list but it’s a full one, and for all that the triumphant return of Frederik Andersen was probably at the top in this 4-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Left helpless on Patrik Laine’s opening goal, Andersen was impeccable after that, giving the Hurricanes a chance to get back into the game and, eventually, find their stride. And he tops the list because the last game the Hurricanes played before this one, Andersen was watching from the press box in a suit as Antti Raanta went down against the New York Rangers in Game 7, not that the game and series hadn’t already been decided at that point.
Raanta played well enough to get the Hurricanes that far, but the what-might-have-been if Andersen had been healthy is probably the regret, among many, that will linger longest from how that season ended. Not that the Hurricanes didn’t try to address their inability to score when it mattered most, but seeing Andersen back in net — and playing like this — certainly brings back some of the good vibes the Hurricanes took into the last postseason.
As for everyone else, the Hurricanes did what they do. They weathered a slapdash first period, overfueled on emotion, then played their way back into the game and slowly wore the Blue Jackets down until they had no edge left.
Paul Stastny has been on the other side of that many times, enough to savor his first time being the grinder instead of the grindee.
“It’s different. It’s a lot of work,” said Stastny, who picked up a point in his Hurricanes debut. “But as the game went on, I got better. The first period, even I was — you’re nervous because you’re learning a new system. You’re going really hard or you’re caught in the middle.”
And while Rod Brind’Amour certainly had confidence his team would find its game eventually, it was heartening to see that familiar progression on the first night, even with all the new players in the lineup.
“At the end of the day you want to get the win first,” Brind’Amour said. “And you want to see us, are we starting to play the way we want to. That was encouraging before the end. The good news for me is we got the win, but we’ve got a ton to work on. A lot of the new guys aren’t to where they really need to be. They’re not quite there. That’ll catch up.”
So it ended well, this first of many. It started well, too. Brind’Amour wasn’t expecting the ovation he got when the coaching staff was introduced in that opening-night ritual, but it was prolonged and emotional — a reminder, in this 25th season, that what happened before matters, as much as what comes next, and this was just the beginning of that. And as beginnings goes, this will do.
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This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 10:47 PM with the headline "Amid high expectations for new season, Hurricanes’ opening win checks many boxes."
