At The Break: Looking Back At The Canes' Season So Far

RALEIGH, N.C. - Snapping a three-game skid last Saturday on home ice against Utah Hockey Club, the Carolina Hurricanes can breathe a little easier as they enjoy their 4 Nations Face-Off break.

Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, Mikko Rantanen, and Jaccob Slavin are hard at work representing their countries, but for the rest of the locker room and staff, it's a chance to heal up and mentally reset for the stretch run.

At 33-19-4, the team sits second in the Metropolitan Division - 10 points back of the leading Washington Capitals and two points ahead of the third-place New Jersey Devils. The final five teams are separated by just five points, with fourth-place Columbus only one point behind a Wild Card spot.

With nobody "out of it" yet, there's no room to slip up.

Starting next Saturday the Canes will play their final 26 regular season games in 54 days, sprinting toward the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. But before we look ahead, we must look back, revisiting how the team got to be in the position it's in today.

Loving Life At Lenovo Center...

It's been almost all good in Raleighwood thus far.

The Canes have won 21 of their 28 games at Lenovo Center, trailing only the Winnipeg Jets (22) in the number of wins by a team in its home building.

Highlighted by an eight-goal outburst on Halloween against Boston and their seven-goal showing versus Utah in their final game before the break, the group has averaged 3.86 goals per game in front of their supporters, trailing only Columbus (3.93) in that category.

Someone who has especially enjoyed playing in the 919 this season is Seth Jarvis, who leads all NHL skaters in goals at home (11) since the calendar flipped to 2025. 17 of his 22 this season have come on Edwards Mill Rd., tied for fourth in the league.

Speaking of the Caniacs, they've shown up in full force again this season, continuing the team's sell-out streak to 96 consecutive games. The team is expected to celebrate triple digits on March 6 when the Bruins come to town for the second time this season.

Still Killing It...

Perhaps the least surprising thing that's transpired this season is that Carolina's penalty kill remains among the very best in the league. Since Rod Brind'Amour took over behind the bench ahead of the 2018-19 season, the Canes are 85.0% on the PK, 2.4% better than the next closest team (Boston) during that time.

Standing 145-for-165 (84.9%) this season, the team led the NHL for most of the first four months, but two rare occasions of conceding multiple goals to the opposition's power play in the week leading up to the break caused them to fall just slightly behind Dallas (85.0%) for the top spot. Tim Gleason's corps has allowed multiple power-play goals just five times in 56 games and they've played 37 games without allowing a power-play goal, tops among all teams.

On the other side of the coin, the Canes' killers remain some of the best at generating offense while down a man. With seven shorthanded goals this season (5th - NHL), Carolina and Ottawa are the only two teams in the league to have three players with multiple shorties (Jarvis - 3, Aho - 2, Staal - 2).

Making It Work In Net...

The season has come with its fair share of adversity as well, including some in the injury department.

With 185 man games lost to injury, the Canes had to get creative to make things work in November and December, featuring a portion of time when both Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov were on the shelf. Turning to Spencer Martin, Yaniv Perets, and Dustin Tokarski, the team used five different goalies within the first 65 days of the season. Only the Colorado Avalanche (6) have used more backstops this season.

While there were bumps in the road along the way, there were also highlights, including shutouts for Martin and Tokarski. When Andersen returned in January and recorded his first clean sheet of the season on Jan. 28, the Canes became just the fourth team in NHL history to have four different goalies record a shutout in the same season.

Some Of The Best Moments...

October 15: Jackson Blake scored his first NHL goal in a win over New Jersey.

October 22: Sebastian Aho potted his first of two overtime winners in the same week, this time capping a 3-2 comeback over Edmonton.

October 29: Aho did it again, netting the OT winner in Vancouver to close out a 5-1 West Coast road trip.

November 7: The Canes secured an eighth win in a row with a 5-1 defeat of the Penguins at home.

November 16: Spencer Martin recorded his first career shutout in a 4-0 win over Ottawa.

November 20: Aho broke the franchise record for game-winning goals with the 58th of his career.

November 25: Carolina scored five in the third period to complete a comeback victory over Dallas.

November 28: The Canes scored multiple goals in the third period for the second time in as many games, this time taking a win from the Rangers.

December 5: Andrei Svechnikov's first-career four-point night led Carolina past Colorado.

December 15: Dustin Tokarski returned to the NHL for the first time in nearly two years, making 27 saves in a 4-1 win.

December 28: Rod Brind'Amour became the fastest coach to 300 wins with a 5-2 victory over New Jersey.

January 5: Aho's 600th NHL point was another overtime winner, this time completing yet another come-from-behind win against Pittsburgh.

January 9: Jordan Staal etched the first hat trick of the season for the team, leading to W versus Toronto and an eventual spot as one of the NHL's Stars of the Week.

January 20: Aho's league-leading fourth overtime goal pushed the Canes past the Blackhawks in Frederik Andersen's return and 500th game.

January 23: Four goals in 4:23 led Carolina to a 7-4 comeback over Columbus.

January 24: Eric Tulsky acquires Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall in a three-team trade.

February 1: Brent Burns became the first defenseman in 18 years to reach 900 points.