Tweetmail No. 174: Second Half, Veteran Leadership & Fan Experience

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Tweetmail is a weekly feature on CarolinaHurricanes.com in which I take your Twitter questions about the Carolina Hurricanes or other assorted topics and answer them in mailbag form. Hopefully the final product is insightful to some degree, and maybe we have some fun along the way.
Let's get to it.

In order for the team to make the playoffs, it needs to be more consistent as a whole coming down the stretch of the season; string wins together as often as possible and avoid the lengthy dry spells. The team is well aware of this. As has been said both in the locker room and by head coach Bill Peters recently, the playoffs began in Montreal for the Hurricanes, who don't have much wiggle room with just less than 40 percent of the regular season remaining.
To specifically answer your question, though, Scott Darling is perhaps the singular key to the Hurricanes' postseason hopes. In transitioning to a new team and a new role, Darling has struggled at times but has also been good in spurts this season, and two recent performances stand out to me.
The Hurricanes, who were coming off a 13-day, six-game road trip that traversed North America in mid-December, had to face off with a Metropolitan Division foe on the tail end of a back-to-back - and that team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, were in Raleigh waiting on the Canes. That's a game you look at on the schedule and anticipate the worst, but Darling came in and put forth one of his sharpest outings of the season with 35 saves on 36 shots. He stole two \huge\ points for the Hurricanes in a divisional match-up and deserves full marks for that.
Nearly a month later, the Hurricanes had stumbled a bit, losing 7-1 in Boston and 5-4 in Tampa Bay before drawing another divisional game against the Capitals in The District. It was a tough situation in which to throw Darling, but he again used his big frame to his advantage in net and stopped 27 of 28 shots to help lead to Canes to a 3-1 victory.
The Canes are going to need those types of performances from Darling more consistently down the stretch. He's certainly a capable goaltender, and he's putting in the work with goaltending coach Mike Bales to help soften the rough edges currently plaguing his game. If he responds with a big second half push, the Hurricanes are a playoff team.

The importance of veteran leadership, especially veteran leadership that knows what it takes to win, cannot be stressed enough. Justin Williams was a huge offseason pick-up for this team for two reasons. One reason is that he's a reliable offensive contributor; Williams is on pace to finish with 52 points, which would match his high over the last six seasons. The second reason is perhaps even more important than his tangible contributions on the scoresheet: he knows what it means to be successful, what it means to come together as a team with a singular goal in mind and what it takes in order to achieve that goal. He is, after all, "Mr. Game 7," and he isn't going to settle for fine or good enough. Even though he doesn't wear a letter, he's a leader on and off the ice, and his presence is one from which the Hurricanes have benefitted immensely.

Hurricanes Executive Vice President and General Manager Ron Francis has said in the past that the two most dangerous days of the year are trade deadline day and July 1, when free agency typically opens. With the clock ticking, rash decisions can be made on these days, and Francis has historically not been one to make rash decisions.
And at this point, I still think it's too early to gauge what the Hurricanes should do at the trade deadline. By the end of February, we're going to have a much better idea about how the final weeks of the season are going to play out. Pieces could always be added to upgrade the team, no doubt, but they do come at a premium. It's my belief that if this team can play to its potential, it's a playoff team. We'll see if that pans out in the next 32 games.

I don't want to speak for Hurricanes majority owner Tom Dundon, but I know he has a lot of ideas. As he said in his introductory press conference, he wants to try different things. Some might work better than others, and that's fine; it's a part of the process of discovering what sort of ideas and promotions work best. Tuesday night's game against Ottawa was a great example of one of those ideas being set into motion. Dundon wanted to pack the lower bowl in order to create a boisterous, playoff-like atmosphere as close to the ice as possible. There are likely more small tweaks to come in the final two months of the regular season, and when I think you'll see more sweeping changes is throughout the offseason in the lead up to the 2018-19 regular season.
This much is clear: Dundon is focused on improving the fan experience as quickly as he can. You've seen some of the ideas already take shape, and you'll see more in the weeks ahead. It's an exciting time for the organization, for sure.
"What we're doing today isn't good enough, and we're going to do better," Dundon said at his
introductory press conference
. "What I was excited about is they want to do better. Everyone here that works at the arena and works for this team, they're ready. They're ready to do something better than they did yesterday, and I think we can. It's not even a choice. We're just going to do it."
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Join me next week for more questions and more answers!
If you have a question you'd like answered or you'd like to discuss "Dunkirk" (I know I'm late to the party on this), you can find me on Twitter at
@MSmithCanes
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.