From Nov. 11 to Jan. 4, Stankoven scored twice in a stretch of 27 games, an almost incomprehensible run of futility and bad puck luck for a player who would finish with a career-high 44 points (21 goals, 23 assists) in 81 regular-season games.
“There were a couple of spurts where the puck wasn’t going in,” he said during the first-round series. “I was having the chances and it just wasn’t going. Now it’s nice to see they are going in. There are ups and downs, but I think I have been able to stick with it.”
The reward has been goals by the bushel at the most important time of the season.
He had seven in the final eight games of the regular season as the Hurricanes locked down the top seed in the Eastern Conference and then added four in four against the Senators, who had no answer for his line, which also features Taylor Hall and Jackson Blake.
Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour doesn’t see a different player now that Stankoven is being feted instead of being snakebit.
“That’s how he has played all year,” the coach said. “The puck wasn’t going in for a long stretch, but it was chance after chance. Now, as you say, the law of averages is working in his favor here.
“He’s generating chances. It was just a matter of time and the time came. He never changed.”
Make no mistake, Stankoven is made for the playoffs.
He had eight points (three goals, five assists) in his first playoffs in 2023-24 with the Dallas Stars. Last season, after being traded to Carolina as the centerpiece of the Mikko Rantanen deal, he had five goals (and three assists) in a run to the Eastern Conference Final.
In his final two seasons of junior hockey with Kamloops of the Western Hockey League, he had 61 points (27 goals, 34 assists) in 31 postseason games.
“It’s fun hockey,” said Stankoven, who plays like a wrecking ball despite his 5-foot-8, 165-pound frame.
There seems to be no governor on his throttle. Especially when the stakes get higher. He knows his job is to hunt pucks and cause chaos on the cycle.
His teammates love the show.
“He’s a little pitbull,” defenseman Sean Walker said the day after Stankoven opened the scoring in Game 3 at a very hostile Canadian Tire Centre. “We were just watching some videos now. The way he gets after the puck, works his (butt) off, chases it down and then his skill takes over too.
“I don’t know if you want to say he is mature beyond his years because he is young, he loves the game and he works so hard. He has a motor that never stops. Obviously, he has been huge for us in this series, and we are going to lean on him the rest of the playoffs."
