It took nine games, but the Carolina Hurricanes are finally in the win column. The Hurricanes beat the Arizona Coyotes by a score of three to zero for their first win of the 2014-15 season. The club has had a dreadful start to the year, picking up just two points through their first eight games.
Maybe it’s not time to pop the champagne, but for the Hurricanes this is a step (a small one) in the right direction. You’d have a tough time finding anything positive to say during the month of October where the Hurricanes went 0-6-2 aside from the fact the team was placing themselves in line for a top draft pick and potentially Connor McDavid.
The Hurricanes’ bad start has been mostly overshadowed by Buffalo’s start. The Sabres have skated in more games (12 to the Hurricanes’ nine) and have looked laughable, but the Hurricanes deserve just as much criticism. No one was expecting the Hurricanes to be a Cup contender, but few would have guessed they’d need almost a full month to pick up their first win.
Where do the Hurricanes need to improve? How long do you have? Goaltending is an extreme area of concern seeing as both Cam Ward (3.17 GAA and .872 SV%) and Anton Khudobin (3.24 GAA and .891 SV%) have GAAs above three and save percentages below .900 percent. The offense isn’t much better as the club is averaging just 26.2 shots a night.
The NHL season is a long one filled with many milestones. The Hurricanes finally scratched “first win” off of their list, but it may be a long time before they reach their next plateau.
