LAS VEGAS \u2013 Everything is relative, of course, when it comes to getting \u201cover the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Buffalo Sabres haven\u2019t made the playoffs since 2011, so they\u2019d love to end a 14-year absence come springtime. Last week, Ryan Warsofsky, coach of a San Jose Sharks team that hasn\u2019t made the playoffs since 2019, was willing to surrender one of his children to get a single victory after the Sharks dropped their first six games.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota Wild have made the playoffs every year but two since 2013, yet they haven\u2019t gotten past the first round in a decade. It led to a tense moment two years ago at an end-of-season news conference when GM Bill Guerin took umbrage with a reporter\u2019s use of the phrase \u201cgetting over the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat hump?\u201d Guerin snapped back like Igor from Young Frankenstein.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s almost laughable when folks talk about the Carolina Hurricanes and how they can\u2019t get \u201cover the hump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Rod Brind\u2019Amour became Carolina\u2019s coach in 2017, the Hurricanes have the best regular-season points percentage in the NHL at .756 and third-most points at 711, four behind the Bruins (who have played four more games) and three behind the Avalanche (who have played three more games). They\u2019ve been to the Eastern Conference Final three times in those seven seasons and have won 10 playoff rounds \u2013 at least one in each of Brind\u2019Amour\u2019s seven years behind the bench.<\/p>\n
Think the Sabres, Sharks, Wild and scores of other teams wouldn\u2019t kill for such success?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve won a lot of rounds,\u201d Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky told The Athletic during a sitdown last week in Las Vegas. \u201cWe just haven\u2019t strung together three or four in one year. And I understand why people look at that the way they do. But, yeah, there are teams that go a long time without making the playoffs. There are teams that make the playoffs and don\u2019t win in round one. There are teams that make the playoffs and don\u2019t win in round two. You can set the bar wherever you want. Until we get to a championship, people are going to be questioning whether we will get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have a strong team and it\u2019s set up to give us a number of cracks at it and I believe we will break through. But until we do, I understand the stories are going to be told the way they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reality is inside that locker room, the 82-game regular season is just an obligation to get to the place where they have a singular goal in mind. As Sebastian Aho says bluntly, \u201cWe\u2019re here to win a Stanley Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Canes don\u2019t want to become the Sharks of yesteryear \u2013 a daunting regular-season team and strong playoff performer that just couldn\u2019t win that ultimate prize. The Sharks came so close in 2016 before losing to the Penguins in the final round, and that was all she wrote.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes, like the Dallas Stars in the West, feel like they\u2019re right there and now it\u2019s just a matter of getting past the final step. They won their first five games, have gotten off to a 6-2 start and are returning home after a six-game road trip in which they went 4-2, including three games in a row against Western Conference contenders Vegas (loss), Colorado (win) and Dallas (loss).<\/p>\n
Sure, Brind\u2019Amour and players looked at the games as an early-season measuring stick, but Tulsky also has a good measure of his team. He thinks they\u2019re a strong contender and whether they went 3-0 or 0-3 in those three games wasn\u2019t going to shake his belief in his club, especially when they played much of the trip with two defensemen and a goalie out, ending the trip without defensemen Jaccob Slavin, K\u2019Andre Miller and Shayne Gostisbehere, forwards Eric Robinson and William Carrier and goalie Pyotr Kochetkov.<\/p>\n
Seth Jarvis is so nasty pic.twitter.com\/HVhPNHqk5N<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) October 24, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n In the 2023 and 2025 conference final, it was the Florida Panthers \u2013 winner of back-to-back Stanley Cups and three straight Prince of Wales Trophies \u2013 that the Hurricanes couldn\u2019t get through. Tulsky is analytical in nature, but he\u2019s not about to tear down what the Canes have built to add a bunch of players that can beat the hard-nosed, sometimes-bullying Panthers at their own game.<\/p>\n The reality is every year is different, and even though until proven otherwise the winner of the East expects they\u2019ll have to go through South Florida and declaw the Panthers, Tulsky says it\u2019s dangerous to build your team around one specific opponent.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Tampa won twice, people would\u2019ve reacted to that one way and then Colorado won and people would\u2019ve reacted differently,\u201d Tulsky said. \u201cUltimately, we need to believe in what we\u2019re doing and build the team our way and not try and match what one other team is doing. We feel like we\u2019ve got a squad that is really designed to play a certain way and we just want to keep adding to it, and we want organic growth from our own players getting better and prospects coming into the lineup and adding reinforcements.\u201d<\/p>\n The Hurricanes, when fully healthy, have proven to be a formidable opponent. Seth Jarvis is tied for third in the NHL with seven goals and looks to keep getting faster and smarter next to one of the league\u2019s most underrated centers, Aho, who has four goals and 10 points in eight games. In the offseason, they added Miller and speedster Nikolaj Ehlers. Ehlers is still looking for his first goal despite ample chances and strong play as the first-line left wing, and Miller looked to be bouncing back from a rough year with the New York Rangers before getting hurt.<\/p>\n In Vegas last week, the Hurricanes\u2019 most dangerous line was Taylor Hall-Logan Stankoven-Jackson Blake. Hall\u2019s strong start is one big reason why Andrei Svechnikov, who has yet to record a point in eight games, had landed on the fourth line for several games in a row before being elevated against the Stars due to injuries. Hall came in the initial three-way Carolina-Chicago-Colorado Mikko Rantanen trade from the Blackhawks last winter. Stankoven came in the subsequent Rantanen deal from Dallas and Blake adds speed, scrappiness and creativity anywhere he plays in the lineup after a strong rookie year.<\/p>\n But when Tulsky says \u201creinforcements,\u201d we also know he\u2019s likely underselling his ultimate objective and that\u2019s to again add a superstar to the lineup \u2014 not just short-term, but long-term.<\/p>\n Two years ago, the Hurricanes traded for Pittsburgh\u2019s Jake Guentzel down the stretch. He was outstanding in Raleigh, but the Canes ultimately couldn\u2019t sign him and he landed in Tampa on a long-term deal with a $9 million AAV. Last year, they acquired Rantanen from Colorado and tried to persuade him into signing a long-term extension. When he declined, they recovered quite nicely by sending him to Dallas for Stankoven, two first-round picks and two third-round picks.<\/p>\n So will the Hurricanes go big-game hunting again later this season?<\/p>\n There\u2019s no doubt owner Tom Dundon is motivated to add a star to the fold. When the Wild were trying to extend Kirill Kaprizov\u2019s contract before the season and reports came out that he initially turned down a $128 million contract over eight years, the assumption around the NHL was that Kaprizov didn\u2019t want to re-sign there. In the three-week period between Kaprizov turning down the deal and signing a $136 million extension, league sources say the Hurricanes were the one team that reached out to the Wild to express an interest if it ever got to the point the Wild considered trading him.<\/p>\n Tulsky wouldn\u2019t confirm that, but admitted \u201cwe also want acquisition growth through finding ways to get better around the league when we can.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re always looking to get better,\u201d Tulsky said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to look at everything that comes up, whether something gets labeled as big-game hunting or sort of more routine moves. That\u2019s a matter of how the media and fans want to see it. But we\u2019re just looking for anything we can find that\u2019ll make our team better. I think every team wants to bring stars if they can. Stars are hard to come by. If we see an opportunity to get a player, a star almost always makes your team better and so it\u2019s always going to be something we\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n Tulsky also believes talents like Jarvis and Aho bring plenty of star power. While he doesn\u2019t ever like to play the small-market card, Tulsky believes if they were in a different market, \u201cthose guys would get a level of attention that they don\u2019t get playing for Carolina. It creates a narrative sometimes that we don\u2019t have the stars that some bigger-city teams have just because our guys haven\u2019t gotten the attention that they would\u2019ve gotten somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n Sebastian Aho iskee j\u00e4lleen eik\u00e4 ole j\u00e4\u00e4nyt pisteitt\u00e4 koko kaudella! \ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n Nyt kahdeksaan peliin 10 pistett\u00e4 (4+6). \ud83c\udf2a\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/h4MbH4oiho<\/a><\/p>\n