Bill Peters Delivering on Special Teams Promise for Carolina Hurricanes

On Monday night, the Carolina Hurricanes came within five minutes and 11 seconds of the second-longest penalty-killing streak in the NHL since 1987.

A Toronto goal with six seconds left on a Tim Gleason holding penalty ended a streak of 29 days and 875:48 of ice time—13 full games—since the 'Canes had last allowed a power-play goal, killing 36 consecutive opponent opportunities over that time span. They fell just short of tying the 2012 St. Louis Blues for the second-longest streak since '87.

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Carolina still killed three of four Maple Leafs power plays in Monday's 4-1 win to remain fourth in the league with an 87.0 percent kill rate.

It's a special teams proficiency not seen in Raleigh for years and a satisfying bright spot in Bill Peters' debut season as head coach.

Peters preached the dire need for special teams improvement after his introduction last summer, and his promises were not without reason: The Hurricanes' power play hadn't ranked higher than 18th in the NHL since 2007-08, and the penalty kill hadn't ranked higher than 17th since 2006-07.

Along with current assistants Rod Brind'Amour and Steve Smith, who have both been given much credit for the team's special teams advances in 2014-15, Peters and Co. have made tremendous strides in changing that trend.

Team	Diff.
1. Detroit	+17
2. Chicago	+12
3. Pittsburgh	+11
3. Vancouver	+11
5. St. Louis	+10
6. Carolina	+8
30. Buffalo	-32

The power play admittedly ranks 22nd in the NHL despite showing some flashes of productivity, but the sum of Carolina's man-advantage and man-disadvantage efficiency rates (103.6 percent) is still the NHL's seventh best.

Advanced stats confirm the accuracy and legitimacy of the team's rankings in both power-play and penalty-kill efficiency: The 'Canes have allowed the fifth-fewest Corsi (shot attempts) against on the penalty kill and produced the 22nd-most Corsi on the power play, per Hockey Analysis data.

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Peters came to Carolina after three years as a Detroit Red Wings assistant working primarily with defense and penalty kill. He's since smoothly transferred the experience he gained from that role into his head coaching job.

After his hiring, first-year general manager Ron Francis signed defensive center Jay McClement away from the aforementioned Maple Leafs. McClement now leads the 'Canes in average short-handed ice time (2:32 per game) and faceoffs (55.4 winning percentage) and has proven a vital ingredient in the team's penalty-killing excellence of late.

Despite McClement's fantastic numbers, Peters has done a great job involving a number of players on the penalty-killing effort. Eleven skaters are averaging over a minute of short-handed ice time per game, including even 5'5" Nathan Gerbe, who has emerged as an unexpectedly solid killer due to his tenacity alone.

Discipline is also helping the effort. Only the Colorado Avalanche have taken fewer minor penalties than the Hurricanes' 137 this season, a habit of law-abiding play that has prevented opponents from building up power-play momentum or tiring out Carolina's usual killers.

Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images

With the 'Canes on pace for their best net special teams goal differential since the 2005-06 season—a season that produced a bit of hardware by its conclusion—the refreshing new approach of Peters and the rest of the coaching staff deserves wholehearted credit for its success so far.

The playoffs certainly remain a mere pipe dream, regardless of the good mood created by the team's 6-2-1 start to 2015; the Hurricanes currently boast a less-than-promising 0.1 percent playoff chance, according to Sports Club Stats.

Nevertheless, the highly substantial progress made on Carolina's perennially woeful special teams units should, moving forward, remove a burden that has cost plenty of wins over the past decade.

Mark Jones has been a Carolina Hurricanes featured columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more or follow him on Twitter.