How Bout Them 'Canes?

The surprise of late definitely have been the Carolina Hurricanes. Despite losing many of their key players to trades and injuries, the Hurricanes have wielded off a 7 game winning streak.

Losing the likes of Matt Cullen, Joe Corvo, Aaron Ward to trades and Cam Ward to injury would be enough for the rest of the roster to give up, maybe focus on the winning the draft lottery. But not this bunch, they still have an outside chance at a playoff spot and until that is eliminated, they will continue to go for it.

How are they doing it? Well, the young guys have been given a chance with all the trades and they are certainly taking advantage. With almost no pressure, the players are relishing in the opportunity to play how they want, which is definitely benefiting.

The young guns like Brent Sutter are taking advantage of the opportunity given to them and making the best of it. They are getting great goal tending from both Manny Legace and Justin Peters, the loss of Cam Ward has given another opportunity to others to step up.

Early in the season, the Hurricanes got into one of the worst injury bugs the league has ever seen. Losses of Staal, Cole, Cam Ward among others were devastating and as a result the team went into one of the worst losing skids around. This put them effectively out of the playoffs.

The truth is, the Carolina Hurricanes are one of those teams who has been all over the standings. One year they win the cup, the next, they fail to make the playoffs. This is just one of those off years, they will make the playoffs next season.

One thing is for certain, if the Carolina Hurricanes had been playing like this all season, this would not be an off year.