During most of the last weeks of the regular season, the Hurricanes de la Caroline knew that they were locked up in second place in the metropolitan division.
Consequently, an end -of -season crisis did not harm its chances of obtaining a home advantage in the first round for the fourth consecutive season.
The Hurricanes hope to capitalize on their success in Raleigh, North Carolina, from Sunday afternoon when they open the playoffs against improved Devils in New Jersey.
“When we made playoffs with seven or eight games, I said it was a big achievement, to always have this track and take a break.” Caroline coach Rod Brind’amour said. “It says a lot about the group and the year we have had. This is a good thing. It shows that our standards are a little higher than in the past.”
The 31 Hurricanes home victories set a team record, linking them with the Kings of Los Angeles for the head of the League.
Carolina, who ended the season on a 1-6-1 section in her last eight games, has known that she will face the Devils during most of the last three months of the regular season.
“We feel good, we feel confident, we just need to stay healthy and play our game,” said Andrei Svechnikov de Carolina. “Just do what we do.
Most of the same players in last year’s team who lost in match 6 of the second round against the New York Rangers helped the Hurricanes. Sebastian Aho finished with 29 goals and 74 points and Seth Jarvis finished with 67 points for the second consecutive season.
The Hurricanes also hope for more production of production of production of Taylor Hall, Logan Stankhoven and Mark Jankowski, who combined to score 22 goals.
The Devils are in playoffs for the second time in three seasons and only the fourth time since their 2012 race in the Stanley Cup final. They arrived this season with the first year coach Sheldon Keefe, who led the Toronto Maple Leafs with five consecutive appearances.
New Jersey beat the New York Rangers in a series of seven seven games two years ago before falling in five against the Hurricanes. Jack Hughes, who scored six goals in the playoffs two years ago, is absent with a shoulder injury suffered on March 2.
“He is such an offense producer for us,” said Keefe. “We are not going to produce so much. It’s just reality. It doesn’t mean that we cannot win games, as we have shown here. … You have to be much better defensively, and you have to put the chances that you get.”
The Devils have also spent the past few weeks playing without Dougie Hamilton, but he returned to the regular season final and will play in the series.
Jesper Bratt finished with 21 goals and an 88 -point career summit after totaling 83 points last season. The New Jersey hopes to see him continue to produce with Captain Nico Hischier and Timo Meier.
The Devils acquired Jacob Marksrom from the Calgary Flames last summer and he had 26-16-6 with an average of 2.50 goals in 49 games. However, he had 5-7-1 in 13 games after a knee injury.
– field level media