Carolina Hurricanes need to lean on their youth

Carolina Hurricanes need to lean on their youth

One of the questions that I was asked not long ago by by I would say a casual Canes fan and it’s a fantastic question. I’m not knocking the question asker. Uh the question was simply what’s different this year. Right? If you’re a casual fan, you pay attention. You check the scores in the morning. You’re probably not staying up for a 10:00 game, but you would if it was a 7:00 game, right? You’re a casual fan. All you know is the Canes have been good for a long time, but they kind of make it to the same spot in the postseason. and and fizzle out. So this year, before I go get my hopes up, before I go invest, what’s different? And and I thought there’s two ways I could have answered that question. And this is why you don’t ask a sports radio host like a casual question and conversation because you don’t get, oh, the the answer is this. You get, well, I’ll answer that in a seven-part outline. Let’s start with number one. And they’re like, oh gosh. Um, I could have answered like real technical hockey stuff and just said, “Well, you know, this is what Keandre Miller brings to the table. This is what Alexander Nikeshan’s potential is. Here’s uh Nikolai Eers, who’s one of the crown jewels of the free agency class. Or I could answer with something more uh viby, right? I could go a little more in theory.” And I’m going with vibes. The Canes may not actually be that much younger than in years past. I I went and looked it up like average age of roster on opening night. Uh you know it’s it’s negligible. It’s 28.4 this year 28.1 another 28.5. Like it just seems like most NHL rosters are somewhere in the around 28 years on on average age. So they might not actually be much younger this year than in years past, but vibes they seem a 100 times younger. And and there’s two things that I’m going to point out here. One, uh the captain, Jordan Stall, will play his 900th game as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes tonight in San Jose. That’s crazy. 900 Kane’s uniform. Exactly. And he had a whole life before the We don’t acknowledge it, but the whole life in the NHL before playing for the Carolina Hurricanes. Only three players in the entire franchise’s history, going back to when they were the Whalers, have played more than 900 games as a member of this franchise. Ron Francis, Glenn Wesley, Eric Stall. And guess what? He’s going to pass Eric Stall like maybe I don’t know exactly in next month he’s only nine games behind after tonight. Eric Stall and And obviously that comes you don’t get to 900 games with a team, especially your second team. Uh, not saying you got to 900, but like after playing for a bunch of years for another team, it doesn’t happen unless you’re you’re getting up there in age, right? Unless you’re a little long in the tooth, as they say. And then the other thing that’s happening is uh we don’t know the availability of of Jacob Slavven over the next however long, right? He did do we ever and I I pay attention to this stuff as as much as anybody and it hasn’t come across my purview. Did we learn if Slavven was on the plane yesterday? I I did not I do not know the the last bit of info we have then is uh Rod Brendenmore updating everybody after practice yesterday. We have that audio here. Uh so here’s Rod from after practice yesterday which was here in Carolina before leaving for the West Coast on still being unsure if Slavven will suit up. Um maybe he’s getting looked at again and so he didn’t feel great at the end of the game. Um so we’ll I mean that’s still to be TBD I think. still TBD. So, we’ll say still TBD. Um, for the first time in a while, again, it’s more vibes than it is on actual roster averages. I think the Canes can lean on the young guys to grind the regular season a lot more to be the the cornerstones that that have to do a lot of the heavy lifting. If Slavven has to miss some time, and goodness knows that the Canes would miss him as any team that would miss a player of Slavven’s caliber, but if Slavven has to miss some time, you’re not looking towards Brent Burns or a guy who’s actually going to be on the other side of this this matchup tonight, uh, Demetri Orof. Like, you’re not looking towards 38s and 32s and 33s and saying, “We’re going to need you to wind back the clock and have the the energy of a mid20s guy.” You’re leaning on actual mid and early 20s guys. Keandre Miller is 26. I mean, we know Alexander Nikian is young, right? He’s he’s a rookie. 23. Jaylen Chatfield might be might be 29 years old, but again, vibes are younger. Jordan Stall, when you look at the forwards, will always lead his line, and it’s an important line, and they have the identity, and they’re grinding, right? They’re they’re checking. and they’re doing what they have to do. But the strength of the forwards this year for the Carolina Hurricanes, it’s young. I I’ll start with youngest. Stankovven 22, Blake 22, Jarvis 23. Even Svetch is 25 years old. Grizzle young vet. He is a Yeah, exactly. Uh, you know, it’s funny because Jarvis is always going, “Why are you acting like I’m old? I’m not 40.” I’m sure he treats Fetch like he is 40. He’s only 25, Aaho 28, Eers 29. It is even with and and you know, they do have their their vets, don’t get me wrong, but I look at this team and I see a youthful energy that I I have not seen in a while, right? In a while. And and I think that’s underrated. You go back like three years ago, if even like AO is more of an old soul. If it if it it felt like there were just a bunch of like old guys that wanted to be in bed by 8:45 and then Jarvis trying to provide all of Spark as, you know, the the little kid in the room. Now it’s it’s it it just seems more fun rather than, you know, grizzled. Grizzled’s a good word. I’ll use grizzled. And this is no disrespect to some guys that were on those teams, but Grizzled doesn’t sound like the the the the most exciting and most fun way to go to work every day. How was work today, Grizzled? How was work today? Grinding. That’s not fun, right? I think this Carolina Hurricanes team uh in addition to the the the Eers and and like the actual tangible additions, the difference between this year and last year is like you know little bit more kid energy and and the last part I’ll bring up about this is and I and I know Kane’s fans in particular really don’t like when you uh you know look to other teams to to you know like hey you know that you can learn something from this Um, I’m still wildly impressed by the trio of players uh with Pittsburgh, right? The the little group led by Sydney that’s been there for 20 years as teammates. And did you see when uh Mark Andre Flurry has spent like the whatever week there and played in one more kind of retirement preseason game? Uh do you see what he did the entire time he was there? What was that? Pranks. Oh yeah. He was he was messing with their cars. He was messing with their lockers. And and part of me was like, “All right, guys. You’re you’re like 40 years old.” But then the other part of me was like, I think that might be why that group did so well together because they kept like the pond hockey kids spark the entire time they were together. And and the moment they got back together, it went right back to like we’re 17-year-old prospects again. Like it went right back to it. 22year-old newly rich young guys again. I think this year’s Kane’s team can have a bit of that, right? A a bit of fun, a bit of college atmosphere, and and I think it’ll breathe new life to the Stall and Martin guys, the guys that have been around a while. I think it’ll breathe new life into the older guys because you can’t help it. You can’t help it. The the youth keeps you young. You know what I mean? That’s what I That’s what I I hope in addition to the actual tangible hockey stuff is different this year about the Carolina Hurricanes. I hope we get stories of hy jinks on the road after this two-week uh road trip. I I want Jarvis tying like two uh hotel doors together across the hall, knocking on both doors and watching them open and just closing on each other. That’s what I want. wants Staly when he gets off the elevator hitting all of the buttons so they got to ride them one at a time. That’s what I want.

Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss how the Carolina Hurricanes can use the youth throughout their lineup, and how head coach Rod Brind’Amour can use the depth throughout his lineup to keep guys fresh throughout the season.

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