Left wing Nikolaj Ehlers, center, celebrates with teammates Sean Walker (26) and Sebastian Aho (20) after scoring his first goal with the Hurricanes in Carolina’s 3-0 win over the Rangers on Nov. 4 in New York. (Noah K. Murray / AP Photo)

RALEIGH — If an eight-time 20-goal scorer with a big contract is going to start his time with a new team with an 11-game goal drought, he might as well do it when there are other things to distract the fan base.

The Carolina Hurricanes’ impressive record despite the team being besieged by injuries mostly overshadowed Nikolaj Ehlers’ slow statistical start with his new team, keeping the internet regret flames such a scoring funk would usually elicit to a minimum.

But even though Ehlers felt he was playing well at times, slowly getting his legs under him in an unfamiliar situation after a decade in Winnipeg, the answer is yes — scoring his first goal with the Hurricanes last Tuesday was a weight off his shoulders.

“Absolutely. I mean, that’s why you’re asking too, right?” said Ehlers, who signed a six-year, $51 million contract this summer. “You know it’s probably a little relief, and it for sure is. You come to a new team, a new city, everything’s completely new besides the playing hockey part that I’ve done since I was 3 years old.

“So yeah, a bit of a rough start production-wise, but I still felt that in some of the games I was feeling pretty good and playing pretty good hockey. So I’m happy they finally went in.”

And it seems things have started to roll downhill for Ehlers since. After five games without a point to start his Hurricanes career, the 29-year-old had points in four of six games before finally denting the goal column. That started a four-game point streak that was intact entering Tuesday’s home game against the Capitals. Ehlers has gone from no points in his first five games to nine in his last 10.

While the winger was brought in to be a running mate to center Sebastian Aho on the top line, that experiment was put on hold when he was shifted to a line with Carolina’s small-and-shifty combo of Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake.

It’s unlikely Ehlers, at 6 feet, was ever the tallest guy on a line while playing with the Jets, but he can relate to people being skeptical of a smaller player’s ability to make an impact in the NHL.

“They did that to me as well,” Ehlers said of people doubting the 5-foot-8 Stankoven and 5-foot-11 Blake. “Those two guys can play hockey. … We’ve got the speed on our line to create some pretty good things.”

In Sunday’s come-from-behind-win in Toronto, they did just that. With the game tied 4-4 with under eight minutes left in regulation, Ehlers stole an outlet pass inside the Maple Leafs blue line, motored to the outside of the right circle and passed to fellow newcomer K’Andre Miller in the high slot. Miller made a deceptive backhand feed to Stankoven, who rifled a shot into the Toronto net for the go-ahead — and winning — goal.

Brind’Amour said after the win that he can sense Ehlers is becoming more comfortable with each game.

“He got a goal a few games ago, and you can just see all of a sudden there’s a little more pep in his step or whatever; a little more comfortable,” said Brind’Amour, who came to Raleigh as a player after eight-plus seasons in Philadelphia. “It’s a lot of pressure when you come to a new team and all the hype, more so when you’ve been somewhere for a long time. It’s just everything feels different.”

Ehlers said Winnipeg and Raleigh haven’t felt all the different, noting how “incredibly nice” everyone has been to him, but he expects to notice a change in that sentiment soon.

“I think I’ll really understand the different lifestyle once we get to January, February where I’m used to the minus 30 Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit),” he said with a laugh. “But you get used to everything, right? … My dog will definitely appreciate not wearing a jacket and boots every day going for a walk.”

He’s also gotten a crash course in the Hurricanes’ resilience. Carolina has played much of this season with three rookie defensemen in the lineup due to injuries, also losing a pair of forwards and battling some goaltending uncertainty to start the season.

“We had three defensemen go down and not play,” he said, “and we’ve had multiple games where we’ve had only five; one game four D playing. … The way that they’ve all bought in and stepped up is something that you need over the course of an 82-game season, and they’ve done that perfectly.

“It goes to show what we’re willing to do to help this team win, and everybody’s bought into that.”

And even though it took some time for Ehlers to show up in the scoring log, his teammates immediately recognized what adding him could mean to their Stanley Cup hopes.

“He’s just unbelievable,” Blake said. “He’s a stud. I love playing with that guy.”

Brind’Amour, no stranger to new beginnings, added, “I think he’s starting to feel at home now.”