RALEIGH, N.C. — Frederik Andersen got up from the ice and pushed his glove into the face of Washington Capitals center Nic Dowd, who had just bumped the Carolina Hurricanes goalie behind his net. A scrum ensued, and off to the side, Washington defenseman Martin Fehérváry was using the opportunity to ragdoll Jackson Blake, ripping off the Hurricanes forward’s helmet.

Then arrived Logan Stankoven — all 5-foot-8, 165 pounds of him — to stand up for his linemate. According to HockeyFights.com’s punch counter, Stankoven landed five of eight blows, twice as many as Fehérváry, who has at least six inches and 50 pounds on the sprightly but feisty Carolina center.

“I’ve never had a fight in my life,” Stankoven said after the game on Nov. 11. “But I think things change over time, and people change. And I think when you see a teammate down like that and they try and push us around, I’m not gonna stand for that.”

It was the second fight by the Hurricanes this season, with the other coming five days earlier.

When Jalen Chatfield was checked in the head by Minnesota’s Tyler Pitlick on Nov. 6, captain Jordan Staal — who hadn’t dropped the gloves in 8 1/2 years — came to his defense.

“I think it’s about protecting your teammates and being there for each other,” Staal said.

Last season, Carolina’s first fight didn’t come until the calendar flipped to 2025, and while the Hurricanes won’t be confused with the 1970s Broad Street Bullies or even the modern-day Florida Panthers, there’s a different, grittier vibe to this year’s team.

Yet you can’t roam social media without seeing other teams’ fans, or even Carolina supporters, claiming the team lacks toughness or is soft — probably the worst thing you can call a player or team.

So what is soft?

“I think if you call the team soft, there’s something wrong with maybe the locker room or not sticking up for each other,” right wing Seth Jarvis said. “They think they can take advantage of you.”

Someone who watches the Hurricanes day after day, year after year, knows that using the “S word” to describe them is misguided — insulting even.

Ask players from around the league which teams they like playing the least, and Carolina is often at the top of the list. The Hurricanes may not ground and pound opponents in a traditional sense, but their relentless energy is anything but soft.

“I think the way we play is aggressive, in-your-face and hard,” Jarvis said. “And I think that’s where we get teams. I think that’s what makes it so hard to play against.”

It’s what their coach, Rod Brind’Amour, has instilled in them.

“I’d rather have that as your thing that people talk about,” he said. “And whether you’re fighters or you have tough guys, at the end of the day, I view toughness a little differently.

“Toughness is coming to play every night. Toughness is taking a hit and making a play, really being more consistent every night. That’s tough. That’s tough to do. So there’s different ways to talk about any term on stuff. We don’t have those so-called ‘tough,’ fighter-type players. That’s not how we are, but we have a ton of tough players.”

Still, there’s a reason some have hung that sign on Carolina. Since Brind’Amour took over as coach in 2018-19, the Hurricanes have the fewest fights of any team. Carolina’s 57 major penalties (not all are fights, but the majority are) are 13 fewer than 31st-place Pittsburgh and just over a quarter as many as Nashville’s league-leading 211.

Stankoven’s fight on Tuesday got the Hurricanes out of this year’s basement — they’re now tied with eight other teams with two majors. Edmonton ranks last — Trent Frederic’s scrap Monday against Columbus was the Oilers’ first — while the Flames lead the league with eight majors through Wednesday’s games.

Fighting, as Brind’Amour said, isn’t everything when it comes to toughness.

First off, Carolina has a handicap when it comes to being physical. NHL EDGE data ranks the Hurricanes first in the league in offensive-zone puck possession at 45.4 percent, 1.8 percent better than second-place Nashville. They’re also at the top of the league with the least amount of time in the defensive zone, at 36.5 percent. The more you have the puck, the less you’re hitting the opposition to get it back.

There is, however, evidence that this year’s Hurricanes are more physical. Carolina was 30th in the league in hits last season after being last in 2023-24, according to MoneyPuck.com. So far this year, Carolina ranks 22nd in hits with 313.

A big part of that increase this season is rookie Alexander Nikishin.

Nicknamed “Boom” during his time dominating the KHL because of his hard slap shot — he has nine shots over 90 mph this season, and his 98.97-mph shot on Oct. 14 against the Sharks is the seventh-hardest shot in the league this year, according to NHL EDGE — and thunderous hits, Nikishin leads Carolina with 44 hits.

That was tied for fifth among NHL defensemen, and his 8.06 hits per 60 minutes ranks 10th among blueliners. He’s on pace for 225 hits this season, which would be tied with Erik Cole in 2010-11 for the third-most by a Hurricanes player in the post-lockout era. Only Tuomo Ruutu, with 309 in 2010-11 and 228 in 2008-09, has totaled more.

Nikishin has also shown little regard for who is on the other end of his hits, such as his crushing blow to Boston’s David Pastrnak this month.

Another one! 😲

This time, Nikishin plasters David Pastrnak. https://t.co/ij1sOd8rRi pic.twitter.com/jFXwMx1MUz

— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) November 1, 2025

He’s also displayed a certain stoicism when delivering those hits, willing to stand up for himself and teammates should opponents take issue with any physicality.

“I think there’s a lot more in there, too,” Brind’Amour said of Nikishin’s toughness. “I think he’s trying to figure that out, how that works. I think he’s just scratching the surface.”

While the Hurricanes have not historically piled up big hit numbers in the regular season, that often changes in the playoffs.

Among teams with at least 10 playoff games last year, Carolina ranked third in hits per game at 41.4, according to statistics compiled from MoneyPuck. Only Winnipeg (45.8) and Florida (43.3) averaged more hits per game.

“I feel like it always gets talked about, right? We’re going to playoffs, oh, we’re not physical enough,” forward Jordan Martinook said. “And then playoffs roll around, and we usually outhit every team in our playoff series. I don’t know. I think maybe it’s because we have never had an enforcer, like a true fighter, on our team before.”

That is true: Carolina hasn’t employed a true full-time heavyweight since Kevin Westgarth in 2013, though the game has changed drastically when it comes to enforcers over the last decade or so.

It’s something, frankly, the Hurricanes don’t think they need.

“I think people get caught up in, there’s these big fights, these big guys that go out there to throw ’em,” Jarvis said. “Which, I mean, they definitely have a job and there’s a role for that, but it’s not something that we need here or something that we see fits our style.”