For the better part of the past decade, the Carolina Hurricanes franchise has been mired in near misses. Points lost at inopportune times, draft picks that never panned out and star players that were supposed to save the floundering hockey club have all combined to pile up the misery. But when you look up the definition of “so close yet so far” in the Hurricanes dictionary, the 2010-2011 team may very well have its team photo next to the phrase.
The arrival of a (still) baby-faced Jeff Skinner was a shot in the arm to a team that already had established veterans in the likes of Eric Staal, Erik Cole, Tuomo Ruutu and Cam Ward.