Going into the all-star break, the Carolina Hurricanes sit seven points out of a playoff position. Just three weeks ago the Canes sat just one point behind the Flyers for the final wild card position, so what happened? In the Canes’ case, it may be more important to look at what didn’t happen?
When the Canes climbed the standings they stopped seeing backup goaltenders. In November and December, the Canes played only 10 games against starters and 14 games against backups. During these months the team earned a 14-9-5 record while playing backups a whopping 58.