April promises to be an important month for the Carolina Hurricanes.
The NHL regular season concludes on April 16. Two days later, the chase for the Stanley Cup begins in earnest. Sixteen teams (eight each from the Eastern and Western Conferences) take to the ice in hopes of snatching hockey’s grandest team prize. From Round 1 of the postseason, right up into the Stanley Cup Final, all four rounds are best-of-seven.
Carolina is aiming to be the Eastern Conference representative for the Cup Final, played in June. The way the first 45 games of this season are going, the Hurricanes are a candidate to achieve that goal.
Hosting the Seattle Kraken on Saturday at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Hurricanes snapped up their 28th victory in 45 games. The 3–2 win saw the Hurricanes rally in the third period, scoring two goals, and giving goalie Brandon Bussi his 16th victory of the season. The tie-breaking goal was credited to William Carrier, as the puck deflected off of him in the crease at 13:50, late in the game.
The Hurricanes are hot. Riding a four-game winning streak into Detroit on Monday with the Atlantic Division-leading Red Wings, it will take an unforeseen team meltdown for Carolina not to be among the 16 franchises that qualify for the postseason. The Metropolitan Division is all but wrapped up with 27 games to play.
While entertaining the Kraken in Raleigh on Saturday, Rod Brind'Amour, Carolina’s coach for the past eight seasons, had to have been pleased with the discipline his defensemen displayed. Allowing only 12 shots on goal, while getting 34 pucks on net at Seattle’s goalie Joey Daccord, Carolina controlled the tempo of the game.
Waking up Sunday atop the Metropolitan Division at 28–14–3 is the confidence builder the Hurricanes need within their conference. When combining the Atlantic with the Metropolitan Divisions, getting that all-important top conference seed is an important goal each of the 16 teams is shooting for. Through the first two rounds of the postseason, home-ice advantage is awarded to the team that placed highest in the regular season standings.
In conference play, Carolina is seeking the overall top spot in the standings in a competitive environment. The Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit are the Hurricanes’ chief competitors. After Saturday’s game, just two points separate all three teams from being the Eastern Conference leader.
A strong finish to the regular season depends on Carolina’s top skaters maintaining their exceptional play and avoiding major injuries over the coming four months. K'Andre Miller, who came over from the New York Rangers last July in a trade, and subsequently was signed by Carolina to an eight-year, $60 million contract, has been performing as was hoped for since the start of training camp.
Leading the Hurricanes’ defensive corps, Miller’s 21 points chipped in thus far have him on target to reach his career high of 43 reached during the 2022–2023 season with New York. Center Jordan Staal has 19 points, winger Taylor Hall, who has appeared in all 45 Hurricanes’ games, has collected 32 points, and center Seth Jarvis leads Carolina’s offense with 20 goals.
Past appearances by Carolina in Stanley Cup postseasons, in recent years, haven’t been kind. In 2025, the Hurricanes came out on the losing end in five games to the Florida Panthers in conference finals. Florida would go on to win their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship. A season earlier, in 2024, the Hurricanes didn’t reach as far as the Eastern Conference final. In Round 2 of the postseason, it was the New York Rangers that bounced Carolina from the tournament in six games. In 2023, it was the Panthers, in four games, who swept Carolina in the conference final.
Hurricane fans have been waiting 20 years to celebrate another Stanley Cup title. It was in the spring of 2006 that Carolina, eight years after relocating their franchise from Hartford, Connecticut, won their first and only Stanley Cup. Brind'Amour captained that championship squad that contained goalie Cam Ward, the playoffs’ Conn Smythe Trophy Award winner; Ray Whitney; and Andrew Ladd, who led the Carolina charge against the Edmonton Oilers in June 2006, to claim the Cup in seven games.
Having Brind‘Amour as the link between this season’s team and the successful 2006 postseason is important to the Hurricanes’ fan base. Carolina is currently 19th among the 32 NHL teams in attendance this season. As popular as Brind’Amour was during his 10 years playing for the Hurricanes, as a coach he is equally appreciated.
The NHL’s “second season” drops the puck on April 18. This is what the Hurricanes are priming their regular season for. A conference championship, and what as of now would appear to be a showdown with Western Conference powerhouse Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Final, is a tall order for the Hurricanes to achieve. With Brind'Amour at the bow of the Hurricane’s ship, the team has a great chance to make it through rough waters through April and enjoy smooth sailing into June.
