In a season of coin flips, the important ones came up the Hurricanes’ way

It’s easy to get lost in the adversity the Carolina Hurricanes had to overcome, starting at the very beginning with a COVID outbreak and followed by a litany of injuries to key players even in this shortened season, to overlook just how many things went right.

There was nothing assured about the Hurricanes finishing the season as one of the best teams in the NHL and champions of an exceedingly difficult division, even if that’s been the trajectory of the franchise since Rod Brind’Amour took over a talented but rudderless group three years ago and gave it discipline and direction.

The Hurricanes went into this season gambling in more than a few places, players where they were hoping rather than knowing, areas of the team that were strengths on paper but potential weaknesses on the ice. There was more uncertainty going into this season than anyone cares to admit now; not whether this was a playoff team, but just how good it could actually be.

Their eventual success hung, essentially, on a series of coin flips. The Hurricanes won more than their share, and while they didn’t win them all, they won the biggest and most important ones.

Which is how they ended up here, hosting the Nashville Predators in the first round of the playoffs, avoiding the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, already with a banner to hang for the first time since 2006.

That covers a long list of things, from Jordan Staal turning back the clock to Nino Niederreiter rediscovering his scoring touch to Vincent Trocheck re-establishing himself as a legitimate No. 2 NHL center, the All-Star he once was. Martin Necas is starting to find ways to use his speed to change the game. Jake Bean remains raw, but he’s added something. Warren Foegele and Brock McGinn scored key goals.

Nobody claimed Alex Nedeljkovic on waivers in January, and he all but saved the Hurricanes’ season when Petr Mrazek got hurt. Midseason acquisitions Cedric Paquette and Jani Hakanpaa found and filled roles quickly. If this had been an 82-game season, the Hurricanes were on pace to have six 20-goal scorers, their most since 2006-07.

There have certainly been misses. Jake Gardiner still hasn’t found his footing here, and Andrei Svechnikov certainly has the exceptional talent to score more than he has, even before we get to the infuriating offensive-zone stick penalties. Haydn Fleury and Ryan Dzingel became expendable. And there have been key injuries, to Mrazek and Teuvo Teravainen and others, that held the Hurricanes back.

But there wasn’t anything even close to catastrophic, unexpected or otherwise. The Hurricanes were pretty sure what they were going to get from Sebastian Aho and Dougie Hamilton, Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce. This team isn’t built to carry them as passengers, and they led from the front as they were expected to do.

It’s easy to sit here and take them for granted, and just as easy to take for granted how much went right for the Hurricanes that could easily have gone wrong. Perfectly promising past seasons have been derailed by less, and the Hurricanes may very well look back and say that having the No. 1 seed in this particular division, in this unusual year, made all the difference.

None of that matters now. The playoffs are a different animal, and the Hurricanes have a different set of uncertainties to manage. Still, they operate now from a foundation that’s stronger than it was in January, or last August, or the spring of 2019.

Just about everything else the Hurricanes weren’t sure about going into training camp, they are sure about heading into the playoffs.

That doesn’t guarantee anything. But it’s a pretty good place to start.