Are the Hurricanes That Much Better Than the Penguins?

With our floundering Penguins mercifully entering their bye week, I got the idea to compare them to a couple of our Metro rivals. Kind of a what do they got that we ain’t got sort of thing.

I’ll start with the division-leading Hurricanes. As we all know, the ‘Canes are just a royal pain in the posterior to play against. This season we logged an 0-2-2 record against them. Going back through the 2019-20 season, we’re 1-4-3 against our Raleigh-based rivals. You have to go back to ’18-19, Rod Brind’Amour’s first season at the helm, for the Pens to wind up on the winning side of the ledger (2-1-1).

And it isn’t just us. With a record of 32-9-8 and 72 points, they’re beating everybody. Sunday night the ‘Canes ground the previously unstoppable Bruins to dust en route to a relatively easy 4-1 victory.

It begs the question. Are the ‘Canes that good? Or more to the point, are they that much better than us?

Glancing at their stats on Hockey Reference, the answer would appear to be no. Martin Necas, Sebastien Aho and Andrei Svechnikov are talented players to be sure, but no more than our top guns Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jake Guentzel.

Their fifth and sixth leading scorers? Jordan Martinook and ex-Pen Stefan Noesen, a 29-year-old journeyman forward who’s spent most of his career bouncing between the NHL and the AHL.

Must be the goaltending, right? Well…yes and no. The triumvirate of Frederik Andersen, Antti Raanta and rookie Pyotr Kochetkov have combined for a .907 save percentage. Our goalies have a .912 save percentage…Vezina-esque by comparison. Despite recent woes, our backup Casey DeSmith sits at .901 compared to Raanta’s .897.

Ah, then it’s roster construction and depth scoring. Uh uh. Think we have underachievers with the likes of Kasperi Kapanen and Teddy Blueger? Jesperi Kotkaniemi, pirated away from the Canadiens and expected to be a star, has seven goals in 49 games at a cap hit of $4.82 million. With just four goals in 39 games, three-time 20-goal scorer Teuvo Teravainen has totally tanked this season. He pulls down $5.4 million.

Compared to these guys, Kappy looks like a steal at $3.2 million.

Well, I guess it’s age. After all, the Pens are the oldest team in the league with an average age of 29.9 years. Nope. Although the ‘Canes are relative spring chickens at 27.4 (17^th oldest), they have 10 players over the age of 30, including Andersen, Raanta and fellow graybeards Brent Burns (37), Paul Stastny (36), Jordan Staal and injury-prone Max Pacioretty (33 each).

About their only clear-cut edge? The ‘Canes have an offensive defense. Despite the presence of Kris Letang and Jeff Petry, we don’t.

Okay, I give up. Why are they so much better than us?

Two things. The ‘Canes play a fast, physical style, aggressive but at the same time controlled and disciplined. And…here’s the key…they don’t beat themselves.

They’re very much a reflection of Brind’Amour, a grinding two-way center who played in 1484 NHL games and was renowned for his impeccable work ethic and attention to detail, not to mention sterling defensive play.

None of the above adjectives could be used to describe our Pens. In fact, in many ways we’re the anti- ‘Canes. The sloppiness, the fast-and-loose play, the utter lack of structure…especially in the d-zone. Every game of late has been a Keystone Kops comedy of errors.

We’ve become masters of shooting ourselves in the foot.

This isn’t intended to be a character assassination of Mike Sullivan, regarded by most to be a very good coach. The players are certainly culpable to a large degree. They’re the ones out on the ice executing…or as far more often is the case of late…not executing.

However, in stark contrast to Sully’s Carolina counterpart, it’s painfully clear that whatever message he’s preaching isn’t getting through. He alluded to as much during his postgame comments following the dreadful loss to San Jose on Saturday night.

“It starts with me,” he said. “I’ve got to do a better job of coaching these guys and getting it out of them and making sure that the message is being heard. We’ve got to learn through the experiences.”

Sullivan also needs to do a better job with the personnel on hand. Why do players like Noesen (pictured above) and undrafted defenseman Jalen Chatfield thrive under Brind’Amour?

He gives them a chance.

Contrast that with Pens forward Drew O’Connor, who’s been limited to an eye-dropperish 8:41 of ice time per game despite strong underlying metrics. Or any number of young players who’ve churned through the Pens’ pipeline over the past few years after being given the Sully treatment.

To sum up, the ‘Canes aren’t better than the Pens because they’re younger or more gifted or get airtight goaltending. Plain and simple, their coach has gotten them to buy into and execute a system that maximizes their talents and abilities.

Ours hasn’t. Indeed, more often than not, we resemble a fire drill. A shotgun blast of a hockey team…every player scrambling in their own wayward direction.

It’s up to Sullivan and his staff to rein our guys in and get them on the same page, playing as a unit and with a common purpose.

Our playoff lives depend on it.