How Hurricanes Must Change For Conference Final Success

The Carolina Hurricanes are a great regular season team and have had no problems getting to the second round or even the conference finals year after year, but that's as far as they've gone in a long time. The team is now on a 15 game losing streak in the conference finals and have lost seven games in a row to the Florida Panthers. dating back to two years ago. So what do the Hurricanes need to do differently and how different do they have to look to get over the hump?

The Panthers have a specific style of play that amplifies in the postseason, and that's play hard and get under the opponent's skin. It has worked to perfection this year and caused the Hurricanes to get off of their game. I don't think that Carolina's regular plan of throwing everything on net is going to keep working against an opponent like the Panthers. It hasn't yet even though the Hurricanes dominated the first two rounds.

It has been an insanely outmatched series for the third round of the playoffs as the Panthers have scored 16 goals to the Hurricanes' four in three games. The East seems to run through the Panthers now as this will be the third time they head to the Stanley Cup Final. It doesn't seem like they are going to be getting a whole lot worse, especially when they crank up the fight in the playoffs, anytime soon.

The goaltending seems to only be an issue when the Hurricanes reach the conference finals. Frederik Andersen had been rock solid for the first two rounds, but then allowed nine goals on 36 shots against for a .750 SV% overall and in each of his two games. Even though the Hurricanes went to Pyotr Kochetkov in the third game, it didn't make much of a difference either as he allowed six goals and five came in the third period. It's not all on the goaltending though.

The Hurricanes are just heavily outmatched. The series isn't over, but in everyone's minds, it is. Personnel and effort changes have to be made at the very least if Carolina wants to get through the gatekeepers in the East. This is the Hurricanes' window and it is passing by with every year they can't win a conference finals game.