Yes, it’s a bad pun: no capitals. It’s based off the social media post from the Carolina Hurricanes after they eliminated the Capitals from the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. In five games it was a masterful display by the Hurricanes. Carolina may be the sleeper team in the final four if it shakes out to be Florida, Carolina, Dallas and Edmonton. So how did the Hurricanes do it?
One particular skill the Hurricanes have had is creating chances and by that higher quality scoring chances. What they did to achieve that is something which often gets overlooked when looking at teams, and that is bringing five skaters into the play much more frequently than their opposition. Yes, the ‘Canes have a deep and diverse roster of skilled players but they way they deploy their skaters is so difficult to defend against and Washington had the same challenges other teams this past season and the Devils had this post season.
The line matchups have been well managed by Rod Brind’Amour and the ferociousness of their forechecking gave the Capitals problems through the series. It is the consistent relentless nature of Hurricanes hockey that makes them so difficult to manage. Take the five-game series, match by match.
- Game 1- Canes lead in XGf and High danger chances and Andersen saves more
- Game 2- Capitals lead in XGf and high danger changes and Thompson saves more
- Game 3- Canes lead in XGf , high danger and goaltending
- Game 4- Same as above
- Game 5- Same again
Replicated process
The point here is that the Hurricanes are consistent and they are getting three key ingredients to winning and it happened in each game they won. It’s not a coincidence and neither is the next part. When the Capitals struggled it’s because they could not regain or maintain puck possession. Carolina had a staggering 62.5% at 5v5 for Corsi-for!! So Washington was chasing the play and resulted to what many teams do, hit and try to be physical. The problem is if you are not causing turn overs and changing possession hits are fairly futile when a team is owning you that badly.
To compound the possession problem, the Capitals also had a problem with turning over the puck and often because of the forechecking from the Hurricanes. The two go hand in had and there may be not team in the league as disciplined as the Hurricanes are at executing their game plan.
With Freddy Andersen playing as well as he has it was fairly easy for the Hurricanes to be aggressive and drive the play to their needs. It’s not always one thing that wins series as much as a combination of many little things but goaltending is always a big part of it.
The numbers always say what happened but when they are this consistent with a team it’s time to assume they are going to do it again. That’s what their next series opponent will have to consider and how to counter their possession and forecheck. Why fix what isn’t broken and thus far the Hurricanes are showing their formula works and that being consistent brings results.
See, when there no Capitals with the puck, there are also no capitals (or any other team) in the playoffs.
great article , I enjoyed it very much, welcome to hockey hotstove .