2025 NHL Playoffs:
Four Huge Carolina Hurricanes Questions
During “Elite Eight” Against Washington
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(updated May 15, 2025)
Here are four key questions as the Carolina Hurricanes compete in the “Elite Eight,” or the second round of the 2025 National Hockey League playoffs, and face the Washington Capitals in a best-of-seven clash.
Carolina leads the series 3-1. Game Five is Thursday (7 p.m., TNT/truTV/Max) in Washington, D.C.
#1. Aren’t the Hurricanes among the favorites to win the Stanley Cup this year?
Yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s anything close to a sure thing.
One aspect of the NHL playoffs that’s different than those of many other team sports is that the favored teams aren’t typically heavy favorites. In other words, you’re not going to find a team that enters the postseason with a 50 or even 20 percent chance of winning the championship very often. Even at the start of the second round of this year’s playoffs, with only eight teams still alive, nobody had reached that 20 percent threshold.
Clearly, that parity theme remains solidly in place.
According to The Athletic (an international sports media outlet) and MoneyPuck.com (a hockey analytics website), for example, the Canes currently are considered one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup. (The odds change daily.) That’s a bit unusual, because Carolina didn’t even win its own division this year and ranked only 10th in the league (among 32 teams) in regular-season points.
Here’s the breakdown of the websites’ updated odds for the seven remaining playoff teams as second-round play continues Thursday:
Rank/Team (Regular-Season Results) — Odds To Win Cup*
(May 15 Update; Odds Change Daily)
1. Carolina Hurricanes (47-30-5, 99 points) — 23%/24.2%
2. Florida Panthers (47-31-4, 98 points) — 22%/24.6%
3. Edmonton Oilers (48-29-5, 101 points) — 27%/18.9%
4. Dallas Stars (50-26-6, 106 points) — 21%/21.4%
5. Toronto Maple Leafs (52-26-4, 108 points) — 4%/5.6%
6. Winnipeg Jets (56-22-4, 116 points) — 3%/3.6%
7. Washington Capitals (51-22-9, 111 points) — <1%/1.8%
*–odds from TheAthletic.com/MoneyPuck.com
Underlining the difficult nature of winning in the NHL postseason, no team has been considered to have more than a roughly two-thirds (67 percent) chance of advancing in either the first or second round this year. The Hurricanes, who nearly swept New Jersey (their only loss was on the road in double-overtime), were considered to have only a 57 percent chance of defeating the Devils in the teams’ best-of-seven, opening-round series.
The Canes initially were given a 67 percent chance of getting past the Capitals, who had the second-best regular-season record (51-22-9, 111 points) in the entire NHL and rank as the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals and Hurricanes finished first and second in the Metropolitan Division, respectively, so the Caps have the home-ice advantage in this matchup, just as the Canes had the home-ice advantage over the third-place Devils.
#2. Aren’t the Hurricanes well past the point where merely making the playoffs, or even winning their first-round series, is considered a good season?
Yes.
When Texas-based billionaire Tom Dundon purchased the Hurricanes and then quickly hired franchise legend Rod Brind’Amour as the team’s head coach in May 2018, the Canes had just completed an embarrassing nine-year run (2009-10 through 2017-18) in which they didn’t make the playoffs — in an era when the postseason bracket still included more than half the league’s teams — even a single time.
Now, in the immediate aftermath of that nine-season playoff drought (one of the longest in NHL history), Carolina has made seven consecutive trips to the playoffs to begin the Dundon/Brind’Amour era. Only the Toronto Maple Leafs (nine), Colorado Avalanche (eight) and Tampa Bay Lightning (eight) have longer, active streaks of success in that regard.
Thanks in part to the Hurricanes’ two trips to the Eastern Conference finals — in 2019 and 2023 — and in part to the fact that the Canes have won at least one postseason series in each of these past seven seasons under Brind’Amour (he’s the first to accomplish that feat at the start of his NHL head coaching career), there is absolutely no “happy to be here” element to the postseason in Raleigh, among the coaches, players or fans.
While some Carolina supporters have a “Stanley Cup finals or bust” attitude toward this year’s team, the reality is that the Hurricanes had only the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference this season, behind Washington, Toronto and Tampa Bay (since eliminated).
It would have been viewed as a massive disappointment if the Canes didn’t get past a lesser-record, weakened-by-injury New Jersey team in the first round. Moving forward, though, the competition is much, much tougher, so anything can happen.
#3. Why are the second-place Hurricanes favored over the first-place Capitals in the teams’ second-round series?
That’s a fair and logical question, especially because several factors appear to favor Washington.
First, the Capitals had a better record — indeed, a much better record — during the regular season. The 12-point gap between Washington and Carolina in the Metropolitan Division represented the largest disparity between first- and second-place teams in any of the NHL’s four divisions this year.
Second, Washington star Logan Thompson (31-6-6, 2.49 GAA, .910 save percentage) was one of the NHL’s elite goaltenders during the regular season, whereas top Carolina netminder Frederik Andersen was limited to only 22 starts (13-8-1, 2.50 GAA, .899 save percentage) because of injury problems. Then, as Thompson continued his stellar play during the Capitals’ 4-1 series victory over Montreal in the first round, Andersen was knocked out of the Canes’ series against New Jersey with another injury, although he has returned and played extremely well against Washington.
Third, among the eight remaining playoff teams, Carolina had by far the worst road record (16-21-4) during the regular season. Given the Capitals’ home-ice advantage, and their dominant 29-9-6 record (including a 3-0 mark against the Canadiens in the first round) at Capital One Arena heading into their matchup against Carolina, you’d think the Hurricanes would be considered the underdog in this matchup, especially if it were to go the full seven games.
The computers/analytics and many NHL experts definitely favor the Canes, though.
With all due respect to legendary Washington winger Alexander Ovechkin (still a sensational sniper), who will turn 40 years old in September, Carolina may have the three best two-way players in the series with 27-year-old, in-his-prime all-star center Sebastian Aho, 23-year-old rising star winger Seth Jarvis and rock-solid, 31-year-old all-star defenseman Jaccob Slavin.
Also, whereas the Hurricanes have utilized the same three defensive pairings (Slavin-Brett Burns, Dmitry Orlov-Jalen Chatfield, Shayne Gostisbehere-Sean Walker) all season, the Capitals had to shake up their defensive corps after a late-season injury to one of their top four defensemen, Martin Fehervary.
Washington’s revised top defensive pairing, John Carlson and Jakob Chychrun, is extremely dangerous offensively but also appears vulnerable defensively. The Capitals’ second and third pairings were shaken up in the fallout, too, and while they played solidly overall in the Montreal series, the Hurricanes likely will provide a much bigger challenge, especially given their famously relentless forechecking and top-flight skaters and scorers.
Even beyond Ovechkin, Carlson and Chychrun, Washington boasts a number of dangerous weapons, including Dylan Strome (team-best 82 points in regular season), Pierre-Luc Dubois (46 assists), Tom Wilson (33 goals), Aliaksei Protas (30 goals) and Connor McMichael (26 goals). Wilson, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound right wing who has a long and controversial history as a highly productive and brutally physical enforcer, often has taunted the far less pugilistic Canes, who have only nine fighting majors (three against the Caps) as a team this season.
#4. What are some other top storylines to follow in this year’s NHL playoffs?
First, from an international perspective, there’s one hockey storyline that just won’t go away.
Although Canada is rightly considered the cradle of hockey, and seven of the NHL’s 32 teams are based north of the border, no Canadian franchise has captured the Stanley Cup since 1993 — 32 years ago.
With three (Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton) of the seven remaining playoff teams based in Canada, the Maple Leafs (#2 seed in the Eastern Conference) and Jets (#1 seed in the Western Conference) in the midst of truly sensational seasons, and the Oilers already through to the Western Conference finals, there’s certainly a good chance that this infamous drought finally will come to an end in June.
Second, 40-year-old Hurricanes defenseman Brent Burns is a highly accomplished, 21-year NHL veteran with an easily lovable personality, a season-long “playoff beard” and a unique story to tell.
According to ESPN’s “Cup Worthiness Ratings,” which are designed to identify the NHL players most deserving of raising the Stanley Cup after many years of coming up short (and sometimes coming close), Burns is by far the #1 candidate in the league this season to be embraced even by neutral fans as he continues to pursue his life-long dream.
Burns ranks 24th in NHL history with 1,497 regular-season games played, he’s competed in 129 (and counting) postseason games, and he has an active “ironman” streak of 925 consecutive regular-season games played (fourth-longest in NHL history). Now in his third season with the Canes, Burns hasn’t missed a game — because of injury or any other reason — in almost 12 years.
Finally, there is Mikko Rantanen. Now a member of the Dallas Stars, his third team in the past five months, he leads the league in goals (nine) and points (19) during this year’s playoffs.
The Hurricanes surprised many in the hockey world when they acquired Rantanen, one of the NHL’s most accomplished point-producers, from Colorado on Jan. 24 in a three-team trade that sent Martin Necas and Jack Drury to the Avalanche and also brought Taylor Hall to Carolina.
Rantanen clearly was stunned to be traded away from Colorado, which drafted him 10th overall in 2015, and he never seemed comfortable in Raleigh. He wasn’t productive for the Canes, either. Hockey analysts questioned his fit in Carolina’s offensive and defensive systems. Fans questioned his effort.
When it became clear that Rantanen had no interest in re-signing with the Hurricanes after the season, Carolina shipped him to Dallas in exchange for 22-year-old forward Logan Stankoven and four high draft picks.
Now Rantanen has a new eight-year, $96 million contract with Dallas, and he’s doing for the Stars exactly what the Hurricanes originally hoped he would be able to do for them.
NHL Playoffs
Eastern Conference
Second Round
CAROLINA vs. WASHINGTON
Regular-Season Head-To-Head Results
Nov. 3: Hurricanes 4, Capitals 2 in Raleigh (Kochetkov > Charlie Lindgren)
Dec. 20: Capitals 3, Hurricanes 1 in D.C. (Lindgren > Kochetkov)
April 2: Hurricanes 5, Capitals 1 in Raleigh (Andersen > Thompson)
April 10: Capitals 5, Hurricanes 4 (shootout) in D.C. (Lindgren > Andersen)
Postseason Schedule/Results
Game 1: Hurricanes 2, Capitals 1 (OT)
Game 2: Capitals 3, Hurricanes 1
Game 3: Hurricanes 4, Capitals 0
Game 4: Hurricanes 5, Capitals 2
Game 5: Hurricanes at Capitals, May 15, TBD (TNT, truTV, Max), if necessary
Game 6: Capitals at Hurricanes, May 17, TBD (TBD), if necessary
Game 7: Hurricanes at Capitals, May 19, TBD (ESPN), if necessary
