NHL 30 in 30: Carolina Hurricanes - Riders on the Storm

Hello Hurricanites! Welcome to the 2012-13 NHL season with your 2006 Stanley Cup Champion, Carolina Hurricanes! Our 2011-12 season was one marked by great improvement and hope. We started the season a bit slow, losing 23 of our first 32, which brought about the firing of our two-time Head Coach, Paul Maurice. You never know, maybe we'll give Paul a third stint in the next year or two (just kidding Kirk!). We brought aboard new coach, Kirk Muller, in December and since his hiring, the Hurricanes have gone 24-10. We hope to build upon this great start and the tremendous leadership of both Coach Muller and Director of Operations, Ronnie Francis. Ronnie started out with us as a Hartford Whaler, as thus is very familiar with the heartbreak and triumph this franchise has been through. The Youth Movement of your Hurricanes is in full swing, and the future looks bright! Our core players (Jeff Skinner, Eric Staal, Cam Ward, Jamie McBain, and Zach Boychuk) are all under the age of 28. Some of you may ask then, why two of our key defensemen (Joe Corvo and Jaroslav Spacek) are both over the age of 35. Well someone has to buy young Jeff Skinner some beer!! This is Joe's third stint with the Hurricanes, and we look forward to trading and re-acquiring him for a record fourth time. He's like that ex-girlfriend you just keep going back to. In addition to this core, it was a busy offseason for us. We brought aboard two superstars to bolster our scoring and depth at the forward position. We acquired Jordan Staal (Eric's younger brother) and Alexander Semin. Jordan is a terrific two-way player, and an annual Selke candidate. He will bring playoff experience and along with brother Eric and Jeff Skinner, provide excellent depth to the Center position. Alexander Semin, is a player many thought has no equal when it comes to offensive awareness. Alex has struggled the past two seasons, but has consistently scored 25 goals, and shows the potential to become a 30-35 goal scorer. If we can hold him to his weekly psychologist visits, we believe he holds the potential to be among the top goal-scorers in the NHL. With these changes in place, and a full season under the belt of Coach Muller, we will be competing for a playoff spot in no time. Remember, the past three times we've made it to the playoffs, we've advanced to the Conference Finals. The only problem is in between those Conference Finals, we've missed the playoffs 6 out of 10 times. Just like Brian Fantana once said, "60% of the time it works every time!" -Peter Karmanos