The Hurricanes beat the current President’s Trophy favorites, the Winnipeg Jets, in a largely one-sided 4-2 bout on Sunday evening. The goals came from newcomers Jankowski (2 goals) and Stankoven, with an empty-netter added by Jarvis. The Jets’ only goals both came in the third period from Iafallo and Lowry.

Top Shelf Tucks (The Highlights):

• The new guys: The new players seem to have fit right into the system without missing a beat. Surely, they will continue to grow and develop chemistry with their new teammates. Jankowski seems to be a perfect 4th-line fit. He played the majority of his time with Roslovic and Robinson. Having this much depth and guys on the 4th line who can still score is going to be incredibly important come playoff time.
• Power Play: Despite starting slow, the power play began to come alive in the later stages of the game, leading to Stankoven’s debut tuck. The entries were mixed up between skating in, passing across the blue line, and dumping the puck into the offensive zone. The puck movement was good, and the passing lanes began to open up, creating good chances. There are still opportunities to get better chances overall, and if the Canes can turn the downfall of the Rangers series last year into a threat this playoffs, it’s promising!

The Sin Bin (Areas to Improve):

• Back on the power play: Tonight, the power play got a little bit of its bark back, but in the playoffs, it needs to have its bite. The power play has to be a source of goals for us. There were some highlights, but no goals on the power play, and that needs to change. This week, Carolina has Philadelphia and Detroit, which are 18th and dead last (DFL) in penalty kill, respectively.
• Individuals: Anderson: Anderson looked great for the first 57 minutes, but allowed a strange goal from a narrow angle and an indescribably odd goal where it looked like his controller disconnected or something. Goaltending has long been the Achilles’ heel of the playoff Hurricanes and will no doubt be an offseason priority as Anderson approaches free agency. Perhaps a solution can be found by trading one of those Rantanen first-rounders? The goaltending needs to be lights out for all 60 minutes that the puck is in play for the Canes to make a deep run.

Overall, the Canes look refreshed and revived with the Rantanen saga in the rearview mirror. Tampa Bay on Tuesday night at Lenovo Center will be a great test against another team with playoff aspirations.