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The regular season has finally come to an end and now we turn our attention to the thing we've been waiting all year for: the playoffs.
The Carolina Hurricanes will be going toe-to-toe with the New Jersey Devils in the first-round (the sixth time the two franchises have faced each other in the postseason).
Carolina is a team that needs everyone going and pulling on the same rope if they hope to be successful and that means perhaps getting just a little bit more from a select few players.
Here are three players who the Canes will need to step up come Game 1:
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Round 1 Schedule Revealed: Hurricanes, Devils Kick Off SundayThe NHL has finally revealed its schedule for the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Andrei Svechnikov
20g, 48pts, 72gp (148 hits)
Svechnikov finished the regular season as the third highest scorer on the team and reached the 20-goal mark for the fifth time in his seven year career.
Despite that, it definitely felt like a down year for the Russian winger who looked poised for a big season after producing at nearly a point-per-game pace last year coming off of his ACL surgery.
Svechnikov dealt with a variety of minor injury issues this season and moved up and down the lineup as the Hurricanes tried to find the right fit for him.
Even-strength scoring was especially a struggle for him and he's now no longer on PP1.
Overall, it seems that he still hasn't fully recovered from the ACL tear he suffered back in 2023, as his skating speed has noticeably taken a hit.
But Svechnikov has been a steady playoff performer (15 goals, 36 points in 51 games) and his physicality especially can help him tilt the ice in a series.
We've seen it before and the Hurricanes are going to need to see him do it again.
Shayne Gostisbehere
7g, 45pts, 70gp
Coupled with a red hot power play, Gostisbehere was one of the top scoring defensemen to start the year for Carolina, but he hit a rut heading into the new year due to an injury to his arm/hand.
After that, the power play fell off of a cliff and the Hurricanes haven't really been able to find much consistency on the man advantage since.
There have been up and down moments for sure, but as a whole, the power play isn't where the team would want it heading into the postseason.
A poor power play has sunk Carolina time and time again in the playoffs and they really can't afford for that to be a problem again.
But a bright spot there is that Gostisbehere has gotten a bit back on track since the trade deadline, with 11 points in his final 15 games of the season (seven of those coming on the power play).
If Gostisbehere can get the power play clicking, it will bode well for the Hurricanes.
Pyotr Kochetkov
27-16-3, 0.897 Sv%, 2.60 GAA (2 shutouts)
Once again, it was an up and down year for Kochetkov, who has still yet to find that stable consistency the team has been looking for.
The Russian netminder had to essentially carry the load for the team in the first three months of the season after Frederik Andersen was sidelined following knee surgery and the load was noticeably a bit too much at times.
Kochetkov had good runs and had moments where he looked like a top goaltender in the league, but his valleys were just too frequent and prolonged.
Take the start of the new year for instance.
From Jan. 1 until March 22 (the game where the LA Kings hung seven on him) he was 11-4-2 with a 0.917 save percentage.
But after that game, he ended the year on a 2-5-0 run, posting a 0.833 save percentage.
That pretty much sealed any chance of Kochetkov being the Game 1 starter, but the truth of the matter is, if the Canes want to be successful this postseason, I feel like they're going to need both goaltenders.
While Frederik Andersen has been good, he just doesn't have the durability to play in every game of a series anymore at this point, in my opinion.
The Hurricanes need to be able to play both goaltenders which means Kochetkov has to be way, way better than he's been as of late.
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