Canes roar into finals
Well, it has been a very long road for the Carolina Hurricanes in the 26th season of the WCHL playoffs so far, the team hasn't had exactly an easy road to the finals.....
It started off by getting the New York Rangers in the first round so the deck was stacked against us or so we thought, "The Rangers organization as well as their General Manager Andrew Don along with other successful teams wrote the book on building a solid team from top to bottom over the last 25 seasons. Rangers winning in 4 of them (seasons 15,16,21,24) we thought as a team we wouldn't get out of the first round" said General Manager Mike McFarland.
"Rangers play a very aggressive style of playoff hockey but they know when to put it on cruise control and when not to, they have some very good players on that team who know how to win" said McFarland.
"Luckily we were able to defeat the Rangers in 6 very hard fought games, we would like to thank the whole organization including Andrew Don as we took alot of knowledge from them onto the next round of the WCHL Playoffs" said head coach Jeff Blashill.
Next round the Carolina Hurricanes faced another powerhouse team who has built their team through the draft in the Pittsburgh Penguins.....Once again just like the previous round the team lost the home-ice advantage to the Penguins squad.............
"Going into this round we thought that we would be in tough against a very well put together team anchored by the longtime General Manager Patrick Matthews, we have tons of respect for what he has done with his squad over the last few seasons." said McFarland.
"We knew that they have underperformed when it came to the postseason and very much wanted to shake that monkey off the team's back, so we knew that they would play hard and fast. They have some of the best players in the world on their team. The only advantage we had, in my opinion, was maybe goaltending as they haven't had their starter as long as we have" said Blashill.
"Pittsburgh is a very tough city to play in and with them having the home-ice advantage we would be in tough against them, in the 25 seasons if I'm not mistaken only won 1 WCHL title in the team's history which was in season 12" said the GM.
"All in all we played with heart and determination in the series coming out victorious in game 7. Same goes with the Rangers team, wanted to take this time to thank the Pittsburgh Penguins team and its General Manager Patrick Matthews, both teams have done very well for themselves and have nothing to be ashamed of" said McFarland
Onto round 3 the excitement is building within our team thinking "Can this actually happen" until we faced the Florida Panthers, a team that has fallen short in past seasons but have tasted playoff success before. So the Hurricanes knew even before we can get to the promise land that we must defeat a very well ran organization led by Ryan Owen.........
"Florida has a very loyal fan base that can bring a lot of energy and excitement to every game so the playoffs for us will be harder to win in our building. Once again we have lost home-ice advantage but in my opinion, are very evenly matched up. We had heard that the Panther's premier player Malkin was injured as well as one of their defense" said Blashill
"Like we just said it is very hard to play in a building that has as much energy as they do, playing 6 games against the Panther squad and coming out with the series win we knew whoever was victorious deserved to be there. Taking nothing away from the whole team and its General Manager we say Thank You. said Mike McFarland
After wrapping up the series against the Panthers left the Hurricane squad extremely happy and excited to play at home for the first time in a long time to which the team has home-ice advantage playing the Nashville Predators.
Book the date to watch a very exciting series.........
"The Nashville Predators team hasn't had it easy either with playing the Winnipeg Jets in the first round defeating them in 6 games, then going onto the Colorado Avalanche besting the Avalanche squad who has won in seasons 13 and 14 in only 5 games. Biggest surprise so far this post season is when the Nashville team played the defending WCHL Champions beating them in only 4 games." said McFarland.
"Nashville is a well-managed team by Phin Liew that is hungry just like us who has never won the big prize before. We all play 82 games in a season to hopefully play for the richest prize in hockey the WCHL Championship, on paper Nashville has a higher OV rating than we do at a 72 to our 69." said Blashill
"Both teams are underdogs going into the post season and going into the finals I would think that we the Carolina Hurricanes are that underdog. But in closing its not how hard you get knocked down but how many times you get up. We are ready mentally and ready physically so bring on a exciting series. Nobody picked the two teams that are about to play for the Championship to make it. said Mike McFarland.
I wanted to take this time to thank the teams and their General Managers in this quest to play for the Championship, so thank you New York Rangers (Andrew Don) and Pittsburgh Penguins (Patrick Matthews) followed by the Florida Panthers (Ryan Owen).
