Why depth is on the Carolina Hurricanes' side as the NHL enters the stretch run

RALEIGH, N.C. — The NHL doesn’t afford its teams a spring break — unless you count the end-of-season sojourn half the league’s teams will take when the playoffs start in April — choosing instead to give every team a bye week around the league’s winter All-Star Game.

That can make for some brutal stretches throughout the rest of the season, especially as teams with playoff and division title aspirations jostle for position in March.

The madness is not reserved for the hardwood this time of year.

The Hurricanes are smack in the middle of their busiest stretch of the 2023-24 season. The Canes have not had two consecutive days off since March 7, and won’t until after their game on March 30, a stretch of 14 games in 24 days that includes three consecutive calendar weeks with four games.

Sunday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at PNC Arena marked the end of a particularly tough stretch of six games in nine days for the Canes, who were also coming off an uncharacteristic, high-scoring shootout loss in Washington.

But instead of the Hurricanes looking fatigued, it was quite the opposite, at least through the first half of the game.

Brady Skjei’s 12th goal of the season just 1:06 into the game — on the Canes’ second shot — set the tone against a Toronto team that skated at home Saturday against Edmonton. Sebastian Aho added another later in the first and that was all the offense Carolina and goalie Frederik Andersen needed in a 2-1 win over the Maple Leafs.

“It was a good start, obviously,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Really, it was a good game until they got that one, and then all of a sudden they got going and it kind of flipped us a little bit ... For a low-scoring game, there were quite a few opportunities.”

Andersen made 32 saves on 33 shots and won his 10th game of the season — in 12 starts — to help the Hurricanes extend their point streak to seven games. The Canes are 9-1-1 in their past 10 games as they chase down the New York Rangers in the Metropolitan Division.

Depth charge

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