The Noise: Hurricanes roaring; Sharks, Wild going out like lambs
theScore's new series, "The Noise," is published every Monday. It kicks off each week with a quick look at teams or players making headlines, good or bad.
No one's finer than Carolina
It may be a case of too little, too late, but the Carolina Hurricanes have taken the month of March by storm.
Since the calendar flipped, no team has earned more points than the Hurricanes (20), who've posted a record of 8-2-4. That's a single point more than St. Louis, Columbus, Anaheim, Pittsburgh, and Chicago - all set to advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Hurricanes have also scored an NHL-high 45 goals in that span, and Jeff Skinner is leading the charge. He's scored seven over his past five games, and his 10 goals in 13 appearances this month rank second league-wide behind Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov.
Despite all that, the Hurricanes remain five points behind Boston for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and have just a 9.5 percent chance of clinching a postseason berth, per Sports Club Stats.
One thing playing in Carolina's favor, however, is the nine games remaining on its schedule, the most of all teams in the running. The Hurricanes kick off a five-game week with two home games against Detroit, thanks to a make-up date after a matchup earlier this season was postponed due to poor ice conditions.
A sweep of the beatable Red Wings could greatly improve Carolina's chances of advancing to the postseason for the first time since 2009.
Sharks, Wild stumbling into postseason
Meanwhile, a pair of playoff teams out West are looking more like pretenders than contenders these days, namely the San Jose Sharks and Minnesota Wild.
Here's a look at the bottom five teams around the league this month:
| Team | Games | Record | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose | 13 | 5-8-0 | 10 |
| Vancouver | 13 | 4-7-2 | 10 |
| Florida | 12 | 4-7-1 | 9 |
| Minnesota | 14 | 3-10-1 | 7 |
| Colorado | 13 | 3-10-0 | 6 |
| New Jersey | 13 | 2-10-1 | 5 |
For squads with Cup aspirations, that's not the company you want to be keeping at this point in the regular season.
A couple of troubling things stand out.
For the Sharks, forward Logan Couture - who ranks third on the team in points - took a puck to the face and was hospitalized following Saturday's 7-2 loss to Nashville, San Jose's sixth L in a row. Losing Couture for any length of time would be calamitous.
And for the Wild, goaltender Devan Dubnyk has quickly fallen from the list of Vezina Trophy candidates, thanks to a record of 3-8-1 and an .898 save percentage in March. If he can't find his game, the Wild could be in line for a very early playoff exit.
Still, both clubs sit second in their respective divisions, and there are two weeks left in the season to rediscover at least some of what was working earlier on.