Hurricanes GM Ron Francis isn't giving up on playoffs despite nightmare start

That the Carolina Hurricanes got off to a slow start to the season is putting it mildly. The banged-up Hurricanes were the last team to win a game this season, and their 6-11-3 record positions them second-to-last in the Metropolitan Division. 

General manager Ron Francis isn't prepared to wave the white flag yet, though.

"There's still a lot of hockey left to be played and we still believe we're capable of accomplishing our goal of making the playoffs," Francis told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer this week.

"Overall I think the way we're playing is better. I think structurally we're good and the effort has been better and more consistent. There's positive steps to where we were to where we are now."

While Francis has seen signs of improvement, he admitted that the club's most recent stretch of five games - in which the club went 1-4-0, but lost three games by a single goal - left him feeling pretty frustrated.

"We didn't get off to the start we wanted," he said. "We then got everybody (but Jordan Staal) back and played some pretty good hockey but the last stretch has probably been the most frustrating. We've won one of the last five but three of the games we lost with any kind of luck (we) could have won ... "

As the season progresses, the Hurricanes may face some difficult decisions, particularly if they don't go on something of a run over the next month or two. The Hurricanes have been mentioned in trade rumors involving captain Eric Staal for months, though the player and team have denied the accuracy of those reports.

Still, something has got to give in the Research Triangle. The Hurricanes have seen attendance falter significantly in the early going this season, drawing fewer than 12,500 fans per home game thus far - down by more than 3,000 over last season, and by over 5,000 in comparison to the 2012-13 campaign. 

Surely the club's six-year playoff drought has something to do with flagging interest in Raleigh, N.C.

Francis, however, doesn't feel any pressure to act, at least not yet.

"It's been an interesting process," Francis said of kicking around possible trades that might change the franchise's long-term direction. "It's a lot harder in today's environment to do certain things ... when you try to match up money and everything else. I've had a lot of conversations and probably will continue to have conversations, but there's nothing imminent."