The 2006 Carolina Hurricanes

[BenchBrawl]

In 2006, how many centers do you take over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run? I wonder if there is a single one I'd pick over him. He was hungry for success and his play was peaking despite being in his mid-30s.

The center position was in some sort of transition. Sure Joe Thornton was at his absolute peak, but I'm not taking Joe Thornton over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Carolina is not all that dissimilar to the previous Cup winner, 04 Tampa. Several HOVG stars in Lecavalier, Richards, and Khabibulin, with solid depth and defense, veteran leadership from Andreychuk, etc.

i feel like that tampa team was way more top heavy up front but also way less deep.

beyond

modin richards st louis
stillman lecavalier fedotenko

there wasn't much that moved the needle, except andreychuk standing in front of the net on the PP. they lived and died with their big guns. whereas that carolina team was super deep. they lost their highest scoring winger for the year and just kept on rolling like it was nothing.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

In 2006, how many centers do you take over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run? I wonder if there is a single one I'd pick over him. He was hungry for success and his play was peaking despite being in his mid-30s.

The center position was in some sort of transition. Sure Joe Thornton was at his absolute peak, but I'm not taking Joe Thornton over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run.

even at 18 i would have taken crosby tbh

 

[BenchBrawl]

even at 18 i would have taken crosby tbh

Meh, no way I'm taking a rookie over a hungry, seasoned, Selke-winning Rod Brind'Amour (who played more TOI than anyone on Carolina during that run). Even if that rookie is Crosby.

 

[GMR]

In 2006, how many centers do you take over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run? I wonder if there is a single one I'd pick over him. He was hungry for success and his play was peaking despite being in his mid-30s.

The center position was in some sort of transition. Sure Joe Thornton was at his absolute peak, but I'm not taking Joe Thornton over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run.

Sakic and Forsberg for sure.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Sakic and Forsberg for sure.

Did they have Brind'Amour's fire left though? Good point, I agree Forsberg especially, it was his Philadelphia year. But he was once again injured. Sakic was still productive but I'm not sold. He was old (only one year older than Rod I know, but their career arc are different) and had played a lot of hockey, emotional hockey too. Had nothing left to prove.

Guess my point is, not sure either of them were as hungry as Brind'Amour, or as good defensively, by that point.

 

[buffalowing88]

In 2006, how many centers do you take over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run? I wonder if there is a single one I'd pick over him. He was hungry for success and his play was peaking despite being in his mid-30s.

The center position was in some sort of transition. Sure Joe Thornton was at his absolute peak, but I'm not taking Joe Thornton over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run.

I personally never was enamored with him like so many other Buffalo fans, but an argument (however weak) can be made that Drury was a younger, playoff-tested center who was putting up a similar scoring output and playing strong two-way hockey. I could see a team preferring him over Brindy.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Meh, no way I'm taking a rookie over a hungry, seasoned, Selke-winning Rod Brind'Amour (who played more TOI than anyone on Carolina during that run). Even if that rookie is Crosby.

I personally never was enamored with him like so many other Buffalo fans, but an argument (however weak) can be made that Drury was a younger, playoff-tested center who was putting up a similar scoring output and playing strong two-way hockey. I could see a team preferring him over Brindy.

i was just going to say, it depends how high one is on RBA. if you see him as a rich man's chris drury, there are any number of franchise centers off the pinnacles of their careers but still probably better players overall that you'd rather have. in addition to forsberg and sakic, modano is still a point/game player and two-way beast, and even a one-dimensional guy like brad richards is a really really great scorer at the peak of his powers.

on the other hand, if you think brind'amour was what ryan o'reilly is now, then i can see an argument for him.

but i tend to think brind'amour was able to be the brind'amour of '06 and '07 because he had a star-level offensive 1a center that he was 1b to. i don't think brind'amour alone could handle top scorer duties on top of all the other stuff he had to do and take you deep. similar to chris drury, he needed his scoring foil in briere if you were going to succeed.

 

[GMR]

Did they have Brind'Amour's fire left though? Good point, I agree Forsberg especially, it was his Philadelphia year. But he was once again injured. Sakic was still productive but I'm not sold. He was old (only one year older than Rod I know, but their career arc are different) and had played a lot of hockey, emotional hockey too. Had nothing left to prove.

Guess my point is, not sure either of them were as hungry as Brind'Amour, or as good defensively, by that point.

You're using the hindsight is 20/20 logic. Before the lockout, Brind'Amour scored 38 points in 78 games in 2003-2004. Nobody could have predicted he'd score 70 points in 2005-2006 and have a great Cup run.

So the answer to your question depends on when the question is asked. If we're talking right before the 2006 playoffs, I'd still say Sakic and Forsberg comfortably. If we're talking before the 2005-2006 season, there's probably a dozen (or two dozen) centers most would pick ahead of Brind'Amour.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

You're using the hindsight is 20/20 logic. Before the lockout, Brind'Amour scored 38 points in 78 games in 2003-2004. Nobody could have predicted he'd score 70 points in 2005-2006 and have a great Cup run.

So the answer to your question depends on when the question is asked. If we're talking right before the 2006 playoffs, I'd still say Sakic and Forsberg comfortably. If we're talking before the 2005-2006 season, there's probably a dozen (or two dozen) centers most would pick ahead of Brind'Amour.

70 in an outlier season league wide for scoring.

He was 49th in points
He was 22nd among centers in points

 

[GMR]

70 in an outlier season league wide for scoring.

He was 49th in points
He was 22nd among centers in points

Not enough of an outlier when you look at his numbers in the years prior to the lockout. The lockout jumpstarted his career. In 2007, he scored over a point per game.

 

[buffalowing88]

i was just going to say, it depends how high one is on RBA. if you see him as a rich man's chris drury, there are any number of franchise centers off the pinnacles of their careers but still probably better players overall that you'd rather have. in addition to forsberg and sakic, modano is still a point/game player and two-way beast, and even a one-dimensional guy like brad richards is a really really great scorer at the peak of his powers.

on the other hand, if you think brind'amour was what ryan o'reilly is now, then i can see an argument for him.

but i tend to think brind'amour was able to be the brind'amour of '06 and '07 because he had a star-level offensive 1a center that he was 1b to. i don't think brind'amour alone could handle top scorer duties on top of all the other stuff he had to do and take you deep. similar to chris drury, he needed his scoring foil in briere if you were going to succeed.

That's a pretty adept perspective on it. I think, as you said, it helped guys like Drury and RBA to have a scoring line center. I personally think I'd take RBA at that point in time, but a year later, I'd probably take Drury even though stats were on Brindamour's side. It's pretty even overall for those two, with the difference being that the Canes beat the Sabres when they met in the playoffs.

 

[Gurglesons]

In 2006, how many centers do you take over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run? I wonder if there is a single one I'd pick over him. He was hungry for success and his play was peaking despite being in his mid-30s.

The center position was in some sort of transition. Sure Joe Thornton was at his absolute peak, but I'm not taking Joe Thornton over Rod Brind'Amour for a playoff run.

Gomez
Vinny Lecavalier
B. Richards
Sakic
Forsberg

Off the top of my head.

 

[NYR94]

I always thought they were a really good team and I never understood the need by some to constantly name them among the weakest Stanley Cup winners over the last however many years. Maybe the fact that they missed the playoffs the season after made them less legitimate in some people's eyes but that's pretty weak. The 1996 Devils didn't make the playoffs either but that doesn't mean the 95 team didn't go 16-4 in the playoffs. Carolina's 2007 seasons doesn't retroactively make the 2006 team's accomplishments less impressive.

Looking back at their stats holy cow Erik Cole had 5 penalty shots that season.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Looking back at their stats holy cow Erik Cole had 5 penalty shots that season.

That's an interesting stat, never heard it before. Cole could absolutely fly as a youngster.

It's too bad injuries chipped away at him, that combination of straight-line speed and power-forward instinct was a lot of fun to watch.

 

[NYR94]

That's an interesting stat, never heard it before. Cole could absolutely fly as a youngster.

It's too bad injuries chipped away at him, that combination of straight-line speed and power-forward instinct was a lot of fun to watch.

If you go to hockey-reference.com and look up a team's stats for any particular season if you scroll down past the regular season and playoff stats there's a section that shows shootout stats, penalty shots and hat tricks they had during that year.

And he only played 2 playoff games for Carolina in 2006 after putting up nearly a point-per-game during the regular season before getting hurt. A reminder that every team, even the Cup winner, deals with injuries.

 

[shadow1]

I don't see them as a weak cup winner. I just see them as a team that wasn't build to last.

Carolina really capitalized on the 2004-2005 lockout. Lots of marquee names changed places prior to the '06 season, and the Hurricanes substantially upgraded their roster by signing Matt Cullen, Frantisek Kaberle, Cory Stillman, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Ray Whitney. They also made savvy off-season trades for Mike Commodore and Martin Gerber, both of whom were huge contributors. In-Season, they traded for Doug Weight, and later Mark Recchi (after a scary injury to Erik Cole prompted the need for another forward).

The Hurricanes were wretched in 2003-2004, so the modern day equivalent to this scenario would be if the 2020 Ottawa Senators added a bunch of veteran players this off-season and proceeded to win the 2021 Stanley Cup.

While I've seen the 2006 Hurricanes called weak a lot, I'd argue they have one of the absolute best forward groups in recent memory. Keep in mind 2006 was a high scoring season, but not many teams have been able to sport two 55+ point players (Weight and Whitney) on their third line.

Most Common Playoff Line-Up

Stillman - Brind'Amour - Williams
Cullen - Staal - Recchi
Whitney - Weight - Larose
Ladd - Adams - Adams

Hedican - Commodore
Kaberle - Ward
Westley - Wallin

Ward
Gerber

The defense was definitely meh, but overall were solid in their own end. It was full of hard blue collar guys, with Kaberle being the more offensive player in the bunch (Tverdovsky was a healthy scratch by the time the playoffs rolled around).

Overall, my takeaway is that it was a team full of veteran guys you really wanted to see win the cup (Brind'Amour, Weight, Westley, etc.), but the team wasn't built to last outside of that one year.

 

[hacksaw7]

They were legit. Be it for only one year, but they had a lot of team speed, a high level of skill, a high level of luck, didn't' take penalties and had a rookie goalie get hot. But that regular season wins total was no joke. For that entire 05/06 season they were a formidable but overlooked squad

My Devils were riding high heading into that series and were completely snuffed out. Even if we held on game 2 it wouldn't have mattered.

Plus they had great home ice advantage

 

[Surrounded By Ahos]

A reminder that every team, even the Cup winner, deals with injuries.

People never seem to remember that the Canes played nearly the entire playoffs missing their starting goaltender and a top line winger.

My Devils were riding high heading into that series and were completely snuffed out. Even if we held on game 2 it wouldn't have mattered.

This is another thing that never gets mentioned. New Jersey was on something like a 15 game winning streak going into the second round and got absolutely throttled by Carolina. Game 2 was a perfect encapsulation of that Canes team. They just would not quit. They go down with 20 seconds left, but tie it up just before the buzzer. Then Nic Wallin, of all people, scores the game winner on what looks like an accidental 'Kucherov' move.

 

[Sadekuuro]

I think it's mostly the fact that they missed the playoffs the two seasons before and after this one. Throw in some of the other factors mentioned and it's inevitable that many people would view them the way they do, regardless of how impressive their actual team/run was.

 

[AD Skinner]

I remember thinking Brind'Amour should have won the Conn Smythe and being a little surprised they went with Ward instead. No slight to Ward at all but Brind'Amour was a man on a mission

25 gp 12g 6a 18p +9 4 gwg and averaging 24 min/game

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

two questions for people who followed closely:

was gerber hurt, or was he replaced?

same with vasicek, i know he was hurt for a lot of the year, but he basically didn't play between the first and fourth rounds. was he reinjured or did he just lose his spot in the lineup to andrew ladd?

 

[hacksaw7]

I remember thinking Brind'Amour should have won the Conn Smythe and being a little surprised they went with Ward instead. No slight to Ward at all but Brind'Amour was a man on a mission

25 gp 12g 6a 18p +9 4 gwg and averaging 24 min/game

Personally thought it should've been Stillman getting the Smythe that year

 

[djboos22]

Personally thought it should've been Stillman getting the Smythe that year

That's a good point and I think that's another reason why Ward won. There were so many forwards who stepped up for the Canes during that run. Ward just ended up making the big saves at the right time.

 

[quoipourquoi]

was gerber hurt, or was he replaced?

Later came out that it was a flu issue that he tried to play through. I think after they went back to Ward a second time, that was a replacement.