National media darlings who are overrated because they are from the south and have no rival fans to call their players the bums that they rightfully are.
But seriously? Depth but not enough star power. The person who said Nashville of 5-7 years ago is correct. They're probably good enough to get in the playoffs, maybe even be a 5-6 seed, but they might not have enough offense to take the next step. They need a top scorer. I'm not convinced that absolutely HAS to be a center, but they need a 70-point type forward.
Very, very sound defensive team though. Fun to watch, in an unconventional way. I doubt anybody on this message board would qualify them as being a "fast" team, but Sidney Crosby said in the games they played each other he considered the Canes to be the fastest team he'd played against last year. They just utilize their speed to clamp down defensively.
I did a quick calculation in another thread that had the Canes gotten league-average goaltending last year they would have allowed 202 goals, which. I believe would have put them 5th or 6th in the league in terms of goals allowed. The defense and the system is that good. When they're "on," rolling lines and executing their system, they are really, really tough to beat. If Darling turns out to be halfway decent, IMO this is a playoff team that could win a first round. Maybe even more depending on if they picked up a forward at the trade deadline.
this team. 
