from Luke DeCock of the News & Observer,

This is a very dangerous game the Carolina Hurricanes are playing.

They have almost no chance of making the playoffs – no realistic chance, anyway – and yet their moderate success since Jordan Staal returned from injury has created a rather large gap between the Hurricanes and the NHL’s two bottom-dwellers, who will have the best shot at one of two potential franchise players in this June’s draft.

In other words, as the All-Star Break arrives, the Canes are dangerously close to going on the kind of winning run that would doom the franchise to another five years of mediocrity.

In the NHL, if you’re not going to be good, it’s far better to be very, very bad, especially in a year when there’s a generational prospect available with the No. 1 pick in the draft, which happens every three or four years or so. Connor McDavid may not be a household name yet for casual American hockey fans, but there’s a pretty good chance he will be for the next 15 years or so.

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