Examining the potential Achilles heel of each Metro Division team - Part 1

I dove into flaws that could be problematic for Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, and New York (I).

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Happy Labo(u)r Day, everyone! I hope you are all having terrific holiday weekends.

With competitive hockey games – albeit meaningless in terms of wins and losses – just a few weeks away, the season preview content is kicking into high gear at InfernalAccess.

Up next I’ll be looking at the potential Achilles heel for each Metro Division side. That means four teams today, four teams tomorrow.

Before one of you comments that the Columbus Blue Jackets, let’s say, are not a team with only one flaw – thus the term Achilles heel is not appropriate – I say this: let me live my life. Good? Good.

Let’s get into it.

Carolina Hurricanes — Finishing ability

Pure goal scoring ability has been lacking in Carolina for what feels like forever. They are a consistently dominant 5v5 side, their team defense is terrific, and they always get bang for their buck between the pipes.

At one point or another, though, they struggle to score goals and it ends up burning them. Finishing could become a problem once again next season.

The Hurricanes have plenty of talent on paper but they lack pure shooters and that shows in the numbers. Last season they had just three players on the team score 20 goals or more.

For perspective, the New Jersey Devils were home to six 20-goal scorers – and that’s excluding Timo Meier as well as off-season addition Tyler Toffoli.

Michael Bunting does have some pop – he scored 23 goals in back-to-back seasons – but I’m not sure he’s going to change much for the Hurricanes in that regard.

They need some of their guys to take the next step – Andrei Svechnikov, in particular, should have it in him to score 35 goals – or they will again be a team that ends up getting snake bitten at the wrong time and it’ll cost them their season.

Columbus Blue Jackets — Centers