Gary Bettman made a return to play announcement for the NHL today, confirming some of the news that we already knew. One of these is the 24-team playoff format, which has the Carolina Hurricanes playing against the New York Rangers in a best-of-five series, to determine which team moves on to the first round.
This is…. not the greatest scenario for the Hurricanes. Carolina lost all four games to the Rangers this season and were outscored 17-9 in that time. That said, the Hurricanes did outshoot New York by an average of 40-26 per game and if the goaltenders were swapped, the Hurricanes would probably have won a couple of those games. It’s still a best-of-five series, so hopefully hot goaltending won’t play as big of a role against Carolina.
It’s also exciting that Sami Vatanen will actually get to play a game in a Hurricanes jersey. We’re still a ways away from hockey returning but it’s at least exciting to see what the playoffs will look like.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Hurricanes Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Canes for updates on articles, Hurricanes news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
Here's today's poll question (results and discussion will be posted on the weekend):
Do you think the Hurricanes will win their qualifying round series against the Rangers?
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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