What We Learned: Carolina Hurricanes between rock and hard place

Theory: You need individual difference makers to win in the modern NHL.

It's not that the Carolina Hurricanes don't have guys who can make a difference. It's that the guys they have who can make a difference cannot always or even often be counted on to do so. The Florida Panthers have several such players. And that's why even after a Game 4 loss, they are where they are, a win away from their third straight Stanley Cup Final.

When you get to the point where a win when you were down 3-0 snapped a 15-game Conference Final losing streak, even if we're talking about some of those games happening during the early days of the second Obama administration, there does have to be some question about how strong the roster-building is. No one would argue this Hurricanes roster is bad or even mediocre, b