To many casual observers, last year’s second-half surge by the Carolina Hurricanes was a huge surprise. They came out of nowhere and were legitimately one of the strongest teams in hockey down the stretch, earning a 30-12-2 record from Jan. 1 onward, a 116-point pace. That was fourth to only Tampa Bay, St. Louis and Boston.



To others, it was a long time coming. The Hurricanes are annual analytics darlings, winning the expected-goals battle while routinely losing the one that actually mattered: on the scoresheet. Eventually it would turn around, they said, and finally it actually did. A broken clock is right twice a day, but suddenly it just clicked for the team as its overwhelming territorial dominance became too much to handle — though finally getting decent goaltending definitely helped.



With confidence up, one of the league’s youngest teams looks ready to take the next step and become one of the next great powers in hockey. By these projections,...