Hurricanes’ loss in Eastern Conference Final can’t diminish all the team accomplished

As the years go by, maybe when the Carolina Hurricanes celebrate another big anniversary in North Carolina, the 2022-23 season should be remembered fondly, and not judged by the way it ended.

The Hurricanes won the Metropolitan Division, again. They had the second-best record in the NHL, bested only by the record-setting Boston Bruins. They hosted a Stadium Series outdoor game that was a huge success by any measure. They qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs for a fifth straight season with Rod Brind’Amour as the head coach and reached the Eastern Conference Final.

Yes, it ended there, against the Florida Panthers, the eighth seed in the East. In the harshness that can come with record-keeping, the Canes will be shown to have been swept in four games by the Panthers after series wins over the New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils.

Four games, four losses, season over. History rarely being kind, it will appear in retrospect as if the Hurricanes fell flat one step short of playing for the Stanley Cup.

“But I can’t ask for a better group and more out of them than what we got,” Brind’Amour said Wednesday, after the Canes fell 4-3 to the Panthers in Game 4 at FLA Live Arena. “People are going to look back and say ‘You got swept,’ but that’s not what happened. …

“We didn’t lose four games. We got beat, but we were right there and this could have gone the other way. It could have been four games the other way.”

One will be left to wonder how the Hurricanes’ season and the playoffs might have gone with a healthy Max Pacioretty and Andrei Svechnikov. They twice lost Pacioretty to an Achilles tear — before the season and then during it — and then Svechnikov to a knee injury in March. Both were gut punches.

Pacioretty would have given the Canes that experienced veteran forward and a proven sniper and goal scorer. Svechnikov was an NHL All-Star this past season — winning the fastest skater competition on All-Star Weekend — and the Canes could have used his size, toughness and physical presence in the unending grind of the playoffs.

Then add in the injury to defenseman Jaccob Slavin early in Game 4 after a heavy hit from the Panthers’ Sam Bennett. The Canes were left to play without their best D-man and alternate captain.

“When you look back at this, for us, it’s tough to get this far without your top players,” Brind’Amour said. “The fact we did that, without two of the top guys … to come in and actually out-chance a team for four games and then lose Slavin and continue to forge ahead, that’s why I say I’m super proud of this group.

“We lost four games. We didn’t get beat.”

The final game was decided on a power play, after a tripping penalty against Canes captain Jordan Staal with 57 seconds left in regulation. It was decided by Matthew Tkachuk, the big forward the Panthers traded for after last season to be a difference-maker, with 4.9 seconds remaining.

There was not enough time left for the Canes to recover. Not this time.

The coming months will be filled with decisions on the roster and free agency and possible trades and other acquisitions. It again should prove to be an interesting time for a team willing to spend to the salary cap under owner Tom Dundon to be a Cup contender.

“Tom has a lot of passion and wants to win, and he’s also given us the resources,” Canes president and general manager Don Waddell said a week ago,

Staal, after 11 seasons with the Canes, will be an unrestricted free agent. So, too, will goalies Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta, along with forwards Jesper Fast and Paul Stastny, and defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere.

Will the Canes look to re-sign Pacioretty? Indications are they will.

The group won’t be the same next season. It never is. But this group, this team, made its mark in the franchise’s 25th anniversary season.

“I can’t ask for a better group and more out of them than what we got,” Brind’Amour said.