The Canes acquired forwards Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall in exchange for Martin Necas and Jack Drury. The NHL season is a grind. With every team playing at least 82 games spread across a seven month period, things are bound to get stale and January and February are notoriously the worst months of the season for that. It's far enough from the start of the season so that the games lose some luster and it's too far from the end of the season to really be locked in for a playoff push. "This is kind of the Groundhog Day time of the year and a lot of the time you're just like 'Ugh,'" said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "Everybody, they know that you have to play a certain way and they got to get up for the games and it's hard." The Carolina Hurricanes are not immune to this effect, but luckily for them, there've been enough notable occasions to break up the month. "It makes a long season a little more fun," said Frederik Andersen following his 300th career win. "I think this week there's been a lot for this locker room in terms of both on the ice and off the ice milestones so it's been cool to have a nice group in here and to celebrate stuff like that together. It brings us closer." In the past month alone, the Canes have had: • Sebastian Aho - 600 points • Frederik Andersen - 500 games; 300 wins • Rod Brind'Amour - 500 games • Brent Burns - Sixth longest iron man streak in NHL history • Taylor Hall - Hurricanes debut • Juha Jaaska - NHL debut; first NHL point| • Seth Jarvis - 100 assists • Pyotr Kochetkov - 100 games • Mikko Rantanen - Hurricanes debut • Martin Necas - 400 games • Eric Staal - Jersey retirement • Jordan Staal - 1,300 games; 700 points • Andrei Svechnikov - 200 assists And there's still more on the horizon. "To have those kinds of reminders, I think they're just good rewards that you put out there," Brind'Amour said. "There's a lot great things to celebrate. Even though you're moving on everyday and it's like, 'What's up next?' but it's nice to take a second and go, 'Hey, that's a pretty nice accomplishment.' And when you have guys that have been around as long as these guys, they start knocking them out. So it is kind of cool." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjEyMTgyOTk5MDg3NzIwMDY0/google-news.png] Stay updated with the most interesting Carolina Hurricanes stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News [https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMK-q0gsw7sXpAw/sections/CAQqEAgAKgcICjCvqtILMO7F6QMwmeDfCA?hl=en-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA%3Aen] to never miss a story.
