From the start of the season, Martin Necas went about proving his doubters wrong and his supporters right. He was every bit the quick, crafty player the Carolina Hurricanes hoped he would become, moving toward his full potential after a season that very much called into question whether he would.
And now he has to do it all over again.
Of all the things that are different from this time a year ago, and all the things that remain the same, perhaps none has the potential to alter the direction of the Hurricanes’ destiny more than Necas, whose speed and skill can unlock even the tightest playoff game – as he did with a darting, end-to-end sprint against the Nashville Predators two years ago.
That was a rarity, a tantalizing hint of what might be to come, and after it wasn’t in evidence last season, especially in the playoffs when the Hurricanes were desperate for any whiff of offense, Necas enters this postseason coming off the best regular season of his career and still with everything to prove in the playoffs.
“Obviously, you know, trying to follow the season,” Necas said. “Not just follow, but get better. I want to be the guy.”
From the first day of training camp, Necas dispelled any concerns that he wasn’t the player he was supposed to be. He established himself as a key offensive cog for the Hurricanes, even as his pace slowed down the stretch with one goal and two assists in the Hurricanes’ final 10 games, but he wasn’t alone among his teammates. In the end, it’s hard to argue with 28 goals and 43 assists from a player whose previous highs were 14 and 27 (albeit in the abbreviated 2021 season).
“It’s probably consistency,” Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said. “Everyone knew he had that high-end potential. He can do all kinds of things with the puck, good skater and all that stuff, but you have to put those solid efforts together consistently. The high-end plays will come here and there but overall I think he has been competing better and more consistently. Obviously that happens when you grow and get older and you get more experience. It’s pretty normal to take that kind of step.”
But it’s no secret that the regular season and the postseason are different animals, and raw skill is less often the trump card in May that it is in December. The checking is tighter, the games heavier, and the space that players like Necas can exploit shrinks into nothing. There are no secrets. An opponent may be caught unaware in the second game of a back-to-back in January, but not in Game 2 of a playoff series.
Learning how to maneuver amid those conditions, how to impose one’s self upon a game, is a process that doesn’t happen right away. It takes time and experience and, often, failure.
Aho figured it out. Andrei Svechnikov was in the middle of it, and this year would have been a big one for him if he were healthy. But given the giant leaps he took during the regular season, Necas is really at the beginning of that now, even having played in 33 playoff games – a reality underlined by the three goals he’s scored in those games.
Given the arc of his career to then, that’s not entirely unexpected. But that pace of postseason production at this point would be a grave disappointment and potentially fatal for the Hurricanes’ playoff hopes, having seen the heights he is capable of achieving. There’s no going back now.
