JUST NOW: The head coach of the Boston Bruins sends a message about his departure to another….

Crucial queries for the teams ousted in Round 2: Next up Along with Nichushkin and Ullmark.

There are only four teams remaining in the Stanley Cup playoffs. With the field cut in half, four clubs will have a considerably extended summer.

Thus, we’re back with four crucial queries for the four groups who were eliminated in Round 2:

In the NHL during the 2018–19 regular season, the Hurricanes hold the second-best points percentage (.664). Of all the teams that haven’t made it to the Stanley Cup Final, they have the fifth-most playoff victories. However, they are a team that has failed to advance past the second round and has lost all of its games in two trips to the Conference Final, so they don’t have much to show for it.

This summer, they have come at a time of natural transition. Pending free agents include Brady Skjei, Jordan Martinook, Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce, Jake Guentzel, and others. It is possible for Jaccob Slavin to sign a longer term. Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis, RFAs, are unemployed. All of those are important hiring considerations. General Manager Don Waddell stated that they aim to recruit a right-shooting center and that they want to maintain as much of their defense corps together as possible. But how—if at all—will they change the extremely methodical and targeted strategy they’ve employed to assemble their roster and sign players?