Many will point to the sub-par goals against numbers as the main reason the Hurricanes failed to make the playoffs, but there is good reason that won’t repeat itself: the young defensemen from last year will continue to grow, and Cam Ward had a forgetful two month stretch. It really was a tale of two seasons for Ward. His numbers from November and December: 9-13-3, GAA over 3.50, SV% near .882; his numbers from January through the end of the year: 17-8-8, GAA around 2.20 and SV% of .932. Cam Ward is a Conn Smythe winner, an All-Star, a candidate for the 2012 Canadian Olympic team, and should be of no worry to Canes fans. As for their defense, they are young and improving. Justin Faulk, 19-years-old, averaged over 22.5 minutes of ice time and was Team USA’s best defenseman in the World Championships that just concluded. Jamie McBain, 23-years-old, played just under 20 minutes per game, brought down his penalties and increased his shots on net. In the system they have Brian Dumoulin, a Boston College teammate of Chris Kreider, who is thought to be real close to making the jump to the NHL, maybe next season. They also have the 12th overall pick from 2011, Ryan Murphy of the Kitchener Rangers, who has amassed 169 points in 174 games in his OHL career, plus 28 playoff points in 27 games, a real offensive threat from the back. Even their veterans aren’t on the decline yet; Tim Gleason and Jay Harrison are 29-years-old, and Joni Pitkanen is just 28-years-old. No the problem is scoring beyond the top line, resulting in a middling goals for (2.6) and a middling power play (16.7%). They have captain Eric Staal, who is a perennial 30-goal scorer who just had a terrible half-season. They have former Calder winner Jeff Skinner who will also be a perennial 30-goal scorer who was injured most of the season, but still had 20 goals in 64 games. Beyond those two first-liners no one else scored 20 for the team. Beyond Eric Staal’s 70 points, no one else on the team even reached 50. That is a big drop off that needs to be filled. Jussi Jokinen scored 30 goals two years ago, but that appears to be the outlier and not the expected. Brandon Sutter looks like he has drifted from potential-second-line-center to a third-liner. Tuomo Ruutu and Chad LaRose are third-line wingers on a contending team. Do the math, and they need to put together a complete second line. Their downfall is they are not a team that can spend to the top of the cap, so they probably have $5M-$10M to play with in the offseason with almost all of their players signed (they will have four forwards making less than $1M that can easily go to the minors). So while it is hard to see them in on the Zach Parise/Alexander Semin level of free agent contracts, they could be in on secondary guys like Olli Jokinen, Ryan Smyth, Kristian Huselius, Dustin Penner, Brad Boyes, Andrei Kostitsyn, Ray Whitney, Jiri Hudler, Chris Kelly, or Ruslan Fedetenko. Should they spend $5M-$10M on two or three secondary forwards to alleviate the scoring pressure that falls on Staal and Skinner, the Hurricanes could make a positive step forward next season. Nick is RealGM’s NHL Feature Writer. You can reach him by email nick.obergan@realgm.com or on twitter @NickObergan