RALEIGH, N.C. _ So that's what an $8 million player looks like.
Or an $8.454 million player, to be precise.
The Sebastian Aho the Carolina Hurricanes have been waiting to see since July finally showed up on Monday, and his two goals_as impressive as they were_were the least of it. He was a force in both ends against the Ottawa Senators, driving play, breaking up scoring chances that led to Carolina goals at the other end.
His timing was as good as his performance. Did the Hurricanes ever need this from Aho, and did they ever need it right flipping now. There were plenty of contributors on the scoresheet in the 8-2 win_three points from Joel Edmundson! _ but Aho was at the heart of it.
As he has to be.
The abysmal loss in Ottawa on Saturday was the unquestioned nadir of the Hurricanes' entire season (so far), running their losing streak to four games with one of their worst overall performances in months. The Hurricanes had been telling themselves through the first three games that they weren't actually playing that badly. There was no debate after that one.
Aho took that particular loss personally: "For sure, 100 percent," he said.
That skid was also rooted in the inability of not only Aho to perform at an appropriate level, but several of his high-priced teammates. Jordan Staal continues to labor, off the scoresheet again Monday, with only one point in 13 games. Ryan Dzingel scored his first in eight games. Nino Niederreiter somehow managed to draw iron faced with a completely open net. Erik Haula and Jordan Martinook remain out.
"We need it from everybody, but you've got to get it from your top guys for sure," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "He's obviously that for us."
With their season threatening to turn quickly and unexpectedly sour_and another loss to the Senators would have been like a citric acid bath_Aho delivered the kind of all-around performance that justified the crazy offseason drama that saw the Montreal Canadiens try to poach the restricted free agent with a front-loaded offer sheet.
Even though the Hurricanes didn't hesitate to match, the offer sheet did make Aho the highest-paid player on the team, and while Aho denied he felt that pressure, it certainly played a role in his lack of production to start the season and the slippage in his game after that, especially in his own end. Brind'Amour kept pushing him on that. Monday it all clicked.
"It was nice to see him get rewarded," Brind'Amour said, "because he's definitely been pressing."
This was everything the Hurricanes could have asked for, and more. Reunited with the metronomically consistent Teuvo Teravainen on a line with Andrei Svechnikov, Aho delivered what the Hurricanes needed when they needed it.
On a night when the Hurricanes scored three goals off fluky_but certainly welcome given their recent scoring issues_bounces, Aho scored a pair that were no fluke. He picked Dylan DeMelo's pocket at the blue line on an Ottawa power play, moments after breaking up a scoring chance, and went the distance to beat Anders Nilsson, finally converting a short-handed breakaway. In the third, he cleverly kept his stick just below crossbar level to whack a fluttering pick out of midair, legally.
It wasn't the goals, though, that distinguished Aho's performance. It was everything else.
"I did it right," Aho said, and at the right time for the Hurricanes.
