The Carolina Hurricanes keep leaning on their penalty kill in another deep postseason push

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — There's a moment of frustrated dread for any hockey team that comes with an official raising an arm to call a penalty triggering a power play.

For the Carolina Hurricanes, that moment quickly flips to next-play belief.

Their penalty kill has been the NHL's best going back to the start of Rod Brind'Amour's coaching tenure seven years ago. Fittingly, that unit has helped push Carolina through two playoff rounds and to the Eastern Conference final for the second time in three seasons.

"We don't obviously want to use it,” forward Seth Jarvis said Sunday. “You don't want to be on the penalty kill. But when the opportunity arises, we are fully confident in what we can put out there.”

The Hurricanes have had multiple days to rest and regroup after closing out the Washington Capitals as the conference's top seed in five games Thursday. They'll face the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, with Game 1 Tuesday night at Carolina.

The Hurricanes have the No. 1 penalty kill over those seven regular seasons under Brind'Amour with a rate of 84.8%. And they've been the best of this postseason so far, turning away 28 of 30 power plays — a 93.3% conversion rate — while notching a shorthanded goal from veteran forward Jordan Martinook.

It's an extension of Carolina's aggressive-forecheck approach that seeks to maintain puck control in the offensive zone, both to pressure opposing defenses and smother chances going the other way.

Ask assistant coach Tim Gleason, who oversees the kill, what it takes to be successful and his immediate answer ignores Xs and Os. It's mentality, he says, workmanlike and driven by the simple motivation of “what I'm going to do for my buddy."

“What are you going to do? You're going to mope on it? You're going to be sour that you took the penalty? Then you're living in the past,” said Gleason, a former defenseman who played 1,944 shorthanded minutes during an 11-season NHL career that included at least parts of nine seasons with Carolina.

“So it's all about what you're doing, what's right in front of you. That kind of goes back to the mentality. You've got to get your mind right, right now. ... It's all about here and now. I think the guys do a great job of that.”

Jordan Staal, Carolina's captain, pointed to that got-your-back focus, too.

“It’s part of my job, I take pride in it,” Staal said. “It's not that you want to have penalties, but you know they’re going to happen, no matter what. So when I’m in the box, you’re hoping the boys bail you out. And I kind of feel the same thing. Jumping over the boards hoping to bail my brother out and try to get back to square and back to moving in the right direction.”

Carolina's postseason started with a 15-for-15 showing in Round 1 against New Jersey, while one of Washington’s two power play goals was NHL career goals leader Alex Ovechkin banging in a one-timer on a 5-on-3 advantage in Game 4.

Overall, the Devils and Capitals combined for 33 shots on goal on 30 power plays, a meager 1.1 per attempt.

And contributions keep coming.

Frederik Andersen leads all goaltenders with more than one postseason start in goals-against average and save percentage. Staal is a mainstay and a two-time finalist for the Selke Trophy for the league's top defensive forward, alongside Martinook's grinding presence.

There's the long-running presence of Jaccob Slavin, with Washington coach Spencer Carbery saying after the last series that Slavin deserves more accolades and “it doesn't seem right” that the 31-year-old isn't more heavily in the mix every year for the Norris Trophy presented to the league's top defenseman.

There's also 2017Norris winner in Brent Burns. Jarvis and Sebastian Aho as proven strong two-way players with eight shorthanded goals in the regular season. And Carolina has gotten contributions from defensemen Jalen Chatfield, Dmitry Orlov and Sean Walker; as well as forwards Eric Robinson and Mark Jankowski in a sign of its deep rotation.

The trickiest part, Slavin said, is embracing the reality that there's always going to be someone open with the extra man. That comes as penalty killers spend tense shifts in scrambling rotations in pursuit of a quick-moving puck, with the hope of getting control long enough to clear it to the far end of the ice and kill precious seconds.

But the payoff is worth it once the penalty-box door opens in a return to even strength.

“There's a willingness to go out there and do a job that's tough, that a lot of times you're going to have to sacrifice your body,” Slavin said. "I mean, you're down a man, right? And the odds are kind of stacked against you.

"So it's just fun to go out there and compete, kill it off and get the momentum. Because when you have a big kill, you feel the momentum on your side — and that can be a huge turning point in a game.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho (20) shoots the puck against Washington Capitals defenseman Matt Roy (3) in the second period of Game 2 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson (48) tracks the puck against Carolina Hurricanes center Seth Jarvis (24) in the second period of Game 5 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Capitals' Pierre-Luc Dubois (80) faces off against Carolina Hurricanes' Jordan Staal (11) during the first period of Game 3 of an NHL hockey Semi-final round playoff series in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin (74) celebrates with goaltender Frederik Andersen (31) after Game 1 of a second-round NHL hockey playoff series against the Washington Capitals Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)