Preseason games mean nothing, right? That's what we're told. If our team wins, we certainly don't get euphoric and if they lose we try not to be concerned. The games don't count in the standings, that much we can all agree upon, but are they really worthless? So far in the Canes preseason there is not much to get excited about and not much positive to build on. Very few, if any of the newcomers trying to make the team have made much of a positive impression or impact. It's too hard to analyze very much after just watching one game and listening to two so I won't even try, but it is interesting to look at the stats so far.
We have a GF of 9 and GA of 16. That's the most goals allowed by any team in the league after the first 3 preseason games played. This indicates a possible problem on defense which is no surprise. One could blame our goalies, especially our youngest one Justin Peters for allowing 7 in one game, but from accounts of the games the goalies were not the major problem. Our preseason defense has been a shadow of the one that played in the finals three short months ago. Aaron Ward is in NY of course, Commodore played 2 games, Kaberle is hurt, Wesley played one game, Hedican has been hurt, and Nic Wallin has been hurt. Out of a possible 18 man games played by these 6 players, only 3 man games were played. Since we know Ward and Kaberle are out of the equation, let's hope we get the remaining 4 of the 6 able to play before opening night!
For more stats, here is a link provided by Tony over at Kukla's Korner. We see that Andrew Ladd has the worst plus/minus on the team with a -7. Grahame has the best goalie stats. Again, there is not much you can take from this but maybe Andrew should work on his defense a bit. We'll see how the Canes play this weekend when more of their regulars are likely to play. I'll provide my analysis of who makes the team and who doesn't later today or tomorrow.
http://www.aodw.com/MemberFiles/hitman/preseasonstats.txt
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PRESEASONÂ Â Â Â 2006-2007 CAROLINA HURRICANES (0-3)
POS NO. PLAYERÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â GPÂ Â GÂ Â A PTSÂ +/-Â PIMÂ PP SH GW OTGÂ SÂ Â PCTG
RW  11 Williams, Justin       2  2  1  3  0    0  1 0 0 0   8 25.0
C   17 Brind'Amour, Rod       2  1  2  3  4-   2  1 0 0 0   3 33.3
LW  18 Bayda, Ryan            2  1  2  3  0    0  0 0 0 0   5 20.0
D   32 Hulse, Cale            2  0  3  3  2-   6  0 0 0 0   2  0.0
LW  13 Whitney, Ray           2  2  0  2  2-   4  1 0 0 0   9 22.2
D   48 Babchuk, Anton         3  1  1  2  2-   0  0 1 0 0   5 20.0
LW  16 Ladd, Andrew           3  1  1  2  7-   2  1 0 0 0   5 20.0
RW  25 Willis, Shane          3  1  1  2  2-   0  0 0 0 0   9 11.1
C   37 Aucoin, Keith          1  0  1  1  1    0  0 0 0 0   0  ---
RW  26 Cole, Erik             2  0  1  1  3-   2  0 0 0 0   2  0.0
D   22 Commodore, Mike        2  0  1  1  1-   4  0 0 0 0   3  0.0
D   71 *Forrest, J.D.          2  0  1  1  0    0  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
C   14 Adams, Kevyn           2  0  1  1  0    0  0 0 0 0   3  0.0
D    8 Woolley, Jason         3  0  1  1  3-   4  0 0 0 0   2  0.0
RW  15 Isbister, Brad         3  0  1  1  0    4  0 0 0 0   2  0.0
D    2 Wesley, Glen           1  0  0  0  1-   0  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
RW  19 Letowski, Trevor       1  0  0  0  0    0  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
D   70 Tverdovsky, Oleg       1  0  0  0  3-   2  0 0 0 0   0  ---
C   12 Staal, Eric            1  0  0  0  3-   0  0 0 0 0   3  0.0
D   38 *Conboy, Tim            1  0  0  0  1-   2  0 0 0 0   0  ---
RW  27 Adams, Craig           1  0  0  0  1-   0  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
RW  41 *Reed, Harrison         1  0  0  0  0    0  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
D   45 Tanabe, David          1  0  0  0  1-   0  0 0 0 0   4  0.0
C   43 *Kelman, Scott          1  0  0  0  1-   0  0 0 0 0   0  ---
C   34 Gove, David            2  0  0  0  2-   0  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
C   24 Walker, Scott          2  0  0  0  4-   4  0 0 0 0   2  0.0
RW  42 *Dwyer, Patrick         2  0  0  0  0    0  0 0 0 0   3  0.0
D   23 Walser, Derrick        2  0  0  0  3-   4  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
RW  59 LaRose, Chad           3  0  0  0  2-   0  0 0 0 0   1  0.0
        TEAM TOTALS            3  9 18 27  9-  40  4 1 0 0  78 11.5
        OPPONENT TOTALS        3 16 25 41  9   42  2 1 3 0  95 16.8
RK NO GOALTENDERÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â GPIÂ MINSÂ Â AVGÂ WÂ L OT EN SOÂ GAÂ Â SAÂ SV%Â GÂ A PIM
  47 Grahame, John        1   59 3.05 0 1 0 1 0  3  28 89.3 0 0  0
  30 Ward, Cam            1   59 5.08 0 1 0 0 0  5  35 85.7 0 0  0
  60*Peters, Justin       1   60 7.00 0 1 0 0 0  7  31 77.4 0 0  0
     TEAM TOTALS          3  180 5.33 0 3 0 1 0 16  95 83.2 0 0  0
     OPPONENT TOTALS      3  180 3.00 3 0 0 0 0  9  78 88.5
Billy Preston