Storm Tracking: Temperature Swings

Much like North Carolina weather, you never know what you are going to get from the Carolina Hurricanes. Their hot, their cold, they are consistently inconsistent. The only thing that was predictable this week was they would play their best hockey in the 2nd period. This week, the Canes were outscored in the 1st period 3-2, outscored in the 3rd period 7-0 and outscored their opponents in the 2nd 10-2. It was a week they should have had better results than what they did and now face a Western Conference road trip, where they will need to be 0.500 or above to keep pace in the division. But usually December is the month Carolina normally starts breaking out of their sluggish start, maybe this season will be the same? Here are the stats for the week of 11/27/13 through 12/3/13.

Canes Weekly Stats

Weekly Advanced Stats

Here is a little key to some of my abbreviations. F - For, A - Against, CF% - Corsi For Percentage, FF% - Fenwick For Percentage, SF% - Shots For Percentage, OZst% - Offensive Zone Start Percentage, NZst% - Neutral Zone Start Percentage and DZst% - Defensive Zone Start Percentage. If you would like more advanced statistics, this information was collected from www.extraskater.com.

Who's Hot

• Jeff Skinner - Skinner's week sort of mirrored the team's. He had some very rough moments, but he also had some great ones. If it wasn't for him on Tuesday night, I'm not sure the Canes win against the Capitals. Jeff led the team this week in goals (3) and shots on goal (13). He also led the team in All Situations Fenwick For percentage (58.8%) and All Situations Shots For percentage (70.4%). Those are some pretty outstanding numbers for any player, but even better for one that isn't exactly defensive responsible. He tied with Eric Staal for the team lead with 4 points on the week. If Skinner can play like he did against Washington on a consistent basis, this team becomes much more dangerous. I don't think he'll stick with Eric on the top line, but his abilities would make opposing coaches think hard about which line they are going to put their shutdown group out against.
• Tuomo Ruutu - Ruutu might not have put up a bunch of points, but he was really effective this week. Tripp argued that Ruutu directly led to Skinner's 1st goal last night and Sekera's PP tally and I would agree. Ruutu did also score a pretty goal up in Newark and had a team high 20 hits for the week. Ruutu also had 10 shots on net, which put him in 3rd this week. But the most impressive thing to me was his possession numbers. Ruutu ranked in the top 6 in every possession stat for this week and every single one of those numbers was 55% or above. This is all the better considering the team's Corsi For percentage was 45.2% and Fenwick For percentage was 43.9%. I think we can say that Ruutu has recovered from his injury and is starting to put together solid performances game in and game out. Let's hope this continues and he stays healthy. Oh yeah, one more thing to mention. Ruutu doesn't take a lot of draws, but this week he was 5 of 6 in the faceoff circle.
• Justin Faulk - There could have been a number of guys put in this spot. Eric, Ron Hainsey, Jordan Staal, even Andrej Sekera had solid weeks. But I put Faulk here because Faulk ate over 25 minutes a night, 2 games without his normal playing partner and was rewarded for all of his hard work this year with his first goal of the season. Faulk's possession numbers were right around the team's average, but in both All Situations and 5 on 5 Close, Shots For were in his favor. The Canes might not have had the puck the majority of the time when he was on the ice, but they did have more shots on goal than they gave up. This young man is proving with every passing day that he is going to be one of the top defensemen in this league. He might have some rough games now and then, but he is someone that can be relied on to do his job at a high level. He deserves a lot of praise and I believe his new contract next season will reward him for his excellent play.

Who's Not

• Cam Ward - I won't really say that Cam was horrible this week, but he wasn't really good. When you go from a 0.946 save percentage to a 0.867, I think that shows Cam wasn't on top of his game. It's not like the team wasn't giving him goal support, they scored 12 goals this week. And to add insult to injury, Justin Peters got the start on Tuesday and played a very good game. With Anton Khudobin getting close to be ready, management has a decision to make about the goaltending situation. The general idea would be to trade Peters or Khudobin, but they really need Cam to be the better to do so. Numbers would say that Cam is probably the weakest of the 3 this season, but he's getting paid over 4.5 times what the other 2 are combined. Maybe it was just too many games in a row too quickly returning from injury, but the Carolina Hurricanes need Cam Ward to undeniably be the best goalie on this roster.
• Ryan Murphy - I tried to find someone else to put in this spot, but my mind kept returning to Murphy. Murphy did have an assist this week and his possession numbers were right in the middle of the pack, but I just didn't feel that he had a very solid week. He still had flashes at times, but for the most part, he looked tired and overmatched. He, along with Kevin Westgarth, were the only 2 Canes not to be on the ice for at least 2 goals for and he was a team worst -2 for the week. He was sat against the Capitals and while it would appear the team had no puck-movers, Carolina put together a rather solid game and won by 3 goals. I'm not suggesting Murphy needs to be sat more often, but the coaches need to figure out how to best utilize him. I still wouldn't be upset to see them dress 7 defensemen every once in a while, limiting Murphy's ice time and hopefully keeping him fresher for the entire season. But this is 2 weeks in a row that I haven't been very impressed with Murphy, I hope he can rebound.
• Kevin Westgarth/Tim Gleason - Some of you might find it interesting that I gave this last spot to one guy that played less than 2 minutes and one guy that didn't play at all. The reason I did this was not so much there performance, but the team's performance without them. Gleason continues to be winless on the season and you could make a very good argument that he is really the 8th defenseman on this team right now. Supposedly he might be moved when he returns and that really might be the best thing for him at this point. The Canes play better without him and I don't see him improving significantly. Much of the same can be said about Westgarth. This guy is here to fill a particular role and he isn't doing that. He hasn't fought yet this season and really doesn't even deliver many hits when he does play. He seems like a nice guy and good teammate, but as Muller might say, he simply a passenger and the team could do much more with that roster spot.

Notable Weekly Team Stats

• The Hurricanes matched last weeks goal average with 3.00 per game. That was tied with Chicago for 9th in the league. But they gave up the same amount as they scored, the 3.00 goals against per game were bottom 10 in the NHL.
• Faceoffs were back on the plus side this week. The team was 51%, good for 12th. Of the regulars, Manny was at 59.3%, Reily was 58.8%, Elias was an even 50%, Jordan came in 46.4% and Eric finished at 45.5%.
• The Canes finished the week 7th in hits (106), tied for 5th in takeaways (30) and tied for 13th in blocks (52). But they didn't do to well with giveaways, coming in at number 24 with 38.
• The Corsi For and Fenwick For percentages were again below 50%. The Corsi was at 45.2 and the Fenwick was at 43.9. The only game the Canes had better possession numbers than their opponent was the Vancouver game.
• While both the shots for and shots against dropped as compared to last week. The gap between the two shrank to more acceptable levels. Carolina averaged 25.8 shots per game (24th) and 27.5 shots against per game (11th).
• The Canes PK was pretty bad, clocking in at 75% (25th). Sekera out of the lineup probably hurt this, but either way, the team needs to be better.
• Team Stat of the Week - PP % - 7.1% - 1 of 14, that is simply not acceptable. The Canes even had multiple opportunities with a 5 on 3 PP and failed to convert. It probably cost Carolina at least 1 point and possibly another 2. If they were able to go up 3 against New Jersey in Raleigh, I don't believe the Devils would have rallied and won that game. Special teams will most likely determine if this team makes or misses the playoffs. So the coaches, the players and/or management need to figure out how to get this PP going.

Former Canes Weekly Stats