Storm Tracking: Sunny in the East, Overcast in Raleigh

It was a week of highs and lows for the Carolina Hurricanes. The scored a season high 6 goals in a blowout victory over the Maple Leafs and followed that up being blanked by the Blue Jackets and Flames. 1 and 2 is a poor week, but it's made even worse by the rest of the Eastern Conference. While the West is certainly the best, since 2014 rolled around, the East has had it's day in the sun. Since January 1st, the Eastern Conference is 56-30-12 overall and 27-11-3 against the Western Conference. Only 2 teams in the conference have records below NHL .500 since the 1st and both of those are currently in the playoff picture. And the teams the Canes are competing against for playoff position (teams within 5 points of the Canes) are 26-13-5 this month. So Carolina needs to recover quickly, start scoring again and put W's in the win column if they have any hope of ending their playoff drought. Here are the stats for the week of 1/8/14 through 1/14/14.

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

• Jordan Staal - It's tough finding 3 good players when you only have 1 win and 2 shutouts, but Jordan had quite a game against Toronto and was solid in the other 2 games. He led the team with 4 points, 3 assists and tied for the team led at +2. He was also tied for 5th on the team in shots and was 2nd in hits with 6. He was on the ice for 4 Carolina goals and 0 goals against. The 0 goals against is especially impressive due to his role going up against the opponents top line. His All Situations possession numbers were quite good, ranking in the top 5 in each category. His 5 on 5 Close possession numbers did take a dip, but he was pretty average for the team. His faceoff numbers were really good, having to take a more significant role with Eric Staal out, he posted a 61.8% win percentage. This is the Jordan the Canes traded for and the one they want to see more often.
• John-Michael Liles - Liles again had a solid week and was able to score a goal against his former team. That in itself is probably worth it's weight in gold to him. Liles also tied for the team high +2, was 2nd with 6 blocked shots, tied for 5th in hits and tied for 3rd in takeaways. Like Jordan, Liles was on the ice for 4 goals for and 0 against. Even though it is a only 6 games, he leads the Canes for the season with a +7. Liles was also the top defenseman in 4 of the 6 possession categories, finishing as the 2nd best defenseman in the other 2 categories. All of his possession numbers are above 57% and one of the most surprising things is that he had the highest percentage of defensive zone starts of any defenseman. While this trade might have been a swap of extra defensemen when it happened, Liles is really appearing to be a good piece for the Hurricanes.
• Elias Lindholm - Lindholm came back from the World Juniors feeling confident and it translated in his first game back. He scored a PP goal and added 2 assists for his 2nd 3 point game in 5 games for him (even though there was a month between those games). He was 2nd on the team in points and assists. Lindholm also 3rd in shots and tied for 3rd in blocked shots. He also averaged over 15 minutes a game and had 5 possession stats 50% and above. While consistency still isn't there for this rookie, you can see his game coming around. It appears that Lindholm will be a special player in this league, the question is when is that going to happen on a regular basis.

Who's Not

• Tuomo Ruutu - Ruutu is a really nice guy, but his game has left him and there aren't any signs of it returning. While he didn't always put up points, he could be counted on to do other things. But as this week shows, Ruutu isn't doing the "other things" as much anymore. He only had 3 hits for the week. This guy use to average over 3 hits a game! He isn't as effective on the forecheck and hasn't really been much of a net presence either. All of his All Situations possession numbers were below 45% for the week, ranking in the bottom 6 on the team. His 5 on 5 Close numbers were even worse, they were around 35% and were in the bottom 2 on the team. His -2 for the week had him overtake Eric for the team low and his ice time has been cut to under 12 minutes a game. At this point, I can't see any team trading for him and he might end up being a buyout candidate. I know he made the Finnish Olympic team and it is a honor to respect your country, but it might be best for himself and the Canes for him to respectfully decline and rest his body.
• Alexander Semin - Semin has had a difficult year and it continued this week. He went pointless, was a -1 and tied for a team high 5 giveaways. This team is depending on Semin being a pretty big point producer and come up big when the team needs him to. As in the Calgary game, he had a great opportunity to put the puck in the net or at least create a good scoring chance, he over thought the play, trying to get it to Eric and ended up with a turnover. While his All Situations possession number were good at around 55%, his 5 on 5 Close were horrible. For the season, Semin ranked 2nd on the team in 5 on 5 Close possession numbers, around 52%. This week, all of his numbers were in the 30s, between 12% and 18% lower than his season average. I don't believe injury is a factor anymore, but I'm also not sure what needs to be done to get Semin's game on track. Maybe as someone else suggested, he should go back on a line with Jordan, because he was doing well there.
• Ron Hainsey/Brett Bellemore - The Canes 2nd pairing had a rough week. They combined to go pointless and a -5 for the week. They were not on the ice for any goals for and their Corsi For & Fenwick For numbers were in the low 40s. They were the only defensemen to end up a minus in the Toronto game and their poor decisions resulted in the back breaking 2nd goal against Calgary. Bellemore was saw his time on ice reduced in each of the shutouts and I wouldn't be surprised if he was healthy scratched for one of games this upcoming week. Hainsey continued his poor play, he is now a combined -7 over the past 2 weeks. I thought it might just be a bleep on the radar, but maybe not. This pairing is critical to the Canes and must rediscover their form from earlier in the season. Weeks like this will quickly make Carolina sellers at the trade deadline and that could spell an end for 1 or both of these guys.

Notable Weekly Team Stats

• I wish the Canes could have spread out their scoring a little more evenly this week. They only averaged 2.00 goals per game (all from 1 game), that put them tied for 19th in the league. But Anton Khudobin had solid week in net, only allowing 2.00 goals against per game. That was good for a tie for 11th with 4 other teams. Typically that would get the job done most weeks, but not with the consistently inconsistent Canes offense.
• The PP numbers look pretty good for the week, as Carolina went 2 for 9 (22.2%). That was aided by a late 5 on 3 against the Leafs and ended up putting Carolina in 10th place in the NHL.
• The PK on the other hand was worse than normal at 71.4%. They allowed PP goals to 2 teams in the bottom half of the league, but were perfect against a top 5 PP. They even scored their 8th shorthanded goal of the season against the Leafs.
• The Hurricanes finished 5th in the NHL in faceoff percentage at 55.4%. Manny topped the team at 62.2%, Jordan was a close 61.8%, followed by Brett at 57.1%, then Eric at 53.3%, Lindholm came in at 41.2%, Skinner at 38.5% and Nash rounded out the list at 20.0%.
• Carolina finished tied for 2nd in takeaways with 38 and 23rd in hits with 55. The also finished tied 17th in blocks with 43 and 18th in turnover margin at -5.
• The shots for and against were in the Canes favor this week, finishing in the top 10 in both categories. They averaged 31.7 shots per game (7th) and 26.3 shot against per game (tied 8th).
• The possession numbers ticked up some, but are still below where they need to be. The Hurricanes Corsi For was 47.1% and their Fenwick For was 49.5%. The only surprise here is that the Hurricanes usually have a lower Fenwick For than Corsi For.
• Team Stat of the Week - Giveaways - 43 - Carolina was 26th in the NHL in giveaways. They typically are a team that turns the puck over a lot, but at some point they need to adjust. Passing and control the puck are 2 things each player needs to work on during this 4 day break. These turnovers lead to scoring chances, which lead to easy goals. And for a team that has struggled all year offensively, limiting easy scoring chances is key.

Former Canes Weekly Stats