Storm Tracking: Slipping & Sliding on the Ice

The week was a mixed bag for the Hurricanes, they won against the Panthers and will outplaying the Lightning, they got down early and were never able to recover. To top things off, their Tuesday night affair in Philadelphia was postponed due to snow. The Flyers were coming on an OT loss to the Islanders on Monday, so theory would be the Canes would be facing a tired team. But the NHL postponed the game for a day, given the Flyers a day to rest and rescheduling the Hurricanes upcoming schedule. Carolina also finds themselves falling further behind in the Eastern Conference playoff picture due to some very strong play by the East. Two weeks ago, the Hurricanes found themselves 2 points out of the 8th position in the conference and 1 point out of 3rd in the Metropolitan Division. A week later, that increased to 4 points out of the 8th position in the conference and 5 points out of 3rd in the division. And now, they find themselves 5 point out of 8th in the conference and 7 points out of 3rd in the division. Unless Carolina can get it going real soon and puts some wins together, it appears missing the playoffs will continue. Here are the stats for the week of 1/15/14 through 1/21/14.

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

• Alexander Semin - You might say the week started out pretty sour for Alex with Jim Rutherford's public comments, but things certainly ended sweet. Semin scored goals in each game and in 3 different ways. He had an even-strength goal, a PP goal and a shorthanded goal. He led the team with 3 goals and 13 shots. Alex also tied for 3rd with a +2 and was on the ice for 5 of the Canes 6 goals. And while the Canes had great possession numbers for the week, Alex was above the team average in 5 of 6 categories. But cherry on top for Semin happened Tuesday with Alex being named to the Russian Olympic team. While he might have got snubbed originally, he now has the fortune of playing in the Olympics in his home country. Let's just hope Semin's drive continues, because he has played exceptional and Carolina need this Alex to try and fight themselves back into playoff relevance.
• Eric Staal - Eric really seemed to return to form this week, skating hard, protecting the puck and putting up points. Last year's top line was reunited and they seemed to rediscover some of last year's magic. Eric had a team high 4 points, 3 assists and 64.7% faceoff percentage. Like Alex, he also had above the team average possession numbers and was on the ice for 5 Canes goals and only 2 against. His assist on Semin's shorthanded goal gave EStaal 4 shorthanded points for the season, which is tied with Brad Marchand for the league lead. While this isn't the same Eric Staal that we Caniacs are use to seeing, I think we must admit that he is still a very effective player. He has become more of a playmaker now, but if he can figure out how to score goals again, his resurgence will have a ripple effect throughout the lineup. Let's just hope it isn't too little, too late for the Canes.
• John-Michael Liles - It was tough determining who would get this final spot. Harrison, Nash, Tlusty and Hainsey could all have easily been in this place. But I went with Liles again due to his solid all-around play. He continues to see his ice time increase and took over a top 4 position this week for Bellemore. He only had the lone assist, but tied for the team lead at +3, led the team with 7 blocks, tied for 3rd in shots and had the best on-ice goal differential of 5 for and only 1 against. His All Situations possession numbers were very good, but is 5 on 5 Close numbers were below the team average. Either way, Liles is proving week after week that he is still a good NHL defenseman. This Carolina-Toronto spare parts trade appears to be one of those trades that has really benefited both team.

Who's Not

• Patrick Dwyer - I have to admit that I'm a Dwyer fan, he really gives all he's got and does whatever is asked of him. But this was a bad week for Patrick. He was on the ice for 0 Canes goals and 4 against, ending up a -3 for the week. And while finishing tied for 3rd in shots, he had no points, no registered hits and no registered blocks. Early against Tampa, he did the right thing of giving his stick to Sekera, but then put the team in a 5 on 3 situation while he tried to get a new stick. Things went downhill quick after that. A positive for Dwyer was that he led the team with 4 takeaways and had 0 giveaways. But another negative was his possession numbers. While his All Situations were 50% or above, they were at the bottom as compared to his teammates. And his 5 on 5 Close numbers were all worst on the team. Dwyer is a good role player, but I think it might be time for him to be properly slotted on this team.
• Justin Faulk/Andrej Sekera - A lot has been asked of this pairing this season and typically they have answered the bell. But this weeks Tampa game was down right ugly by both players and you see what happens when both fail. They combined for 0 points and a -8 for the week. They also only had 4 hits and 3 blocked shots between them. Their possession numbers were bad, but both ended up below the team average and actually had the lowest percentage of defensive zone starts by defensemen. This is probably just a blip for these Olympic defensemen, but the team needs them to play better. They need them to be more responsible in their own zone and needs them contributing some offensively. Without Faulk & Sekera playing near the top of their game, the Canes have very little chance of doing anything.
• Tuomo Ruutu - To say Ruutu played bad would be a lie, the truth is Ruutu just didn't play. He had the least amount of ice time of any Canes and if not for 4 hits, he barely would even show up in the box score. It's really sad, but Ruutu just isn't an effective player anymore. He was even somewhat sheltered in his limited ice time with less than 10% zone starts in the defensive zone. His possession numbers look pretty good, but I have to say that was more to do with Jeff Skinner and Elias Lindholm than him. The player Ruutu was is exactly the type of player this team needs, but he hasn't shown that very much this season. It seems his surgically repaired hips are just not allowing him to skate the way he use to and the injuries over the years have worn him down. At a $4.75 million cap hit for the next 2.5 seasons, the organization may end up having to use a compliance buyout on him. He's a great guy, but I'm just not sure he an NHL player anymore.

Notable Weekly Team Stats

• The Hurricanes scoring for the week was about average, 3.00 goals per game ranked tied for 12th with 4 other teams. But their 3.50 goals against was more telling, ranking tied for 26th. There were a number of defensive breakdowns that need to be shored up if the Canes want to win.
• The PP numbers were right around the season average. While it didn't really hurt the team, it didn't help them either. 14.3% is simply not good enough in today's NHL. They ranked tied for 17th in the league.
• The PK ticked up to respectable levels this week. The 85.7% kill rate was good for an 8th place tie with Anaheim. If they can keep that success rate up, that would bode well for the rest of the season. They also scored another shorthanded goal, retaining their league lead.
• Despite only playing 2 games this week, the Canes still ranked in the top 10 in the league in takeaways with 25. The were tied for 17th in giveaways and were in the bottom 2 in both hits and blocks. They also finished 6th in turnover margin at +3.
• Faceoffs were a big positive this week for Carolina. They finished 2nd in the NHL at 59.3%. Of the regulars, Eric led the way at 64.7%, followed by Jordan at 60.0%, then Manny at 59.4% and Lindholm at 45.5%. Jeff also won his only draw and Riley was 2 of 3.
• Carolina ranked 1st in the NHL in shots per game at 45.0. It was only 2 games, but the team got back to putting the puck on net. Their shots against were 31.5 per game, which was 18th in the league.
• The Hurricanes possession numbers were pretty darn good this week. Their 5 on 5 Corsi for percentage was 62.1%, while their Fenwick For percentage was 58.7%. Both numbers far exceed their season averages.
• Team Stat of the Week - Save Percentage - 0.889% - The Canes only allowed 63 shots against this week, but gave up 7 goals in those 63 shots. The main culprit behind this horrible save percentage was Justin Peters, but the team's defense factored in as well. Whatever the case, this has to be much better if the Canes plan on winning many games.

Former Canes Weekly Stats