Storm Tracking: Still WINdless

The Canes embarked on their annual State Fair road trip and started the trip out on a pretty decent note.  They traveled to New York to face the defending Eastern Conference Champs and took them to a shootout.  Anton Khudobin played really well, but there just wasn't enough offense to get the victory.  Carolina then had a few days off before heading to Winterpeg to face Coach Mo.  Some good news came with the return of Jeff Skinner and Andrej Sekera, but that was about it.  The Jets got up 2 quick and it was just too much for the depleted Canes to come back from.  There are 3 more games in Western Canada before the boys return home for a back-to-back against more Western Conference teams.  But on to the weekly stats, here they are for the week of 10/15/14 through 10/21/14.

Canes Weekly Stats

Weekly Advanced Stats

The chart is arranged by the highest 5 on 5 Close Corsi For Percentage.

Here is a little key to some of my abbreviations. AS – All Situations, 5C – 5 on 5 Close, 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.war-on-ice.com.

Weekly Studs

Chris Terry - The young forward continues to make his presence felt in the NHL.  He scored the lone goal in New York and added an assist in Winnipeg.  He lead the team in scoring for the week and was in the upper half in all possession stats except 1.  On the year, Terry is tied with Jiri Tlusty for the team lead with 5 points through 5 games.  He also leads the team with a +4 rating and is shooting 75%.  Are these numbers sustainable, most likely not, but he is making a great case to stay in the NHL and for a little more playing time.

Riley Nash - Nash picked up another assist this week, finished with an Even rating, tied for the team lead in takeaways and had a 62.5 faceoff percentage.  His possession numbers were not good, but he is obviously playing above his head right now, centering the Canes top line.  Nash is also the only Canes forward that is averaging over 2 minutes a game on both the PP & PK.  The coaching staff appears to be relying on Riley a lot and he is coming through.  My opinion is Nash has been the best Canes player so far this year and the added responsibility while guys are injured could prove to be very valuable down the road.

Anton Khudobin - While the Winnipeg game wasn't Dobby's best, he still made a number of quality saves that kept the game as close as it was.  The New York game was the definition of a goalie trying to steal a win for his team.  His numbers for the week are really good, a 0.933 save percentage and a 1.95 goals against average are much more in line with his numbers from last season.  But with the way the defense is constructed, Carolina will need Dobby to play this well more often than not.  While it seemed as if the coaches were just going to rotate the person in the net, I think they are started to see that Khudobin is the man and Cam Ward is now the backup.

Weekly Duds

Alexander Semin - I have to say that Semin looked a little better this week than last, but the improvement was marginal at best.  He only had 3 shots on goal, 0 points and only got 14 minutes of ice time against the Rangers.  Still with the team needing him to help pick up the slack, Semin has more or less been invisible.  His 5 on 5 Close possession numbers are horrible, which is really a big surprise and he didn't even have a defensive zone start against New York.  I'm not sure if this is just a slump or trying to get use to playing without the Staals, but Alex needs to step up his game.

Justin Faulk - Against the Rangers, Faulk was a hit or miss.  He would make a good play, only to follow it up with a bad one or make a bad play and bail himself out with a good one.  But either way, he was wildly inconsistent and the series that defined his struggles was when Rick Nash stole the puck from him twice within a few seconds of each other.  Against the Jets, Faulk just really wasn't very good at all.  This is suppose to be a cornerstone/future cornerstone defenseman for the Canes and Faulk hasn't played that way in almost a year.  It's been mentioned that his confidence is shaken, if so the coaching staff needs to figure out how to settle it.  This team is struggling enough without one of their top defensemen being a mess.

Jeff Skinner - I'm not really sure anybody deserves this last dud, but I'm going to give it to Skinner for a couple of his actions last night.  It was his first game of the season, back from the concussion, but the 2 penalties he committed really bothered me.  He was clearly frustrated by Jacob Trouba, but he can't put himself in the box, because he is the Canes most dangerous offensive weapon.  The first penalty was a roughing call when Skinner had Trouba in a headlock and the second was a high-sticking penalty that looked bad in my eyes.  Maybe it was accidental, but to me it appeared that Skinner swung his stick (with authority) with the intention of hitting Trouba and if so that speaks to the young man's character.  Maybe I'm wrong, but go back and look at the play yourself.

Weekly Team Stats

Former Canes Weekly Stats