Storm Tracking: Taking a Punch & Getting Back Up

The Canes continued their hot November going 2-0-1 this week.  They now sit 5-6-3 on the season, 4 points out of the last playoff spot and 5 points from the bottom of the league.  The team didn't look as good as the previous week, getting off to slow opening periods against the Jackets, Caps and Flames.  But the boys took the first punch and continued to fight, collect 5 out of a possible 6 points.  They were down two in the 3rd period in Washington, but turned it up late and really should have gone to the shootout, if not for a juicy rebound.  But the Flames game was probably the most impressive to me, taking it to a team that embarrassed them a couple weeks ago.  Carolina has a chance to get back to & possibly surpass NHL 500 this upcoming week, but staying there will be tough.  6 of their next 8 are on the road and 6 of their next 8 are against playoff teams from last season.  Now on to the weekly stats for the week of 11/5/14 through 11/11/14.

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

Justin Faulk – Faulk continued his impressive play this week and is showing signs of being the top 2 defenseman the Canes need him to be.  The led the team in ice time, assists, points, blocks and tied for 2^nd with 12 shots.  His Corsi & Fenwick numbers ranked in the bottom half of the team, but he was generally on the ice in many tough situations.  He was in the upper half in both Shot categories.  The new coaching staff has seemed to get Faulk to turn the corner, now the key is to figure out how to keep him playing at this level.

Jeff Skinner – I think Skinner had his ups & downs this week, but I was really impressed by the way he played when him & Semin were centered by McClement.  Skinner’s offensive game jumped and quickly resulted in 2 goals for the Canes.  For the week, he tied for the team lead in goals with 2, was 2^nd in points and tied for 2^nd in shots.  His possession numbers were also good, all ranking in the 50s to 60s.  I’m not sure if this Skinner/McClement/Semin line is meant to last, but I’m interested in seeing where it might go over the next couple of games.

Cam Ward – I certainly have given Cam a lot of grief over the past couple of seasons and I honestly thought he was done.  But like a phoenix, he has risen from the ashes and is playing comparable to other top goalies in the league right now.  His 0.944 save percentage and 1.45 goals against average for the week would rank in the NHL top 5 for the year.  He has rediscovered his confidence and you can tell the team has rediscovered their confidence in him.  The schedule now gets a little tougher; let’s hope that Cam can keep up his stellar play.

Weekly Duds

John-Michael Liles – I’m not saying that Liles was horrible, but he has definitely not been very good.  The Canes offensive defenseman has virtually provided no offense and looks like the guy that Toronto wouldn’t even play.  Liles unfortunately had a team high 5 giveaways and only registered 2 shots on goal.  He was also 1 of only 2 defensemen that did not have a positive rating.  The Canes are paying Liles quite a bit of money for his services and he hasn’t really provided much of anything this year.  It’s time for him to kick it up a notch and prove he is still a capable NHL defender.

Jiri Tlusty – I want to give Tlusty a little pass, because he seems to be fighting through some injury or something.  But the bottom line is that he had a very poor week.  He was a team worst -2, had no points and only 4 shots.  His possession numbers were also quite bad, ranging between 46 and 27.  While he got some time on the top line with Staal & Semin, he spent most of the week in the bottom 6.  Whatever is going on with him, he needs to get it fixed.  The Canes need their leading goal scorer so far to provide goals or at least scoring chances.

Chris Terry – Terry has had a fantastic start to the season and really his NHL career, but this week showed why he has had trouble getting called up and staying.  While he has sniper abilities and can work on the PP, he really doesn’t possess a strong overall game.  While he started in the NHL, call-up Zach Boychuk has started to pass him, providing more to the team.  I still think Terry can be a useful player for the Hurricanes this season, but I don’t believe he is an everyday player.  Again, I think against non-physical teams, where he can play on a PP unit, I think he can work.  Against physical teams, it might be better to healthy scratching him.  I guess we’ll see how this works itself out.

Weekly Team Stats

Former Canes Weekly Stats