Storm Tracking: Riding the Waves

The Hurricanes entered the week with a chance of getting back to NHL 500, but things didn't go as planned.  Winnipeg controlled play in Raleigh and came out with the 3-1 victory.  The Canes then traveled to Boston and got off to an excellent start.  But a mistake by Andrej Sekera tied the game and momentum & the win swung to the Bruins.  Carolina then came back home and unloaded against the Sharks, peppering a debuting goaltender with 45 shots.  But the 22 year old rookie stopped them all and the Canes were handed their 3 loss in a row.  The Hurricanes packed their bags and heading out on another western road trip, first stop, Dallas.  It was a slow start for the boys in red, but they answered in the 2nd & 3rd with 5 straight goals and held on for the W.  Now on to L.A. and the weekly stats for the week of 11/12/14 through 11/18/14.

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

The Coaching Staff – This staff will not get many accolades from the national media, but you have to give them credit for what they’re accomplished.  This team was #4 in the NHL last season in faceoff percentage at 52.6%.  They lost the #2 faceoff man in the league to free agency and their #2 faceoff man to injury before the season started.  How have they responded?  The Canes are currently #2 in the NHL and are the only team to have 4 players in the top 30 in faceoff percentage.  They have found a way to take an expected 4^th line center and have him play & excel as a 2^nd line center.  They took a rookie with no NHL experience and have him playing quite competitive as a 3^rd line center.  They have Eric Staal playing a solid 200 foot game.  And they have figured out how to get the talented Justin Faulk out of his long funk.  The win/loss results are not necessarily there, but this staff has done quite a bit with the less than stellar group that they were given.

Justin Faulk – Faulk is again on the list because of his all-around solid play.  He tied for 2^nd on the team in points with 2 and shots on goal with 12.  He tied for the team lead in hits (9) and takeaways (5) and was 3^rd in blocked shots with 6.  He and Bellemore were also the only defenseman not to finish with negative ratings and Bellemore did not play in 1 of the games.  All of Faulk’s possession numbers were good, all above 56%.  His game just looks so improved over last year and the beginning of the year.  Like I mentioned above, credit should go to the coaching staff, but credit should also go to Faulk.  He is obviously listening to the coaches and working to improve his game and it is showing.

Eric Staal – Honestly, Eric was about to show up on the Duds list before the Dallas game.  While his overall game has been very solid this season and he is showing consistency, he is paid to do that and put up points.  The points haven’t really been there, but he broke out against the Stars.  The hope is this will build on itself and we will start seeing the scoring Eric Staal more often.  If so, this team is a different monster to play against.  A scoring Staal will direct more focus on him and will open up space for others.  Let’s hope Dallas was just the tip of the iceberg.

Weekly Duds

Jeff Skinner – Skinner had 4 points in 3 games last week and I was hoping to see him build off that.  That really didn’t happen and if not for a very timely goal in Dallas, he would have been held off the scoresheet.  He did lead the team with 16 shots of goal, but he was also tied for a team worse -4 rating.  While his possession numbers are fabulous, you also have to factor in his zone starts.  He had a whopping 68.1% offensive zone start this week, 12% higher than the next closest guy, Chris Terry.  Like Staal, Skinner is paid to be an offensive force on this team.  We all know he can do it, but there needs to be a little consistency and when the team is struggling to score, like most of this week, he needs to come through.

Andrej Sekera – Overall Sekera didn’t have a bad week.  He tied for the team lead in blocks & takeaways and was near the top in all possession categories.  But he made a couple of mistakes that really cost the team.  Now everybody makes mistakes, it’s part of the game, but man Sekera was unlucky this week.  First, his weak pass in Boston led to the tying goal and really shifted momentum in that game.  And not only did he turn the puck over, but the shot was actually going wide until it bounce off Sekera’s skate and past Cam Ward.  Andrej’s dive to take away the pass against San Jose ended up right back with the distributor and he was in perfect position to score the game winner.  Similar thing happened in Dallas last night and made the game a lot closer than it should have been.  He was trying hard and just got unlucky, but those were some dud plays for him.

John-Michael Liles – I’m really not sure what to make of Liles this season.  The stats don’t indicate that he’s playing well, but they also don’t indicate he’s playing much worse than some of the other defensemen.  But with the eye test, he just seems to be a disaster out there on the ice.  It seems that 90% of the time the other team scores, he’s on the ice.  He also had 2 primary assists last night, but for the life of me, I can’t remember anything good I saw from him.  Maybe I’m being overly critical, but I’m just not impressed with his game and I think the team was playing better without him in the lineup.

Weekly Team Stats

Former Canes Weekly Stats