Storm Tracking: Hurricane Season Over!

The primary goal for most teams heading into a season is to play for the Stanley Cup and to get there, you first have to make the playoffs. This has been a huge problem for the Carolina Hurricanes since they moved to the Triangle and even more so these last 5 seasons. The week kicked off with a rather nice home win against the Dallas Stars. In that game, the Canes used a strong 2nd period and effective PP to get up big and coast to the victory. But that 2nd period was the high point of the week. On Saturday in Raleigh, Carolina seemed to be more interested in planning their summer vacations rather than playing hockey. It was sloppy and not surprisingly a former Canes contributed on the game winner. Then it was off to Madison Square Garden to face the Rangers. The game started out well enough and Carolina even took an early lead. But a late 1st period PP for New York tied the game and broke the fragile Canes. It symbolized the season, as the team was outworked and outcoached for the rest of the game. The Canes are officially eliminated from playoff contention and there is a lot of work to do by the front office, coaching staff and players. Here are the stats for the week of 4/2/14 through 4/8/14.

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

• John-Michael Liles - Of all the players you might think would step up their game, Liles isn't one that would be an anybodies top 5. But he was the guy that probably played the best this week. He led the team in points, tied for the team lead in goals, assists and +/- and was 2nd in blocked shots. He also was in the top 5 in all possession categories with a low of 55.2% All Situations Corsi For. With Andrej Sekera out, more was asked of Liles and he delivered. But the most impressive thing to me was that Liles was on the ice for 5 of Carolina's 6 goals this week and 0 goals against. While he hasn't really produced the points we were expecting and his game has been a little inconsistent, he seems like a good bottom pairing defenseman that could play extended minutes if necessary.
• Justin Faulk - It wasn't a return to early season form, but I thought Faulk showed quite a bit of improvement in his play over the past couple of months. He showed more of a tendency to jump into the play offensively, which I thought was missing from his game this season. He tied for the team lead in goals, tied for 2nd in points and tied for 2nd in shots. His +/- wasn't good at -3, but with Sekera out, he played in the most important situations for the Canes. Faulk also finished in the top 6 in all possession stats, averaging between 52.6% and 57.9%. All those numbers are an increase over his season averages and that's even better considering the how poor the Canes numbers were this week. Let's just hope his play continues to improve and Faulk turns into the true top pairing defenseman we hope he can be.
• Riley Nash - It was a tough call for this last spot, but I thought Nash deserved some credit for his recent play. Riley tied for the team lead in goals, tied 2nd in points & takeaways and was above 50% in the faceoff circle. He was also 1 of only 5 Canes to be at 50% or higher in every possession category this week. While he's somewhat been ridden the hot play of Skinner & Lindholm, Nash has/is proving to be an effective player himself. He can score the occasional goal, plays responsibly in both ends and contributes on the PK. He might not be the 3rd line center the Canes need, but I believe he has proved his worth and earned a spot on the roster of next year's squad.

Who's Not

• Alexander Semin - You could really argue a number of people for these spots, but I starting with a player who I was disappointed with this week. He only played in 2 games, but I was thoroughly unimpressed with Semin's play this week. While his possession numbers were decent, he had 0 points and was a team worst -5. The guy that leads this season at +21 in total goals for/against was not on the ice for any Canes goal this week. His play was similar to what he did at the start the season, where he held onto the puck too long before eventually turning it over. He also had a couple of penalties that were not called against and his defensive play was lackluster. Just not a very good week for Alex.
• The 4th Line - I'm mainly focusing on Manny Malhotra and Radek Dvorak here, but the 3rd member of this line should be included also. The Canes 4th line has gradually seen their time decrease as the season has moved along and for reason. While Manny is a great faceoff man, this line really doesn't do much more than win the faceoff. They contributed no points this week and were completely dominated when they were on the ice. As with most of the season, this line just gets abused by the opponent when out out on the ice. Just look at the possession numbers for Malhotra, Dvorak, Drayson Bowman and Zach Boychuk; it's absolutely god-awful. At this point, I don't think I would bring any of those guys back for next season.
• Peter Karmanos - First time a non-player made the list, but after last night's interview, he got to be the topic of conversation. We have complained some this season about Jim Rutherford being delusional, well he must be getting it from PK. He gave his coaching staff and core players a vote of confidence, even though most think there are plenty of problems there. He also believes this team would be fighting the Metropolitan Division crown if Anton Khudobin didn't go down with an injury. I think this guy knows a thing or two about hockey, but he obviously doesn't have any respect for the fans intelligence or he's too busy watching the Red Wings and doesn't know what's going on with the Canes. And to top everything off, he needs the fans to be "more patient" after 5 years of no playoffs. I could understand asking the fans to be patient, but telling us we need to be more patient is a slap in the face. Maybe it's best if PK does the smart thing and stays away from the camera?

Notable Weekly Team Stats

• Scoring still appears to be a problem for the Carolina Hurricanes. This week they averaged 2.00 goals per game, which ranked tied for 17th in the NHL. They gave up 2.67 goals against per game, which isn't horrible, tied for 14th in the league, but is obviously more than we got.
• The PP continues to look better than it has been, but dropped for the 3rd week in a row. Carolina converted 2 of 9 opportunities for 22.2%, which had them 9th for the week.
• The PK took a big step backwards in the Rangers game, allowing 2 PP goals. Their 71.4% PK ended up being tied with Chicago for 25th in the league. It was just one game, so let's see if it was an blip or if it is resorting back to being a poor PK.
• The Hurricanes Shots For & Against were pretty much middle of the pack for the week. They averaged 29.0 shots for per game (tied 13th) and gave up 31.0 shots against per game (19th). I don't know, but it seems as if we're getting credited for more shots than we actually take. I remember a couple of years ago, we seemed to take a lot of shots and it just doesn't seem that way now.
• Carolina finished the week in the top 10 in takeaways with 37 (4th) and in the bottom 10 in hits with 58 (24th) and giveaways with 39 (28th). They were middle of the road in blocks with 52 (12th) and turnover margin at -2 (tied 13th).
• The Corsi & Fenwick numbers are pretty poor this week and it was easy to see. The Canes 5 on 5 Corsi For was 46.1%, which would have them at 27th in the league if it were for a whole season. Their 5 on 5 Fenwick wasn't much better at 46.2%. On the season, the only 3 teams below those numbers are Buffalo, Edmonton and Toronto. Not exactly the company you wish to be keeping.
• Team Stat of the Week - Faceoff % - 58.6% - This and takeaways were about the only consistent thing the Canes did this season. The 58.6% was 3rd in the league this week and the Canes will likely finish in the top 5 for the season. Eric was in the #1 spot, winning 67.3% of his faceoffs, next was Riley at 56.8%, followed by Manny at 55.6% and last but not least was Jordan at 52.2%. Solid week in the circle, too bad it can't translate to the other aspects of the game.

Former Canes Weekly Stats