Storm Tracking: Storm Surge

It's a tough time for me to be a Hurricane fan.  I really do want to see the team do well, but I KNOW the best option for this organization's long-term health is for them to lose and lose a lot!  This week didn't help them get any closer to that long-term goal, but the offense broke out and the boys collect 2 wins and a loser point.  It is always nice beating Buffalo, but it is even better stomping on Slugs.  And that is what happened last Thursday in Raleigh as the Canes won 5-2.  They should have won their next game in St. Louis, but they couldn't hold on to 2 leads and lost in the shootout.  They again took an early lead at home against the Avs, only to see a 3rd period push send them to another shootout.  But the Canes Sweded Colorado in the shootout and got the victory.  Now the Canes face 3 Canadian teams before the All-Star break, will the streak continue?  Here are the stats for 1/7/15 through 1/13/15.

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

Ryan Murphy – I have been very critical of Murphy and his future here in Carolina.  Well this week, he deserves some praise, because he had his best 3-game offensive outbreak of his career.  He led the team with 4 points and 4 assists.  He also had a team high 70.8% Corsi and 66.1% Fenwick possession numbers at 5-on-5 Close.  Statistically Murphy had about as good a week as a young, offensive defenseman can have.  But another thing that really stood out to me was his own-ice confidence.  Many times this year, he’s look lost and scared.  This week, he was noticeably more confident and his play reflected that.  I still have my questions about his future here, but those questions might be answered if he can keep this play up.

Victor Rask – The rookie has been really impressive this season, playing in multiple situations and playing a complete game.  He did hit a wall in December, going 15 games without a point, but that streak was snapped last week with an assist in Nashville.  This week, all he did was score 2 goals, add an assist, score a shootout goal and was 51% in the dot.  All of his possession numbers were above 61% and for the year, he ranks in Carolina top 5 in most possession categories.  A lot is asked of the rookie and for the most part he has delivered.  There will be bumps along the road, but I’m really excited to see how this rookie continues to develop.  I guess that early season ranking in his draft year might not have been too far off?

Eric Staal –If you compare this week to Eric’s last week, it was probably a step backwards.  But he still tied for the team lead in goals with 2, led the team in shots with 13 and was in the top 4 in all possession categories, 65% or higher in 3 of them.  But the thing that stands out to me the most is his on-ice demeanor.  He seems rejuvenated, playing with more energy, skating much better, battling more and the biggest key, shooting the puck.  This seems more like the Eric Staal that was around the last time the Canes made the playoffs.  I don’t know if he just finally feels healthy, if it’s playing on a line with his brother or a combination of both.  But I like this Eric and hope to see more of it this season and next.

Weekly Duds

Andrej Sekera – The Canes usually don’t score much, but this week was an exception.  There were only 2 players that didn’t register a point and one of those was Sekera.  There were also only 2 players that registered less shots on goal than Sekera’s 2, the defensive pairing of Hainsey & Bellemore (Bellemore only played in 1 game).  While he still played his typical solid game, this is likely the Canes key trade chip and they need him to get them as much as possible in return.  This week doesn’t necessarily hurt his stock, but he could have done more to improve it.  It was also surprising to see Sekera as the #3 defenseman in time-on-ice this week, behind Faulk and Hainsey.

Alexander Semin – Maybe I’m being nitpicky since Alex did get 2 assists and end up with a +2 rating.  But it could be argued that Semin is the best shooter on this team and only registering 2 shots on goal in 3 games is unacceptable.  At $7 million, this team expects, no, let me say demands more from Semin.  He needs to be a threat almost every time he touches the ice and that isn’t happening.  He has improved, but we’re over halfway through the season and he has 1 goal and only 30 shots.  While Semin has missed a number of games, he still has 90 more minutes of ice time than Brad Malone and Malone has 32 shots on goal.  This is beyond frustration at this point, he needs to get his blanket-blank together or retire or do something.

Cam Ward – I’m sorry, but I’ve got to put Cam in this spot for this week.  Since November 1^st, Cam has posted a 0.923 save percentage and 2.16 goals against average.  On many nights he has kept the game competitive almost single-handedly.  But this week, when the team finally decides to score and actually wins the possession game, he struggles.  A 2.88 goals against average isn’t horrible, but dropping to a 0.891 save percentage is significant.  It seems or at least has been rumored that Cam doesn’t want to waive his NTC and wants to stay in Raleigh.  If so, he needs to make sure this week is an aberration and get back to the way he played in November & December.

Weekly Team Stats

Former Canes Weekly Stats