Storm Tracking: Momentum Staaled

The week started with a home game against Dallas, but most of the team failed to get the memo.  Other than the Victor Rask line, no one did much to slow down the Stars from owning Raleigh.  The ineptitude continued against the Panthers.  Defensively the Canes weren't bad, but they could not muster a single goal against Florida's 3rd string goaltender.  Home cooking didn't work, so the Canes hit the road and actually got a victory in Ohio.  They returned home playing a very entertaining and competitive game against the Senators.  They ended up losing with 13.4 seconds left of OT, but you have to give it to both teams.  Now the schedule gets a lot harder and with Canes defensemen going down like bowling pins, it could get very ugly.  Now on to the stats for the week of 3/11/15 through 3/17/15.

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

Victor Rask – Rask had a very impressive game against Dallas and followed it up with solid performances the rest of the week.  He led the Hurricanes in points and tied for the team lead in goals, assists and =/- rating.  Rask was also over 55% in the faceoff circle and had above the team average possession numbers.  Victor has shown what he can do at the NHL level, now the key is for him to get consistent game in and game out.  The one area I really think he needs to work on this summer is his skating; he could be a much better player if he improves his speed.

Brett Bellemore – You need to take advantage with an opportunity presents itself and Bellemore is doing what he can.  He was a pleasant surprise last season, but saw his time reduced this year.  With Sekera & Gleason traded and a bunch of younger players given chances, Bellemore has seen his importance increased.  His 3 points this week are a third of his season point totals.  His 3 assists and +2 rating also tied for the team lead this week.  And not surprising, Brett led the Canes with 13 hits.  His possession numbers aren’t great, but they were average for Carolina this week.  He is an UFA at the end of the season, so who knows what happens.  But Bellemore seems to be a decent bottom-pairing, physical defenseman.

Cam Ward/Anton Khudobin – After multiple weeks of rather poor performances from the goalies, they both rebound nicely to put together solid weeks.  Dobby got 3 of the 4 games and put up a 0.909 save percentage.  If not for the bad Stars game from pretty much everybody, his numbers would have been even better.  Ward played against the Panthers and put forth an excellent effort, but the rest of the team couldn’t score and you can win if you don’t score.  Now what would be nice is if these guys build on this week and finish out the year strong.

Weekly Duds

Eric Staal/Jordan Staal – The Staals did end up leading the team in possession and by a decent margin, but they played in 4 games, didn’t register a point and were a combined -4.  That just cannot happen!  These guys are suppose to be the leaders on this team and they make over $15 million combined, they are paid to produce and that didn’t happen.  There really isn’t too much more to say other than the Staals need to be better, they need to produce points and be on the plus side.

Ryan Murphy/Michal Jordan/Rasmus Rissanen – Some might feel I’m piling on these young defensemen, but I’m trying to offer an honest assessment.  If these are the best defensive prospects in our system, we have a LONG way to go before we’re even adequate on the blueline.  Murphy only played in 2 games and tied for a team worst -3 rating with zero points.  Before Rissanen got injured, he provided some physicality, but was a -2 with no points.  Jordan did collect an assist, was +1 and led the team in blocks, but was bad possession-wise.  These 3 combined for a 43.4% All Situations Corsi percentage while having 55.5% offensive zone starts.  Murphy looks to be a situation defenseman while Jordan & Rissanen are #7 or #8 defensemen.  The Canes need to focus on improving the blueline.

Jay McClement – Since McClement signed his contract extension, he has zero points and a -3 rating.  For this week, Jay’s possession numbers were in the bottom 3 in every category, not eclipsing the 40% point.  And for guys that took at least 3 faceoffs, he was last on the team at 48.8%.  McClement isn’t a big point producer and has gone through other prolonged scoring slumps this season; it just doesn’t look good coming after signing a new contract.  For a good month, the 4^th line was probably the Canes best and it has fallen way off recently.  McClement is a good guy and does a lot of good things, but he needs to step up his game and get back to January/February’s form.

Weekly Team Stats

Former Canes Weekly Stats