Storm Tracking: Tanks for Nothing

It wasn't necessarily the week the Canes wanted, but at this point of the season, victories and losses aren't making much of a difference.  The only victory the Canes did have this week was the possession battle.  They were shut out against Montreal, played pretty solidly against the Rangers and outplayed the Blackhawks except for putting the puck in the net.  Winning doesn't really help Carolina in any way right now, but putting forth a solid effort goes a long way to the fans and the coaches.  With 10 games left, it's time for every player to leave it on the ice and give the fans something to cheer for.  Now on to the stats for the week of 3/18/15 through 3/24/15.

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

John-Michael Liles – The much maligned defenseman was actually one of the better players for the Canes this week.  He only played in 2 games, registering an assist in each and leading Carolina with 2 assists for the week.  Liles also tied Rask with a team high 2 points and despite being known as an offensive defenseman, he did accounting for 5 hits.  But the thing that stands out most is Liles +1 rating.  He was the only Cane in the positive rating.  Liles isn’t a regular in Peters’ system, but looking at the past couple of month, maybe he should be.  He has 10 points in his past 19 games and 6 points in his past 9 games.  Liles also is a +7 in his past 10 games.

Victor Rask – Rask makes the stud list for the second week in a row.  He tied for the team lead in goals & points and was 2^nd on the team in shots with 13.  His faceoff numbers were pretty poor and he didn’t register many hits, blocks or takeaways, but he was clearly one of Carolina’s best forwards.  His possession numbers were excellent, all above 63%.  He ranked 2^nd on the team in 5-on-5 Close Fenwick and was 3^rd in 5-on-5 Close Corsi.  Rask has had a few difficult stretches throughout the year, but he has been one of the few bright spots in this very difficult seasons.  If he can continue to progress, Carolina will have another 2^nd Round Pick that has turned into a key player.

Danny Biega – I have been critical of most of the Canes young defensemen because I don’t think their much more than situation players or extra defensemen.  But so far, early on, I am somewhat impressed with Biega.  It’s only been 3 NHL games, but I think he could be a decent bottom pairing defenseman.  He’s solid, plays with some physicality, blocks shots, moves the puck ok and you can see he not going to be push around like others.  I’m not trying to imply that he could develop into a top 4 guy, but based on what I’ve seen, I would put Biega over Jordan & Rissanen.  I would also rather see him as a regular in the lineup than Murphy, even though Murphy has a higher ceiling.  The Canes need a blueline makeover, but I wouldn’t be against a Liles/Biega bottom pairing next year.

Weekly Duds

Ryan Murphy – It might be unfair putting Murphy here, he did score 1 of Carolina’s 3 goals this week.  But I am just not impressed with his game.  His lack of strength and awareness in his own zone are directly leading to goals against.  And I don’t see his offensive game being to a level that makes up for his defensive inefficiencies.  He tied for a team worst -4 for the week and is -13 on the year in only 28 games.  Murphy now has 80 games played in his 3^rd NHL season and I’m just not seeing progression.  He’s appears to be a PP specialist/situational defenseman and the Hurricanes need someone with a more complete game.

Andrej Nestrasil – Nestrasil had a pretty difficult week.  He didn’t register any points and was eventually demoted to the 4^th line.  He was in the bottom 5 in every possession category, with 3 of the 4 being below 50%.  The worst part is that he had those numbers despite getting 20 of 29 starts in the offensive zone.  Nesty has been a good pickup for Carolina and has been putting up points before this week.  So hopefully this is just a rookie slump and he will round back into form.

Eric Staal – Talk about a player slumping, look no further than Eric.  Staal has 1 point in his last 7 and is a -4 in that stretch.  But what is probably the worst thing is that the effort doesn’t appear to be there consistently through the game.  Eric is suppose to be the leader of this team, he suppose to pick them up when their down, come through with the big play when needed.  He is not doing any of this currently.  Maybe an unknown injury is behind all of this, that’s something we won’t know until probably the end of the season.  But either way, the fans and his teammates need to see Eric laying it all out on the ice, fighting until the very end.

Weekly Team Stats

Former Canes Weekly Stats