Ranking the Hurricanes Road Trip: You Voted, Here’s What We Learned

This season, our writers have added a Ranker poll to the game recaps, allowing another way for you, our loyal Canes Country readers, to weigh in on the performances after the game. An added benefit of your votes is that from them we obtain "data", which allows us to make fun of analyze feedback about the games from a different perspective.

Over 9,000 votes were cast during the six-game road trip. Here are a few things we learned.

1. Y'all were kinder than expected. Of the 9,428 votes cast, 6,269 were upvotes and 3,159 were downvotes, almost an exact 2:1 ratio of good votes to bad votes. That's kind of amazing given a 1-3-2 record and three games that featured four unanswered goals against. Perhaps it's an indication fans felt the team actually played better than the eventual outcome. As far as voting by position, overall the forwards fared the best with a 70/30 split between up and down votes. The defensemen weighed in with a 60/40 split, and despite being dead last in the league in team save percentage, votes were split nearly 50/50 on goaltending. That's mainly because....
2. Fans love Lacko Taco. By a large margin (30 votes/game), Eddie Lack received more votes per game than any other player, and ranked fourth-best in vote differential per game. In the 4-3 overtime loss in Vancouver, he received a 91% favorable ranking, indicating Lack is receiving fan respect for his efforts in net despite his individual statistics. As an aside, the Vancouver game ranked as the most-voted of the road trip games, receiving 2,405 votes.
3. The new alternate captains are performing up to their letters. Victor Rask leads the team in points and found the scoreboard in all six games played, so it's no surprise he led fan rankings as well. Jeff Skinner dropped a bit in overall votes after missing one game with a "middle body" injury, but his statistics per game played are strong (barely missing the top five with a vote differential per game of 65). Related, kudos to Lee Stempniak for being an enabler.
4. On the flip side, what the Faulk? Defense has been a mixed bag and it isn’t due to sophomore slumps. Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce are being recognized for their steady performances with top five votes, while grizzled veteran Ron Hainsey leads in two of the wrong categories, most down-votes and worst vote differential. Though tied (with Noah Hanifin) in points scored by a defenseman, Justin Faulk’s start to the season has not gone well defensively in the eyes of fans, earning him the second-most down-votes and one of the worst vote differentials.

Following is a summary of the votes.

What other conclusions do you draw? Do you enjoy having the Ranker feature available for voting after a game?

As always, thanks for your vote.

Canes Country Rank 'em Results - Six-Game Road Trip

Heroes

Goats