Carolina Hurricanes Stat Review: Storms a Brewing

Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 7-4 to extend their winning streak to 4

Well, tonight was a roller coaster of a game, but the Carolina Hurricanes ultimately emerged the victor after scoring seven goals against an Islanders team that has spent the majority of the season at the bottom of the standings.  Still, it took a lot of effort as the Islanders would not go away quietly and it took five goals by the Hurricanes and a  Lee Stempniak bar down snipe off the faceoff for what would be the game-winner.  It seemed no matter what challenge the Islanders threw at the Hurricanes they were ready to meet it.  But still with four goals scored it wasn’t a perfect game.  Now on to the stats to see what they say about the game.

Shots

Normally I would do this graph with a regular and 5v5 section, but the refs didn’t blow a single whistle tonight so the entire game was 5v5!  The second one of the year so far.  Other than the third period the Carolina Hurricanes controlled the shot battle.  And a large part of the shot difference in the third period was due to the fact the Canes held a multi-goal lead for most of it.  This was a great game overall for the Hurricanes offense.

Shot Differential

You don’t really hear too many people wanting to trade Justin Faulk anymore these days.  Part of that is his return to the top of these charts for the past several weeks.  Sure he still has some mediocre games, but when he’s on he’s a terror on offense and creating so many chances for the Carolina Hurricanes that whatever defensive liabilities he has are easily forgotten.  The Skinner/Rask/Ryan line was quiet but after their performance the past couple I think it’s ok if they take a break.

Expected Goals and Shots plots

I think this is the first time since I’ve been doing these that nobody ended up in the good quadrant.  Which is probably for the best seeing as how the Canes gave up four goals despite the seven they scored.  It was just one of those nights where the hockey was flowing on both sides.  I accidentally labeled the lower left quadrant in the second graph bad when it should be dull.  Still another so-so night for Hanifin and Tennyson.  Maybe it’s because the rest of the defense plays so well most of the times, but it seems like those two stand out almost every single game on these charts for all the wrong reasons.  Peters said Hanifin should start getting more ice time but with his level of play this season I just don’t see it happening.

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