Carolina Hurricanes Stat Review: More like BobROBsky!

The Carolina Hurricanes faced the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time this week.

After that disastrous showing in the PNC arena last night, the Carolina Hurricanes headed back out on the road to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets in Columbus.  The first time didn’t work out so well for the Hurricanes so there was hope that the team would come out and try to get a little revenge on one of the best teams in the NHL.  Unfortunately, that would not be the case.  While the Canes played significantly better than their past two games, the result was the same.  If there is another consoling factor than Carolina’s improved play, it would be the Flyer lost in regulation to the Devils.  That once again leaves the Hurricanes one game in hand and one point behind.  Ok on to the graphs and let’s see how the team actually performed.

Shots and Shots on Goal

Yeah, this one looks bad.  Other than the first period the Hurricanes dominated the play for the other two periods.  In fact, you could say the team played three periods of really solid hockey.  Shot differences like this generally show that the Hurricanes ran into a hot goalie and that would be the case.  Bobrovsky was in fine form and made plenty of saves like this:

Shots Differential

Jeff Skinner responded from his third period benching last night with a pretty stellar performance.  He was kept off the score sheet, but just barely a couple of times.  Some complain his scoring is streaky but it’s more often than not he plays games like this.  The third pairing was a disaster but it has been all season no matter who is playing there, and I think Hanafin or Tennyson would have faired only marginally better. Could that have been enough for a win?  Maybe, but after the stinker they put up last night, they deserved the scratch given their recent play.  Teravainen did not.

Shots and Expected Goals Plots

Man, it’s good to see Justin Faulk back to his old self this past month.  Him and Ron Hainsey have turned into a really good pairing and somehow Hainsey has seemed to keep up with Faulk.  Maybe not in the goals and points categories, but Hainsey has shown that he can provide the defensive counterbalance to Faulk’s offense.  A lot of Carolina Hurricanes’ players on the right side of this graph which equals another heartbreaking loss.

Despite scoring a goal tonight wasn’t great for Sebastian Aho.  Maybe it was because he played without long-time linemate Teuvo Teravainen.  I’m not sure but everybody deserves a bad game every now and then.  Still, the kid is on pace for a 21 goal season.  A little off of my predicted 30 goal season, but still nothing to sneeze at.  Even with the loss, the Carolina Hurricanes played a great game let’s just hope that sometime soon games like these start turning into wins because I don’t think my liver can take too much more losses like this.