Carolina Hurricanes Farm Team: Checking Up on the Charlotte Checkers
While the Carolina Hurricanes struggle to earn the last playoff spot in the NHL, the Charlotte Checkers are currently in the playoffs
Will the Carolina Hurricanes make the playoffs this year? Nobody knows, and the odds are stacked against the Raleigh team. Down in Charlotte, though, the picture is a little bit rosier. The Charlotte Checkers sit fourth in their division with two games in hand on the two teams chasing them: the Iowa Wild and the Cleveland Monsters. The top four teams in each division make the playoffs.
Related Story: Hudson Elynuik Signs Contract With Checkers
If you clicked on the link you are probably going, “Wait don’t those two teams have more points than the Checkers. Why aren’t they higher in the standings?” It is because the AHL while giving out points doesn’t actually use them to determine their actual standings. The AHL uses Win Percentage (Win%) to determine whether a team is above another team.
The reason behind this lunacy comes from the Pacific Division. The Pacific only plays 68 games to the rest of the league’s 76. So why even give out points at all if the league isn’t even going to use them?
Because the NHL, and by extension the AHL, hates their fans and wants to make things as complicated as possible. Don’t believe me? Just read the actual rulebook on offsides and get back to me. Or what about the needlessly obtuse wildcard crossover scenarios. I rest my case.
Recent Play
The Charlotte Checkers, like the Carolina Hurricanes, have been on a hot streak recently to end the season. In their last ten games, the Checkers are 7-3-0-0. Yes, I know that record has an extra zero in it. The AHL breaks out Overtime Losses from Shootout Losses. No, I don’t know the reason why since they don’t award different points for either loss.
The more and more I dive into the AHL the weirder and weirder it gets. The AHL even experimented with turning hockey into a water sport. I hear they are petitioning to include it in the next summer Olympics.
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The Checkers are led by Andrew Poturalski and Lucas Wallmark in scoring. Wallmark recently played a couple games with the Carolina Hurricanes before returning to the Checkers. Jake Chelios, famed NHL defenseman Chris Chelios’s son, and Haydn Fleury lead all defenseman in scoring.
One of the main reason behind the Checkers recent surge is the play of newcomer Tom McCollum in net. With Michael Leighton undergoing surgery, the Checkers acquired McCollum from the Stockton Heat at the AHL trade deadline. In his five games with the Checkers, McCollum has been phenomenal with a 5-0-0 record and a .946 save percentage.
The Future Looks Good
While AHL success doesn’t automatically translate into NHL success, the fact that the Checkers are performing well is a good sign for fans of the Carolina Hurricanes. This means that Francis has successfully restocked the farm system with more talent than the franchise has seen in years.
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If the Checkers make the playoffs this season it will be the first time for the team since the 2013 season and only the third time in seven years. While the playoffs in the NHL are slim for the Carolina Hurricanes, the same is not so for the Checkers.
A good playoff push by Charlotte is just one more sign that the Canes franchise on a whole is on the right path. Now if they could only figure out this whole goalie situation. I think Francis should just follow Wayne Gretzky Hockey’s advice and get a goalie that can shapeshift into an actual brick wall.