2. Cam Ward is settling into the backup role nicely
Scott Darling was brought in from the Chicago Blackhawks during the off-season and signed to a contract extension to be the set in stone starter. Cam Ward and Eddie Lack were not an effective combination for the past few seasons.
It is a different story this season. Darling played well against the Leafs and Ward was great against the Blues. Ward finished with 32 saves on 34 shots. That was a good follow-up from his 48 save performance against the Edmonton Oilers.
A big concern for Carolina fans entering the season was having this change of role negatively affect Ward. The decline that Ward had seen over the past five seasons was expected to continue this season. No signs of that actually happening have been seen.
Head coach Bill Peters has limited the amount of starts that Ward has got this season. With 18 back-to-back games on the slate in 2017-18, Ward will definitely get a good workload this season, though.