Some of the Shinier Spots on the Roster
Optimus Riem. Two Starts. Two solid wins. Each requiring a shutdown performance against a team with an excellent netminder on the other side. Each time James Reimer has come out on top. Bobrovsky couldn’t keep up with him. Braden Holtby couldn’t keep up with him. Mrazek is probably sweating a little bit with his grasp on the starting job suddenly slipping.
It doesn’t Hurt that Riemer’s save percentage is a stellar 0.940% which is good enough for 5th overall in the league (with atleast two starts). What makes it even more amazing is that he got that while allowing five goals. Now granted the Capitals shot 34 shots on him and Florida got a whopping 50 SOG. Guess even when the defense takes a break, the netminding is still there.
The second C stands for Clutch. It also stand for amazing play with the puck in any zone. It also stands for 5th overall in this week’s Power Rankings.
The second C in Jaccob Slavin‘s name stand for many things. The point is that Slavin has been everywhere in the last four games. Shutting down offenses on one side of the ice and giving his goalie the benefit of an easier workload while also scoring clutch goals on the other side of the ice to help secure wins.
On top of his two goals, one a game tying goal against the Capitals, another the game winning overtime goal against the Lightning, Slavin also earned an assist on Sebastian Aho’s empty net goal. An amazing stretch pass that helped set that goal up might have been the catalyst that sparks a career year from Sebastian Aho. That might be the most priceless stat.
Erik “bo-time” Huala. This man has been the real deal. The first three goals of the season has seen him score a goal in each of those games while helping singlehandedly revive the powerplay. Now granted he has no points outside of those three goals but his presence on that line has helped boost his linemates.
That is why he is fourth overall in this power rankings. He is leading all “new” Carolina Hurricanes in goals and leads many previous Canes in power play goals for all of last season. Its really refreshing to see a player that is a true threat close up to the net with the man advantage. Its starting to infect the rest of the team too, which is a good thing.