No Cam Do: The Story of the 2013 Carolina Hurricanes
Team Name: Carolina Hurricanes
Record: 19-25-4, 3rd in Southeast, No Playoffs
Player of the Season: Eric Staal 18-35–53 was the best player on the team. He’s definitely the proverbial straw that stirs the drink and Carolina got a real solid season from him. He’s not a first-round pick but will come off the board early.
Breakout of the Season: Jiri Tlusty racked up a career-best 23 goals ,38 points, eight points on the power play and a +15 rating this season. Looking at the stats on the surface those are great numbers for a 48-game season. But when you dig deeper it becomes caveat emptor for Tlusty in 2013-2014. Will he be the guy who scored seven goals in six games in February? Or will he be the guy who had a nine-game drought to open the season. Tlusty also seems to score in twos or threes which further exaggerate the risk-reward assessment on Tlusty. He scores four goals in five games and then goes 16 games without one (save for a hat trick against Washington in early April).
Disappointment of the Season: Cam Ward started out the season poorly, allowing 15 goals in four January games. The season continued to spiral downwards with a seven-game stretch that saw him allow three or more goals five times. He wasn’t getting support from his defensemen who kept hanging him out to dry. Then he suffered a sprained knee ligament in early March and his season was over.
While there were problems in front of him, he may have also had some off-ice distraction to deal with as well. Ward and his wife welcomed their second child to the world about 10 days before the season started. I’m willing to wager a single, green M&M that trying to adapt to having a new baby at home may have led to some difficulty at the start of the season for him.
It’s hard to be high on Ward because of the inconsistencies (see next item). Streaks and slumps happen but when the results vary wildly from one line to the next it makes me want to back away.
Team Analysis: It can be summed up this way. Tlusty and Alexander Semin finished with plus-minus ratings around +15. Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner wound up at -18 and -21, respectively. They all play on the same team. Their power play (27th) and penalty kill (28th) did them no favors either.
2013-2014 Story Lines: Eric Staal injured his knee at the World Championships that resulted in a third-degree sprain of his MCL. The only good news is that won’t require surgery but it’ll still be a couple more months from today before he should be fully ready to go.
The team has new uniforms (seen here) but without tightening up the defense and becoming more consistent through all four lines, the Hurricanes will be a streaky team to own players on.
2013-2014 Fantasy Guys to Have: Eric Staal, Semin,
On the Fringe: Tlusty (due to the inconsistency), Ward, Jordan Staal
| PLAYER | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | ATOI | PPG | PPA | SHG | SHA | SOG | SPCT |
| Eric Staal, C | 48 | 18 | 35 | 53 | 5 | 54 | 21:00 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 152 | 11.8 |
| Alexander Semin, LW | 44 | 13 | 31 | 44 | 14 | 46 | 20:57 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 150 | 8.7 |
| Jiri Tlusty, C | 48 | 23 | 15 | 38 | 15 | 18 | 18:15 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 117 | 19.7 |
| Jordan Staal, C | 48 | 10 | 21 | 31 | -18 | 32 | 20:06 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 114 | 8.8 |
| Jeff Skinner, C | 42 | 13 | 11 | 24 | -21 | 26 | 18:28 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 159 | 8.2 |
| Joe Corvo, D | 40 | 6 | 11 | 17 | -3 | 14 | 18:46 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 71 | 8.5 |
| Patrick Dwyer, RW | 46 | 8 | 8 | 16 | -7 | 12 | 15:26 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 93 | 8.6 |
| Justin Faulk, D | 38 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 1 | 15 | 24:00 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 76 | 6.6 |
| Jussi Jokinen, LW† | 33 | 6 | 5 | 11 | -8 | 18 | 15:35 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 61 | 9.8 |
| Jay Harrison, D | 47 | 3 | 7 | 10 | -10 | 51 | 19:54 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 54 | 5.6 |
| Joni Pitkanen, D | 22 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 12 | 22:49 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 2.9 |
| Tuomo Ruutu, C | 17 | 4 | 5 | 9 | -6 | 8 | 15:14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 13.3 |
| Tim Gleason, D | 42 | 0 | 9 | 9 | -3 | 40 | 19:34 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 0.0 |
| Riley Nash, C | 32 | 4 | 5 | 9 | -4 | 8 | 12:48 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 11.1 |
| Jamie McBain, D | 40 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 18:25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 46 | 2.2 |
| Bobby Sanguinetti, D | 37 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -6 | 4 | 14:45 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 4.2 |
| Drayson Bowman, LW | 37 | 3 | 2 | 5 | -7 | 17 | 11:42 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68 | 4.4 |
| Kevin Westgarth, RW | 31 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 45 | 5:43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 12.5 |
| Chad LaRose, RW | 35 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -8 | 29 | 12:51 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 3.1 |
| Marc-Andre Bergeron, D † | 13 | 0 | 4 | 4 | -7 | 5 | 15:04 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 0.0 |
| Tim Brent, C | 30 | 0 | 3 | 3 | -3 | 8 | 9:48 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0.0 |
| Zac Dalpe, C | 10 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -7 | 0 | 12:18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 5.6 |
| Tim Wallace, RW | 28 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -9 | 17 | 10:02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 5.0 |
| Brett Bellemore, D | 8 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 7 | 13:46 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.0 |
| Chris Terry, LW | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9:36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 100.0 |
| Andreas Nodl, RW | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 2 | 8:28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Jeremy Welsh, C | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5:51 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 |
| Ryan Murphy, D | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4 | 2 | 21:04 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0.0 |
| Zach Boychuk, C † | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10:13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Michal Jordan, D | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 10:41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 |
| Jared Staal, RW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 2 | 13:23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.0 |
| Marc-Andre Gragnani, D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7:53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Nicolas Blanchard, C | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 20 | 8:41 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Brett Sutter, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 4 | 8:21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0 |
| Adam Hall, RW† | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 10:31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.0 |
| PLAYER | GP | W | L | OTL | GAA | TOI | SV | SV% | SHO | TGA | TSA | PIM |
| Cam Ward | 17 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2.84 | 929:27 | 433 | .908 | 0 | 44 | 477 | 0 |
| Dan Ellis | 19 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 3.13 | 997:04 | 503 | .906 | 1 | 52 | 555 | 0 |
| Justin Peters | 19 | 4 | 11 | 1 | 3.46 | 954:24 | 451 | .891 | 1 | 55 | 506 | 0 |
