Make it a Hurricane before i go insane

[yave1964]

My take on the 2013-14 Carolina Hurricanes

Cam Ward. Those two words pretty well sum it up, if they have a chance Cam Ward has to start sixty plus games. If Ward is hurt again like last year, they are done.

Nothing is so striking as the difference in goalie stats between when Ward was in versus the Ellis/Peters combo when Ward went down for the year

Ward 16 games record: 9-6-1 GAA: 2.84
Others 33 games record 10-19-3 GAA: 3.29

If Ward had played all 48 games at that level, the Canes would have had 54 points, in the hunt for a playoff spot. With him going down they were down right wretched.

Forwards are led by Eric Staal and last years free agent pariah Alex Semin, who had a solid season. Jiri Tlusty had a breakout season on their wing, Eric's brother was not horrible in his first season but has to improve his plus/minus. Jeff Skinner took a step back, but should be better this year on the second line with solid Tuomo Ruutu healthy playing the opposite wing. So two good lines that can score, but sadly they are followed by a third and fourth line that are largely made up of players who have been overvalued by the Canes through their system for years, guys like Dwyer, Bowman, Blanchard, Boychuk, Dalpe, Nash, Brett Sutter, Chad Larose, Jared Staal and Chris Terry have all been in the system forever and the other common denominator is they cannot play a consistent role in the NHL. Hell, some of them cannot play in the AHL.

 

Rutherford, the GM falls in love with his own kids at the expense of the team. Loyalty is one thing, reality is quite another. Okay enough of that, Dwyer is sadly the best of that bunch, not really horrible but not good, Nathan Gerbe brings his energy in from Buffalo and there is always a chance that Elias Lindholm is given a chance to make the team, the Canes have a history of doing this with young studly players.

 

Defensively Andrej Sekera and Mike Komisarek come aboard. Ahem. Justin Faulk is a future all-star who is becoming a solid puck moving blue liner, Jay Harrison can play a little but the rest of the defense is made up of the same type of almost talented types, Pitkanen is fading fast, Gleason and Sanguinetti really aren't THAT bad for a third pairing I guess. They do have a solid talented offensive d-man named Ryan Murphy who may make the lineup this year, between Murphy and Faulk they have two very talented offensive d-men with massive upside.

 

In Net Peters and Ellis were shipped out and the job of backing up Ward falls to Anton Khudobin, late of the Boston Bruins. Ward, as mentioned earlier is the key to the club, as Ward goes so goes the Canes.
Kirk Muller was a no nonsense player and appears to be one as a coach as well. Rutherford is a reactive GM rather than proactive. Rather than look around at a bunch of forwards in the organization who cannot play and going out to get real NHLers he just keeps giving them chance after chance.

 

A couple of solid lines, two or three very good d-men and a great goalie. With a decent supporting cast this club could contend but I don't believe with this bottom six and bottom four d-men that much of anyone could win. Another forgotten season in Carolina is forthcoming. Also ran if Ward is healthy and a bottom five lottery club if he is not.