Driven by a higher scoring pace of late, the Hurricanes are currently 16th in the NHL in goals per game. That makes them the middle team in the league and is also a decent improvement from 21st in 2016-17.
Today’s Daily Cup of Joe takes a quick look at individual players and a couple of categories relative to pre-season expectations.
Much better than expected
Teuvo Teravainen
The fact that he is capable of scoring is not a surprise. He showed flashes in 2016-17. But the sheer volume of scoring driven by his recent and extended outburst has him leading the team in scoring and on target for roughly 80 points. That exceeds even optimistic projections for him entering the season.
Jordan Staal
He is still doing his thing in terms of marking other teams’ scoring lines, but in addition, he has been more productive offensively. His current 60ish-point pace is better than the 40-50-point pace that has been the norm for Staal in a Hurricanes uniform.
Justin Williams
Williams has somewhat quietly posted big numbers. He had only 48 points on a Washington Capitals team that was an elite scoring team with a strong power play, so it would have been reasonable to expect a small decrease from Williams. Instead, he is on target for more than 60 points.
Sebastian Aho
Many had very high expectations for Aho in 2017-18, so despite posting good numbers, he could still be low for some. I am putting his 70+ scoring pace in the better than expected category.
Brock McGinn
This year, McGinn probably slots between 10 and 13 on the Hurricanes depth chart, so his 20-goal and 40-point scoring paces represent solid depth scoring especially when one considers his limited ice time and minimal power play time.
Noah Hanifin
Hanifin is on target for nearly 50 points which would be a step up from his 29 points in 2016-17.
More to give
Elias Lindholm
Lindholm has not been bad, and his 40ish-point scoring pace lines up with his past statistics, but after a strong second half of the 2016-17 season, many were hoping for more. Hence, Lindholm is underperforming expectations thus far.
The blue line in total
The defense corps in total have been light on scoring. Half of the blue line in Brett Pesce, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Haydn Fleury do not have a single goal between them yet. The six goals in total for the Carolina Hurricanes projects to about 22-23 goals for the season compared to 34 last season. Most noticeable is Justin Faulk who is currently on target for less than 30 points which is a little light compared to his 37 points in 75 games in 2016-17.
Victor Rask
Rask has looked better since re-entering the lineup after a couple games as a healthy scratch, but his 28-point scoring pace for the first quarter of the year is light.
Most surprising on the positive front is Teuvo Teravainen simply because of the sheer number of points he has so far. On the negative side, I actually think that the lack of scoring by the blue line is most surprising. The group is capable in terms of skating and carrying the puck which one would figure would translate into good depth scoring, but that has not been the case thus far in 2017-18.
Go Canes!
I would say for Teravainen and Aho it is better than expected–but not much better. Both are likely to be 70-point players during their careers. This may be TT’s best year as many NHLers peak when they are 23, then continue their prime years until 27 or 28. Aho might have one more level.
Staal and Williams are doing much better–as both have been high 40s to 50 point players for the past few years.
I think it is too early to tell about McGinn. He has five really good games the past two years, but otherwise seldom shows up on the scoresheet. He only has one assist in past 5 games. It would be a boost to have him score every 2 or 3 games to end up with 40 points.
Hanifin is near my expectations. He should be a 45-point scorer.
The other D-men might actually be the biggest underachievers. While they have each been good at transition, none seem to be able to consistently produce points. You mention correctly that as a group they should be expected to produce more goals–I guess the good news is that if they find a 40-goal pace as a unit, it will be a significant boost for the team.
Like CT, I think you can reasonably extrapolate McGinn’s handful of games with scoring across an entire season. Fortunately his quarterway-in scoring rate has been there so far, making up for some of the other scoring deficiencies.
And I agree with CT (yet again!) that any improvement in scoring from the blue line (even a simple reversion to the mean/expected) will be a big boost to the team.
Also, I seem to recall we discussed preseason that the 4th line should be more scoring proficient than previous years. I would have to take the under on that right now.
My take on the Dmen not scoring :it wouldn’t be a problem…IF they were excelling at shutting down the other teams…unfortunately that is NOT THE CASE!
It seems that when the “Team scoring is up…team defense ISN’T”!!
…inconsistency seems to be CONSISTENT! …ugh