Today it was announced that Cam Ward was going on injured reserve with a concussion. The timing is interesting because best guess (not confirmed or certain) is that it might have happened when Ward took a blast off his mask from Phil Kessel in the game against Pittsburgh on January 12 but then played that same Friday at home against Vancouver.

Regardless of timeline and those details, Ward going on IR and the Canes recalling red hot Daniel Altshuller from Charlotte has a number of interesting angles to it.

Eddie Lack

The timing is interesting for Eddie Lack. He has not been lights out by any means, but somewhere along the way he got his feet under him after a shaky start to the season and has generally been winning. He is 5-2-2 in his last 9 starts though both of the losses came in the last 3 games. As far as the 2015-16 season goes, I think it is fair to say that if you could a point to hand the reins over to Lack, now is about as good of a time as any.

Maybe more interesting is taking a look back to the 2014-15 season. Last year on February 22, Lack entered in relief of Ryan Miller, finished that game with a shared shut out and went on to keep the starting job and lead the Canucks to the playoffs. It is important to note that Lack’s story was not that of Andrew Hammond who went 20-1 with a 1.79 goals against average and scintillating .941 save percentage. Instead, Lack ground out a 13-7-2 mark down the stretch and had 6 games with 4 or more goals against out of the 22 starts. Nonetheless, he battled and was good enough to get the Canucks to the playoffs. Almost exactly 1 month earlier in the 2015-16 season, Lack will become the full-time starter with the other option injured.

Different goalies seem to be motivated in different ways. Some seem to play their best when being pushed by a backup who is playing well. Others seem to play better in the comfort of being the unmistakable #1. Is it possible that Eddie Lack thrives with the challenge of being the #1 by himself with his partner not in the picture? That would be a gift for the Canes right now.

Daniel Altshuller

Altshuller is part of a group of Canes goalie prospects who are suddenly surging. I wrote about the trio Canes goaltending prospects (Alex Nedeljkovic, Daniel Altshuller and Callum Booth) in THIS post on January 6. He had a decent prospect camp in late July and looked okay in the NHL camp, but nothing that headline-grabbing and was on his way to the ECHL to start the season. When a chance to play in Charlotte arose a few weeks back, he seized it. Altshuller is now 9-1-1 in 11 games and sports a 1.71 goals against average and spectacular .941 save percentage.

Clearly the #1 in Charlotte, it makes sense to recall him to back up Lack, or does it really? First, MacIntyre is not an option, as he is just returning from injury with an aim to return this weekend. But if the intent was to ride Lack through 4 games, might it have made sense to instead recall the older Rasmus Tirronen to sit on the bench for the next 4 games and let Altshuller continue using ice time to develop?

They are just hunches, but I have 2 related to Altshuller:

1) I think that Ron Francis and Coach Bill Peters chose to recall Altshuller because there is at least a chance that they will decide to see if he can transfer his hot hand from the AHL to the NHL. There is obviously a step up in terms of level of competition, but sometimes at the end of the day a hot goalie is a hot goalie. I will be shocked if Lack does not start Thursday, but if he is shaky, I would not be surprised to see the team roll the dice with a hot hand in 1 of the weekend games.

2) And even more hunch, if Altshuller plays, might he just be really good? I have not even seen any of his games in Charlotte to make this judgment. Beating AHL talent is not the same as the NHL. And he should technically be multiple years away from being NHL ready.

But if I could pick 1 theme to define the Carolina Hurricanes 2015-16 season thus far, it would have to be kids rising up before their time. As an elite draft pick, many thought that Noah Hanifin could be NHL ready this season, but I do not think a single person would have had Brett Pesce and Jaccob Slavin in the mix in such high slots if surveyed before training camp. Phil DiGiuseppe has also stepped straight into the lineup and produced. It makes no sense, but is Daniel Altshuller the next to make a statement that the future is now? Why not?

Cam Ward

Here is wishing Cam Ward a speedy recovery. I guess as far as timing goes, it is not the worst. Eddie Lack gets a busy run of 4 games in 6 nights, but then a full week of rest for the all-star break right after that. It also allows an extra week for Ward to recover without missing game action.

Go Canes!