I am still catching up on the DVR for the Canes holiday weekend games after being away for Thanksgiving, but the results and what I have watched of it so far line up pretty much with my assessment of the rest of the 1st quarter (slightly more actually) of the season.
In this blog, I will offer my early assessments of the team as a whole and also new coach Bill Peters. If I can find the time to write this week, I will post a player-by-player assessment next.
--The team overall. C+. The start was abysmal regardless of the injury factors. The better version of the team in November managed only a .500 record. That makes for a bottom 5 finish type of pace across both bad and seemingly good (team did manage 5-0-1 stretch). I think the more interesting question is whether C+ is playing at or above the talent level of the team. I think you could make a decent argument that C+ is about what it is especially minus Jordan Staal and with a completely lost superstar in Alexander Semin and also considering the volume of injuries that contributed to the October flop. But even minus Jordan Staal, the Canes have been better average in terms of health in November and still managed only a .500 record. I guess the unrealized upside that makes this team better than C+ is a healthy Jordan Staal to push the depth chart, and Alexander Semin finding his way into the 2014-15 season.
--Bill Peters. In a nutshell, I think it is really too early to tell. Those grasping for any kind of optimism right now will certainly look at Peters tenure thus far as half full. Is that just grasping for anything to suggest the future is better? Or is it reality? I think there are legitimate reasons for optimism. The team did have some real stinkers on the western road trip and the recent trend of giving up real early goals is annoying, but overall I would say that the consistency of the compete level has been better. In November, only the Winnipeg loss stands out as horrible in terms of playing to win. In terms of getting more from depth players, there are reasons for optimism. Riley Nash has risen up to be more than a depth player. Peters has Boychuk and Terry bought in and playing the right way. They have been more sound than you could even hope for defensively and made modest contributions offensively. That does not seem like a lot, but it is much more than past failures to crack the lineup and stick past a trial. In terms of getting the most from the top half (and more important half) of the lineup, it is very much a mixed bag. Alexander Semin and his 0 goals and 5 assists in 18 games is abysmal. Eric Staal seems to be bought in, is scoring at a decent clip and is minus the bad frustration penalties he took last year, but is still minus 8 on the season despite missing most of the 0-6-2 start and is not firing on all cylinders. Jeff Skinner has shown flashes of offense, but is scoring significantly below his 2013-14 pace right now. Justin Faulk has been very up and down with a real rough October but a better November that still had a few rough games. Perhaps the biggest positive on the personnel front is Cam Ward who had a very good November. The power play and penalty kill currently rank 9th and 12th in the league which is a significant improvement over recent years. When you net out the results, the Canes are significantly underperforming relative to 2013-14. If you polled Canes fans and asked them if the Canes won or lost more last season, how many do you think would correctly guess that they won more (83 points in 82 games). Right now, the team is on target for 61 and a whopping 22 point decrease this season. Yes, I realize that there were injury issues early, but relatively speaking this team has been healthy since EStaal and Skinner returned and even the sunny side November Canes played only at an 82-point pace.
==> So when I try to net it out objectively on Bill Peters' start, I would have to call it a mixed bag. I still lean optimistic on Peters at this early stage.
When I hopefully get a chance later this week, I will post a player-by-player review of the 1st quarter of the 2014-15 Canes season.
Looking forward, the Canes get another chance to try to right the wrong that was October. The Canes managed to win back most of the 0-6-2 October with a 5-0-1 string to start November, but then proceeded to give it all back with a couple 3-game losing streaks in the 2nd half of the month finishing November with a better but not good enough 7-7-1 record. December sees a run of 4 straight at home to start the month. A good start could again chip away at the October deficit.
Twitter=@CarolinaMatt63
Go Canes!