The playoff races are beginning to heat up in the CHL and the good news for Hurricanes fans is that many of the team's prospects should be in the post-season this spring, which will give everyone a chance to get a closer look at their performance. One team that has already clinched a playoff spot in Keegan Lowe's Edmonton Oil Kings and Lowe himself has played a pretty big role in that. Not only is he the team captain, but he was also forced to play some bigger minutes during late-December and early-January when the Oil Kings lost a couple of their defensemen to the World Junior Championships. Lowe played some very good hockey during that stretch and he continued to do so this week, adding a goal and three assists to his totals. As a third round pick, Lowe's ceiling isn't projected to be very high but he should be an invite to Carolina's training camp at the start of next season.

After the jump, we'll take a closer look at Lowe's performance and the rest of Carolina's prospect pool. 

Heading into this season, the Hurricanes had the making of being a team that could roll all four lines effectively. Even after they traded for enforcer Kevin Westgarth, they could have probably gotten away with rolling four lines because the forwards before him each have a defined role and aren't liabilities at even strength. You had the top-six handle most of the scoring and take on tough minutes in addition to that while the bottom-six would be relied on to play soft assignments and pitch in with some secondary scoring. On paper, this seems like a good plan but it hasn't exactly worked out so far as the third line has struggled out of the gate. That issue has been covered already, but something that isn't getting talked about is what the fourth line has done, or hasn't done in this case. 

Last season, the Hurricanes fourth liners provided them with a combined 24 goals, which was great but not likely to continue because of how often they were getting hemmed into their own zone. The Hurricanes must have realized this over the off-season because they opted to trade Anthony Stewart and buyout Derek Joslin, making the fourth line a completely new unit heading into this season. Between Kevin Westgarth, Tim Wallace, Andreas Nodl, Tim Brent, Jeremy Welsh, Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman and many others, the Hurricanes had plenty of options as to who they can use on their fourth line and what kind of role they want to play.

On opening night, the fourth line was used in more of an offensive role with Drayson Bowman, Tim Brent and Patrick Dwyer. Bowman and Dwyer have been promoted to top-nine roles since then and the fourth line wing spots have been jumbled around for the most part. Even with Welsh in Charlotte and Boychuk waived, the Hurricanes fourth line can still be useful if they were to use Nodl, Brent and Wallace either in a defensive role or soft-minute situations. Nodl and Brent are good enough to play 8-10 minutes a game while Wallace has proven himself as a capable fourth liner with other teams and can establish a physical presence.

This hasn't been the route the Canes have gone the last few games, though as Westgarth has been in the lineup more times than not and Nodl has found himself in the press box for all but two games since being called up. Westgarth obviously has a defined role and he hasn't been bad so far, as the Hurricanes are not leaking shots and chances against whenever he is on the ice. The problem is that Muller is rarely using Westgarth. He has played only a little over 20 minutes in seven games and plays maybe 4-5 shifts per game on top of that. 

Again, I know Westgarth has a role but if Muller isn't going to use him then what is the point of even having him in the lineup? The Hurricanes are essentially forced to play with 11 forwards whenever Westgarth is in the lineup and they are even more strained if another player has to leave the game early like Wallace did on Saturday. Considering that the Hurricanes top forwards are already being forced to play 20+ minutes a night and their third line has produced only two goals, one has to think that they would be better served with someone useful like Nodl in the lineup who the coach actually trusts to play more than four shifts a game.

Carolina's scoring depth hasn't showing up this year, so getting the most out of this forward corps is going to be very important. Dressing Westgarth and playing him for three minutes a game isn't doing that and it's a double whammy when you have guys in the press box and in the minors who can play a more effective role. Westgarth has a place on this team, but if Muller is going to keep using him in an incredibly limited role it's probably better that he sits in the press box.

Tonight's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs provided the Hurricanes with a chance to get back to .500 and give the team some positive vibes as they continue this long road trip. It looked like they could be in for another long game as Carolina got off to the worst start imaginable in the first 20 minutes. The Canes were stuck in their own zone for about 60% of the frame, couldn't generate any offense and were constantly surrendering odd-man rushes to the Maple Leafs. Thankfully for them, they went into the first intermission only down 1-0 thanks to the goaltending of Cam Ward, who regained his form tonight and bailed the Canes out of a lot of bad situations.

Ward gave the Hurricanes a chance to win tonight and they took full advantage of it in the next two periods by giving one of their strongest efforts of the season. They were helped a little bit in the start of the second period  when Jordan Staal was left all alone in front of the net and received a gift of a goal to tie the game up at one. They followed this up by simply taking it to the Leafs, hemming them in their own zone and allowing only five total shots on goal after allowing 18 in the first period. They would eventually go onto take the lead after another lucky bounce where Eric Staal's centering pass deflected off Michael Koskta's skate and into the net. After that, Carolina continued to keep their foot on the pedal and scored two more unanswered goals to give the Hurricanes a 4-1 victory. I should also add that they scored twice on the powerplay while blanking Toronto on five opportunities.

It was strange seeing this team take over this game after playing some of their worst hockey of the season, but great goaltending can keep you in games on some nights and allow you to regroup after a bad period. I'm not sure what Muller said to the team after the first intermission but it clearly worked. 

Prospects sometimes become a bit of an afterthought when the NHL season gets rolling, but don't think we have forgot about them, as there is still a lot to report on regarding those in Carolina's system. This week wasn't as eventful as the last, but there were a couple big standouts. The most notable one was clearly Phil Di Giuseppe who had five points in two games with the Michigan Wolverines this weekend. We'll talk about him more along with the other NCAA kids but first, let's take a look at what the Hurricanes CHL prospects did this past week.

The Hurricanes made a surprising move today by deciding to send down forward Zac Dalpe to the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League and recall Tim Wallace. Dalpe had two points in six games and is the only forward on the team who can go to the AHL without needing waivers, so he was sent down in favor of Tim Wallace who could possibly add some grit to the team. Wallace sometimes played in the top-six for the Charlotte Checkers, can kill penalties and has 20 goals and 43 points with them. He hasn't been much more than a fourth liner at the NHL level. Wallace can be useful to Carolina, so I don't have an issue with being called up, the problem is that Dalpe deserves to be on this team.

Dalpe was playing on a line with Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner for most of the year, so sending him down opens up a hole in the top-six. That alone makes this move a bit perplexing because the Hurricanes are already starved for secondary scoring and don't have many candidates who can slide up into Dalpe's spot. Not only that, but Dalpe was a contributing member to the second line.

Second Line Scoring Chance Numbers

Dalpe's two points in six games do not look like much, but whenever he was on the ice during five-on-five play, scoring chances were going in the Hurricanes favor. Dalpe was also creating a high amount of offense relative to the minutes he was playing. Oh, and he managed to do this while playing alongside Jordan Staal, which means that he was being given some of the toughest assignments on the team. I try to keep rants and complaints out of this blog, but demoting a forward who can drive the play, produce offense and is competent enough to play the toughs makes little sense, especially with Carolina's need for secondary scoring.

So now the question is who slides up into Dalpe's spot? Chad LaRose was playing there for most of the third period on Saturday night against Philadelphia but he didn't do much of anything at even strength, so I'm not sue if he'll stay there. The other candidates are Drayson Bowman and possibly Patrick Dwyer all of which are good third liners but not ideal top-six options. That's the same problem Carolina had with their top-six last year, though. They were overslotting third liners into top-six spots because they didn't have much else to turn to, something that many thought wouldn't happen this year. With Ruutu's injury, Boychuk being lost on waivers and now Dalpe being demoted in favor of a fourth liner, the scoring depth Carolina once had is now in jeopardy.

The good news is that Dalpe can be recalled at any time, but sending him down doesn't make much sense in the first place.

The development of former Carolina Hurricanes first round pick Zach Boychuk has been scrutinized heavily in recent seasons. This is his fifth year in the organization and in that time, he has been able to succeed in the AHL but that hasn't translated to success at the next level as Boychuk has played only 73 games in the NHL, scoring seven goals and 18 points during that span. This year was sort of seen as a "final chance" for him with the Hurricanes because he was extended on a one-year contract and he is nearing the age where most high end prospects either reach their peak or fizzle out. Despite leading the AHL's Charlotte Checkers in scoring and entering this season with a lot of promise, it appears that history has repeated itself for Boychuk because he was waived yesterday morning while Andreas Nodl was called up. 

Boychuk has only gotten to play one game with the Hurricanes this season where he was placed on the first line and failed to make much of an impact. He was benched the next game in favor of enforcer Kevin Westgarth and hasn't been used in the lineup since then. You can argue that Boychuk was never given much of a chance with the Hurricanes and this is a valid point because he was stuck on the fourth line for most of Paul Maurice's tenure and was abruptly bench and sent down to the minors after playing a few games with Kirk Muller as head coach. I'd like to think that Boychuk could succeed if he's given top-six minutes but it is clear that opportunity isn't going to happen for him in Carolina and he might be better served either in the AHL or getting a fresh start with a new team who will give him top-six minutes.

It seems like the team was hesitant to waive Boychuk for awhile in fear of him getting claimed off waivers. No team ever wants to lose their players for nothing, especially a former first rounder, but it isn't fair to Boychuk to keep him on the bench for the rest of the year when he could still provide a lot of help to another organization. Boychuk getting claimed off waivers wouldn't be the worst thing in the world either since the Hurricanes weren't using him (although it's a bad reflection on the team's drafting history). Some say that he may have fetched a decent return in a trade but the time to deal him was either one or two years ago when his value was still somewhat high. No one is going to give up much for a player they could have on waivers for nothing. I still think he has a future as an NHL-er, but it's clear that he wasn't a fit in Muller's system and would be better off somewhere else. Whether that place is the AHL or the NHL is to be determined.

The whole Boychuk situation has been frustrating for awhile because his previous track record in the AHL hasn't been terrible in terms of his ability to drive the play forward and the door is somewhat open for him to make the NHL. Boychuk could probably still have a shot at being a third-liner on the Hurricanes with the starts that Chad LaRose and Jussi Jokinen are off to but like I said earlier, Muller does not see him as a fit for his system which is why he was sitting the last few games and why Nodl was called up. Nodl is a player who Muller knows pretty well and fills a need for this team as a defensive forward and someone who can kill penalties. He would thrive in a third or fourth line role while Boychuk has always needed top-six minutes to succeed.

If Boychuk manages to pass through waivers without anyone claiming him, then that's a plus for the Checkers since they get their leading scorer back but what happens if he continues to tear it up in the AHL? If he receives yet another call-up will this whole process be again? Or better yet, will the Hurricanes keep him in the AHL and possibly use him as trade bait in another month or so?  Either way, it will be interesting to see what happens with him in the next 24 hours and I wish him the best.

The prospect reports are going to be presented differently from here on out. Instead of going through each player individually, we're going to go by leagues and note some of the standout performances. The reason for this is because there have often been a lot of cases where there wasn't much to report on for some players because they were either injured, suspended or didn't do much in the previous week. I haven't posted an update on Carolina's NCAA prospects in awhile for exactly that reason. So going through every single prospect every week was getting rather daunting and I thought it would be easier to present everyone's stats and talk about some individual standouts.

There is plenty to talk about on this first installment as Brock McGinn and Ryan Murphy both had tremendous weeks for their respective clubs. We'll talk about them in detail after the jump.

For a good chunk of the season, the Charlotte Checkers had been sitting comfortably in first place in the AHL's Western Conference but their run at the top has come to an end as the top spot is now secured by the Texas Stars, who lead the Checkers by one point. This isn't due to a slump by the Checkers, though. They've won seven of their last 10 games and are still playing pretty well overall despite losing a few key pieces to the NHL. It's just that the Stars have been on a pretty incredible run lately and have been putting heat on Charlotte for a long time now. After the Checkers dropped two of their three games this past week, it allowed Texas to sneak up on them and take hold of the #1 spot in the West right at the All-Star Break.

The Checkers got some help this week with Marc-Andre Gragnani, Nicolas Blanchard and Jeremy Welsh returning to the lineup but unfortunately, their contributions weren't enough to keep them from losing two of three games. The funny thing is that Charlotte didn't play poorly in any of these games as they won the shot battle this week by a wide margin of 98-70, the goaltending was just very subpar. I usually don't like to put all of the blame on the netminders, but Justin Peters stopping only .865 of the shots he saw this week definitely played a huge factor, as did John Muse allowing 4 goals on 18 shots in the one game he started. Both had played terrifically the week before, so there isn't much of a need to panic. 

Charlotte didn't receive that much bad puck luck in regards to shooting percentage, as they converted on a little over 9% of their shots (about average), but I thought it was kind of interesting that they had eight different goal-scorers this past week and only one of them had more than one goal. The player in question here is Chris Terry, who is now one goal away from dethroning Zach Boychuk as the team's leading goal-scorere. A lot of weight is being put on his shoulders now with Boychuk, Dalpe and Bowman in Raleigh right now and he's doing a fine job carrying the load offensively. Terry also had 12 shots in Charlotte's three games played this past week, which is very encouraging to see because he was struggling to consistently get a lot of shots on goal for most of the year.

Luke Pither also had another big week as it looks like he honeymoon period with him and the Checkers will be lasting a little longer than some thought. Pither had himself a three-point game in Charlotte's 5-4 win over Abbotsford on Saturday afternoon and recorded a secondary assist on Andreas Nodl's goal in the loss to Norfolk on Wednesday night. I'm not sure how long Pither will continue to produce at this kind of level but he's been doing everything that's been asked of him and more thus far. It's given the Checkers offense a real nice boost.

Another "newer" player who really helped the Checkers this week was the aformentioned Andreas Nodl, who scored Charlotte's only goal against Norfolk on Wednesday and recorded an assist in the Abbotsford series. In addition to that, Nodl also recorded 11 shots on goal in three games. Nodl looked a bit out of place with the Checkers when he arrived the prior week but he seems to be fitting in more now, even though I'm sure he would rather be playing in the NHL.

Other big performers for Charlotte this week were Justin Shugg who had three assists, Riley Nash who had a pair of helpers and Michal Jordan who scored his fifth goal of the season and amassed nine shots on goal in three games. Brett Sutter and Marc-Andre Gragnani were both held off the scoresheet completely, which hasn't normally been the case for them this year.

The race for the top spot in the West is going to be pretty thrilling if both Charlotte and Texas can continue to play as well as they have lately. The Grand Rapids Griffins are also not far behind with 52 points in the standings, so most should be on the lookout for them, as well. The Checkers are slowly getting healthier and should see more of their better players return to the lineup as the season goes on. This will defintely lead to an interesting finish as we inch closer and closer to the playoffs.

Up next for Charlotte is a series with the Oklahoma City Barons, who are going to have a completely different roster compared to the last time the Checkers saw them. After that it's the San Antonio Rampage, who will also have a roster that will be missing a few players thanks to NHL call-ups. It should be a fun next few months.

One week of the 2013 NHL season is officially in the books and it's already been quite a roller coaster ride for the Carolina Hurricanes. Things started off about as bad as they could have in the first two games, losing two games that weren't even close but the team responded by winning both games in a back-to-back series against the Buffalo Sabres and the team now sits at .500 after four games. I've been tracking various sorts of data from this season and am very excited to do some analysis on it...but I can't just yet because so few games have been played and a four game sample size doesn't tell you a whole lot when it comes to predicting future success. It doesn't help that the Hurricanes have played in two games that were fueled by score effects because they were playing from behind.

When it's this early in the season, advanced metrics are mostly helpful to give the viewer a closer look at what happened during the games and they say a lot of good things about the Hurricanes right now. If you've been reading my scoring chance recaps then you will know that the Hurricanes have outshot and outchanced their opponents in all four games at even strength. They are also second in the league in Fenwick close and are producing over 40 (!) shots per 60 minutes during 5v5 play. Normally, this would be a sign of good things to come but again, it's only four games and that doesn't tell you much concerning the big picture. So the hard analysis will have to wait for another week or two but what I can tell you is that I really like what I've seen from the Canes thus far and that I'm feeling a lot better about this team than I did at this point of last season.

Some might recall that the Hurricanes got off to a similar start to the 2011-12 season where they dropped their first three games, went on a three game winning streak and then the wheels came off in November. They were also getting outshot and outplayed at even strength during that time and were buoyed by Cam Ward having a save percentage above .920 at even strength. Once that regressed, there wasn't much keeping the Hurricanes out of the cellar of the Eastern Conference because of how poorly they were playing at even strength. What are the chances of that happening again? If they continue to outshoot their opposition like they are doing now, they should be able to avoid a skid but that obviously isn't guaranteed. There are some reason to be confident, though and the main one is the offensive firepower this team has.

The duo of Eric Staal and Alex Semin have been producing a pretty great amount of shots and scoring chances on a nightly basis and the former is looking a lot more explosive than he did last year. Semin has only one goal on the season but it's hard to deny that he has had an impact, as he is consistently one of the first players leading the rush into offensive zone along with Eric Staal and has been on-ice for 25 even strength chances through four games. Staal hasn't gotten to play with a winger like this in years and the two could make a lethal combination once they fully get on the same page. The puck always seems to be in the opponent's zone when these two and Jiri Tlusty are on the ice, which is a very good thing.

As for Jordan Staal, he has been as advertised thus far and a reason why the Hurricanes offense is more potent than it was last season. Muller's been using Jordan against opposing team's top lines and he has been winning those matchups on a nightly basis and creating more chances than he is giving up. In addition to that, he is creating a considerable amount of offense to go with it. He has yet to score a goal but Jordan has been on-ice for 7.33 even strength chances per 15 minutes and has really developed some chemistry with Jeff Skinner on the second line the last couple of games. The fact that Jordan has been winning the tough matchups should also go a long way when it comes to freeing up his older brother's line to easier minutes. If Jordan can continue to do win these battles, then watch out. He is essentially doing what Brandon Sutter did for Carolina last year, only providing more offense and doing a much better job at driving hte play.

My biggest concerns for Carolina so far are all related to their defense, as they have given up a lot of shots and their goaltending hasn't been great. Dan Ellis managed to bail them out of a few situations on Friday night but Cam Ward has been lit up in two of his three starts, already giving up 12 goals this year. Not all the goals have been on him, as the defense has been prone to bad plays and they are giving up a lot of shots, especially on the PK. They also may have potentially lost their best defenseman, Justin Faulk, for a few games after sustaining an injury during Friday's game which is very, very bad news. Carolina has been producing enough offense to make this not appear to be an issue but the Canes aren't going to receive goaltending like they did from Ellis on Friday every game, so I'm not sure if a run-and-gun style of play will work in the long run.

The Canes lack a big, shutdown defenseman outside of Tim Gleason, but this might become less of an issue if they can continue to play well at even strength. Defensive zone coverage and shot blocking becomes less of an issue when the puck is in the opponent's zone over 50% of the time, so Carolina might be able to mask their defensive flaws by getting strong play from the forwards and continuing to keep the puck in their zone. I'm still not sure if they have the personnel or goaltending to run this system effectively but it should work better than a defensive, conservative sytle of play. It's a hell of a lot more fun to watch, too.

My outlook on the season is still set at "cautiously optimistic" for now but I've definitely seen a lot of encouraging things from this Canes team that make me think they could be in for a successful years but there are a few causes for concern, as well (*cough*penalty kill*cough*). We'll probably have a better idea of where they stand after another few weeks after they and everyone else have played more games. Hopefully the Canes keep up the strong play at even strength because to me, that is the most encouraging thing I've seen from the team this year.

It was a bad opening weekend for the Hurricanes, but one thing that fans can perhaps take solace in is that their CHL prospects all had terrific weeks for the most part. What does this mean? Well, not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things but it's hard not to get excited when you hear that one of your team's prospects had four goals in three games like Brock McGinn did for the Guelph Storm this weekend. It took McGinn awhile to get going offensively but he has been on quite a roll these past few weeks and is on fire and has now pushed his point total up to 34 in 45 games. Not the best for a junior player but a vast improved compared to where it was earlier in the year.

While Keegan Lowe didn't have four goals like McGinn, he did have three points in three games for the Edmonton Oil Kings this past week including a pair of goals. One of the goals came shorthanded in Edmonton's blowout win over Red Deer and the other was their only strike of the competition in a 2-1 loss to Medicine Hat. With the Oil Kings getting most of their top players back from the WJC ending, it's great to see Lowe continuing to perform well.

Speaking of which, the two Carolina players who were in the WJC had two points in two games this week, as Ryan Murphy notched a pair of assists for the Kitchener Rangers and Victor Rask had a goal and an assist for the Calgary Hitmen. Both of Murphy's assists came in one game, as he was inactive for the Kitchener's first game of the week due to being in Carolina's training camp but he appears to have rebounded after a tough showing at the Wolrd Juniors. Rask's two points came in a 5-3 win over Prince George's as he has not missed a beat since missing a week after the World Juniors.

Also in action this week was Tyler Stahl of the Victoria Royals, who picked up two assists but his penalty record may have been more impressive. He had 14 penalty minutes in three games and all but one of them were roughing calls. Obviously this isn't a good thing since penalties never are, but it's something I can't recall seeing in recent history. At least Stahl is getting some points to go along with his "impressive" penalty numbers.

Carolina's two prospects fro the Plymouth Whalers had uneventful weeks for the most part as defenseman Austin Levi was held pointless in both games and Matt Mahalak allowed six goals on 40 shots. He was also chased in Plymouth's 7-3 loss to Sault Ste. Marie after allowing four goals.  It sounds like he might see some time on the bench since the Whalers have been riding the hot hand in goal this year for the most part.

On that note, Carolina's other goaltending prospect, Daniel Altshuller of the Oshawa Genearls, did not start any of his team's games this week and Trevor Carrick was also inactive for the Mississauga Steelheads. Although he is out for injury reasons.

So aside from Levi, every Carolina CHL prospect who played this weekend recorded at least two points in two or more games, which could make this past weekend less of a stinker for Hurricanes fans.