Up until last week, the performance of Carolina Hurricanes prospects that are currently playing in the Canadian Hockey League has been a bit underwhelming to say the least. That all changed this past weekend as almost every Carolina prospect had an explosive performance and have finally started to make more of an impact on the scoresheet than they were before. The biggest name in the group is obviously Ryan Murphy, who recorded two goals and eight points in the three games he played over the weekend to guide Kitchener to three straight wins. It's been a slow start for him and the Rangers but he definitely took things to another level this weekend and it could be a sign of him returning to the level of play we are more used to seeing from him.

Expecting Murphy to keep up this kind of pace all season is unreasonable, but he really needed a big performance sooner or later with the way his season has started and he was able to do that this weekend. To make things even better, Murphy wasn't the only player in Carolina's system to have a great weekend as there is a lot more good news to report on out of the CHL in regards to Carolina prospects.

After earning points in both games last weekend, the Checkers continued their hot start to the season by taking two of their three games this weekend, improving their record to 3-1-1. The Checkers started things off on the right foot with a 3-2 win over the Milwaukee Admirals and carried the momentum over to the next night by beating the Rockford Ice Hogs 2-1. Unfortunatley, they would fail to complete the weekend sweep as Rockford defeated them 5-4 on Sunday night, giving the Checkers their first regulation loss of the season. The performance against Rockford was disappointing as the Checkers were heavily outshot 41-27 in that game and the score likely would have been 5-3 if it wasn't for a fluke goal with two seconds left. Still, it's hard to be too upset about how the Checkers have started the year but there are a couple things I'm a bit concerned about.

In the three games this weekend, Charlotte was outshot 103-93 and they were beaten pretty badly in the Rockford game on Sunday. This goes hand-in-hand with the fact that the Checkers have been taking a lot of penalties. They were shorthanded for 51 minutes in the three games over the weekend and handed Milwaukee/Rockford 18 powerplays, something that came back to haunt them in the second Rockford game as the Ice Hogs game-winner came on the man advantage. The Checkers did a fine job of taking advantage of their own powerplay opportunities as they scored four PPGs this weekend, but their tendency to take bad penalties late in games was going to hurt them sooner or later, and it did on Sunday.

Anyone who keeps up with this blog may have noticed this, but I haven't spoken much about the NHL lockout, which is over a month old at this point, nor have I commented much on the CBA talks between the owners and the NHL Players Association. One of the reasons for this is because I'm not the most knowledgeable person about this subject and if you want news on this topic, then there are plenty of other wonderful sites all over the Internet that are covering the lockout in better detail than I can. Overall though, the main reason why I haven't been covering the lockout on here is because of one fact.

I don't care.

Should I care more? Probably, since I primarily write about the NHL and if there is no season then it's going to be a challenge for me to deliver fresh content on a daily basis but at the end of the day, nothing I say or do is going to have an effect on the negotiations between the owners and player's association. Judging from the news coming out of Toronto today, it sounds like it could be awhile before the NHL starts up again and at most, we are going to get a shortened season. And you know what? That is completely fine by me.

I have mentioned this more than a few times but the NHL being locked out does not mean that us North Americans are being deprived of hockey. There will be plenty of junior, college and semi-pro level hockey being played while the owners and player's association try to resolve their differences. Does it offer the same competitiveness and level of play that the NHL offers? No, but it is more than enough to keep me content for now. There are plenty of outlets where people can go to get their hockey fix and while they may not receive the same promotion as the NHL, they are out there. It's all a matter of finding them.

As for the status blog, there will still be plenty of things for me to talk about over these next few months. I'll be continuing to report on the Hurricanes prospects on a weekly basis, give you updates on the AHL and ECHL affiliates and I've been doing some intense research on a few different topics which I am very excited to post in the next few weeks. There won't be any new games to report or track for awhile, but there is sitll a lot of ground that hasn't been covered in the world of hockey metrics and the extra down time leaves the door open for more research that I haven't been able to do before in past years.

I'm not sure if I'll continue my player projections seeing how those are intended to be for an 82 game-season, but I'm already half-way done with them so I guess there's no point in stopping now. Plus, I'm optimistic that there will be hockey played in 2012-13 even if it isn't a full-season. You would think that the sky was falling judging from Gary Bettman's statements today and the subsequent reactions from hockey fans on Twitter, but I think this is just a step in negotiations. Both sides have their proposals and are currently posturing to get the other side to budge and win the PR battle on top of that, hence why there has been so much fanfare attached to each side's statements.

If you are an NHL fan and have spent any of the last couple days on Twitter, then you'll see a first-hand example of how quickly the public's opinion changes and how much each side's effort to win the PR battle messes with the fan's emotions. The best/worst part about it is that they have probably just scratched the surface with this and things are about to get real ugly in the upcoming months.

While all of that is going on, I will continue to mind my own business and research the side of the game that I am more interested in. The only other thing I have to say in regards to the lockout is just "wake me when it is over."

The NHL might be locked out but hockey still lives on in the Carolinas as the Hurricanes AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, kicked off their season this past weekend with a road series in the Lonestar State. The Checkers have a lot of great talent coming in this year thanks to the NHL lockout, so hopes and expectations are very high for the team right now. It's hard not to be when you consider that the majority of their leading scorers are returning and they should have the services of AHL veterans Tim Wallace and Marc-Andre Gragnani along with having NHL talent Justin Faulk on the team for the foreseeable future. This team should be able to compete in the South Division and they had a chance to gain an advantage over their division rivals as they took on the Houston Aeros and Texas Stars to kick off the year.

The Checkers were able to get their season started on the right foot as they defeated Houston 3-1 on opening night but lost 4-3 to Texas in a  shootout the next day after blowing a 3-1 lead in the third period. Starting off the year with wins would have been ideal but there were still plenty of good things to report on for the Checkers this weekend, one of which being the play of Zach Boychuk. This was supposed to be a "make-or-break" year for Boychuk as he has yet to finding his footing at the professional level and he really made a statement in these first couple of games as he tallied a goal, three assists and recorded six shots on goal.

His great play showed up in the highlight reel a couple times as his hard work led to the Checkers scoring their first goal of the season in their game against Houston. He was able to win a puck battle in the corner, get a shot on net and Tim Wallace was able to pick up the loose change and give the Checkers a 1-0 lead. Boychuk would get his first goal of the season only one game later when he took advantage of a neutral zone turnover by Texas defenseman Jordie Benn to create a scoring chance and catch his own rebound to score what was the opening goal of that contest. Boychuk also showcase some good puck-handling in the neutral zone to help set up a Riley Nash goal and he made a great initial pass to Bobby Sanguinetti, who scored on the powerplay to give the Checkers a 3-1 lead.

The lead did not last for Charlotte, but it was good to hear that Boychuk's season has started off on a strong note. Another player who stood out in both games was Justin Faulk, who recorded 10 shots on goal over the two games and picked up two assists. Checkers digital media director Paul Branecky interviewed Charlotte's head coach Jeff Daniels over the weekend and he mentioned that Faulk's play was "at a totally different level" in the Houston game, which sounds about right all things considered. Faulk is expected to exceed in this kind of competition since he has basically a full season in the NHL under his belt and it sounds like he is thriving so far.

Some other performances of note from the weekend is goaltender Justin Peters managing to keep the Checkers up 2-1 in the late stages of the Houston game despite the team getting into penalty trouble. Jerome Samson and Chris Terry also got on the scoresheet with a goal a piece in that game (Samson's coming on an empty netter) and they are both now second and third on the team in shots on goal with nine and seven respectfully. Riley Nash also scored his first goal of the season and had six shots on goal, which is a promising start.

As for not-so-promising starts, defenseman Rasmus Rissanen picked up 8 penalty minutes over the weekend including six in the Texas game alone where he was given a double minor for cross-checking and unsportsmanlike conduct. Jeremy Welsh, Victor Rask and Marc-Andre Gragnani's also turned in somewhat underwhelming performances but it's only two games so it's pointless to make any final judgments off this.

Overall, the Checkers have to be satisfied with taking three of four points on the road in their opening series but I just hope the meltdown against Texas doesn't get to them too much. Allowing a shorthanded goal to tie the game is pretty much one of the biggest momentum killers ever and the Checkers also gave up 40 shots on goal in that game, too. They managed to hang on and get a point so I won't make too much of it but I'm sure they would rather hang onto the lead next time.

Charlotte will be heading to Milwaukee this Friday for a game against the Admirals and then continue on the road the next night to play the Rockford Ice Hogs in a back-to-back series.

I am usually not one to panic or jump to irrational conclusions but it's hard not to get a little frustrated when you look at the scoring lines of most of the Hurricanes CHL prospects so far this year. The leader in points is Trevor Carrick with four points in eight games and their top prospect, Ryan Murphy, has only one point in eight games. Adding to that, there have been only two goals scoring by Carolina prospects in the CHL, which might sound bad but it isn't that big of a deal when you consider that every prospect, aside from Brock McGinn, is a defenseman. Still, it's fair to say that more was expected out of these players, especially Murphy who has been pretty disappointing in his first eight games.

With that being said, it's still a bit too early to panic because the season is still less than a month old and there is plenty of hockey left to be played. The time to panic about someone having a poor season should come much later than eight games into the season because cold stretches happen to just about every player and there is still time for them to turn things around. Hopefully we will start to see this with Murphy soon, as there were many who thought he would have a shot to play in the NHL this season if the league wasn't locked out and he hasn't exactly looked "NHL ready" so far. Again, there is still plenty of time for him to right the ship.

As you can probably guess by now, it was mostly an uneventful week for the Hurricanes CHL prospects this past week, but we're going to take a look at the good and the bad after the jump.

With most teams having their first series in the books by now, the NCAA men's ice hockey season is officially underway and four of the Hurricanes prospects were in action this weekend. Hurricanes fans should have invested interest in college hockey this year because not only do the Canes have five prospects playing in the college ranks, the majority of them are on teams that could be contenders this year. Since it doesn't look like the NHL is going to start anytime soon, following the likes of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan should be more than enough to keep Canes fans busy during this down time since it looks like all of these teams are in for interesting seasons to say the least. 

It's going to be another couple of weeks before things start to really heat up but there is plenty of news to report on in regards to the Carolina players who were in action this weekend. The first of which is 2010 second rounder Mark Alt, who didn't have the most flashy performance of the weekend but his No. 1 ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers absolutely routed Michigan State in their two-game series this weekend. The Gophers took the first game by a score of 5-1 and then beat them down even worse the next night 7-1, holding the Spartans to only 11 shots in the second game.

Alt had only one assist in those two games, but he was also on ice for seven total Minnesota goals, six of which were at even strength. Providing offense isn't exactly Alt's top priority so I'm not expecting huge numbers from him there and it sounds like he, along with the rest of the Gophers defense, did their jobs this weekend as Michigan State was held to a total of 37 shots over two games. The Gophers made it look easy against the Spartans this weekend but they will be in for a tougher test next week when they take on Michigan Tech on the road in their first WCHA matchup of the year.

Overall, Alt's team had the best weekend of the Canes NCAA prospect pool but the player with the strongest individual performance was this year's second round pick Phil Di Giuseppe. PdG created a lot of offense for the Wolverines in their weekend series against RIT as he recorded 10 shots on goal over two games, scored a goal and recorded an assist. His performance was a tad bipolar in both games, though as he was on-ice for three RIT goals in the first game and was held off the scoresheet completely. To add salt to the wound, Michigan also lost that game in overtime 5-4. The Wolverines would rebound the next game with a 7-2 victory and Di Giuseppe contributed with a goal and an assist. Michigan may have not started off the year on as high of a note as they wanted, but things are looking up for PdG if he can continue to create this much offense.

Another team that didn't get off to as good of a start as they wanted were the Wisconsin Badgers, who dropped both of their games to Northern Michigan this weekend. The one silver lining for Canes fans here is that their fifth round pick Brendan Woods recorded a primary assist in the second game. That probably doesn't mean a lot to Badger fans, though as they watched their team give up two third period leads, get outshot in both games and see their penalty kill get torched. Wisconsin has lost quite a bit of talent this year, so they are in for some tough sledding and it wont get any easier next week in their series against Minnesota-Duluth. 

As for Woods, in addition to the assist he went 4/9 on faceoffs and recorded only two shots on goal over the two games. It isn't a horrible start by any means but there's definitely a lot of room to improve with him. He's only a sophomore and I'm not sure what kind of minutes he's playing but him getting on the scoresheet in his second game of the year is good enough for me right now. Here's to hoping that brighter days are ahead for him and the rest of the Badgers.

Wisconsin will play Minnesota-Duluth next week, which is who the Ohio State Buckeyes and Carolina's fifth round draft pick Collin Olson took on this past weekend. I said this earlier, but Olson is going to have to make the most of his starts while he is playing behind senior netminder Brady Hjelle. This is exactly what he did this weekend as he was given the start in the second game of the back-to-back and he help lead the Buckeyes to a 3-2 victory by stopping 26 of the 28 shots he faced. It's worth mentioning that he was perfect at even strength as both of UMD's goals came on the powerplay. I'm not sure if he will take the starting job away from Hjelle this year, but if allowing no even strength goals to the #13 team in the nation en route to an upset victory isn't a good way to start your NCAA career then I don't know what is.

There is a long season in store for these players but it's good to hear that most of Carolina's college prospects got things started on the right foot.

Over the last couple of days, the Carolina Hurricanes AHL affiliate in Charlotte released their final roster cuts and with training camp being more populated now due to the NHL lockout, there were bound to be a few surprises. Out of the five players who didn't make the team, the most surprising names on that list were Justin Shugg, Brody Sutter and John Muse. All three of these players were sent to the team's ECHL affiliate in Florida but something tells me that they would be good enough to make the Checkers in a non-lockout season.

I mentioned a month ago that the AHL was going to see a big influx of talent with the NHL allowing players on two-way deals to play for their AHL affiliates until the lockout is over and the Checkers are one of the many teams who took advantage of this. Until the lockout is over, you'll see NHL talents in Justin Faulk and Jeff Skinner playing for the Checkers along with the likes of some NHL hopefuls such as Jeremy Welsh, Tim Wallace, Zac Dalpe, Bobby Sanguinetti, Dan Ellis, Drayson Bowman and Marc-Andre Gragnani. The Checkers roster looks like it's in very good shape for this upcoming season but I can't help but feel that Muse, Shugg and Sutter are also good enough to be on this team but ended up being the odd-men out due to there being too many players on the roster.

The 2012-13 NCAA men's ice hockey season has officially begun in some parts of the country as many schools begun their first exhibition games of the year. None of the games account towards their win/loss record but they do give us an early look at some of the top young prospects from across the nation and that's never a bad thing. Most of the teams that were in action this weekend were from the WCHA or CCHA, which is a good thing for the Hurricanes because the majority of their college prospects play in that conference. Ice time usually gets spread around in exhibition games, too so that everyone can get a chance to play and develop chemistry.

There were only three players in the Hurricanes system who played over the weekend but all of them played very well. The one who most fans ahve their eyes on are Minnesota's junior defenseman Mark Alt, who should have a big role this year on one of the best hockey teams in the nation. The Gophers certainly made a big statement in their exhibition game over Lethbridge University as they took care of business with a 7-0 win. Now, the major story in this game revolved around Christian Isackson's natural hat trick but Alt also joined the fun and scored a goal himself in the second period. Alt ended up being on-ice for three goals, one of which coming on the powerplay and ended the game with two shots on goal. He was also named the third star of the game. This was a pretty easy win for the Gophers as they dominated Lethbridge on with a 65-16 shot advantage.

The Gophers weren't the only team in the WCHA pitch a shutout in their exhibition contest this weekend, as the Wisconsin Badgers defeated the United States Under 18 team by a score of 5-0. The USA U-18 team is one of the better developmental squads to come out of the USHL, so they gave the Badgers a good fight despite being blanked on the scoresheet. The most exciting news from this game is that Carolina's fifth round pick from this year scored a goal. Woods is a sophomore now and should be a in a bigger role than he was last year, so I'm excited to see how he performs. It may be only an exhibition game, but it's good to hear that he was able to make an impact in this game by finding the back of the net.

Woods wasn't the only player from this year's draft class to see some action this weekend as the team's sixth round pick, Collin Olson, got to play a little over 32 minutes between the pipes for Ohio State in their game against Waterloo. Unfortunately, he only saw five shots and gave up a goal which put Waterloo in front at the time but the Buckeyes were able to come back and get the win. Olson is only a freshman and it's going to take a lot for him to unseat the Buckeyes' senior netminder Brady Hjelle but I'll look forward to see how he progresses in the upcoming years. Hjelle only started eight games last season but I'm not sure how many chances Olson will get in his first year since goalies take awhile to develop. Regardless, I hope he gets a shot somewhere down the line and it was good to see him get some playing time this weekend.

There will be more updates to come in the following weeks and I'm very excited about what the future holds for some of these players. The Canes have developed quite a few players out of the college rankings the last couple of years and I'm sure that we'll see more as time goes by.

The CHL season is only a few weeks old but there have already been a couple surprises, one of which being Hurricanes goaltending prospect Daniel Altshuller arguably being the biggest standout among Carolina prospects in the league. His Oshawa Generals are off to a terrific start this season and while the team's explosive offense is likely a bigger reason for their success, Altshuller is having a fairly solid year so far. I'd like to see him improve his save percentage from the .905 mark he is posting right now before I begin to proclaim him to be something special, though. He may lead the the OHL in wins with six, but that likely has more to do with the strong team in front of him rather than the play of Altshuller himself. Either way, it's good to see that his team is off to a great start and hopefully the Generals can keep it up so we get to see how Altshuller looks in some playoff games.

I've talked about Altshuller & the Oshawa Generals quite a bit this year but one prospect & club that I haven't discussed much is the Canes 2010 6th round pick Tyler Stahl and his Victoria Royals, who currently sport the best record in the WHL's Western Conference. This is a bit of a surprise since the Royals were one of the worst teams in the league last season but they are off to a very good start this season and picked up a big come-from-behind win over the Medicine Hat Tigers over the weekend. Stahl recorded two assists in that victory and was on-ice for the game-winning goal in overtime as he continues to play well since returning from his suspension at the start of the year. The two points he recorded in that game alone matched his season total from last year, so Stahl is already on pace to have a much better year and who knows, if he can keep it up then maybe he'll improve his prospect status.

It's still way too early in the year to jump to those kind of conclusions but I always like to see some of the organization's lesser-known prospects perform well, so it's refreshing to see guys like Stahl, Altshuller and Trevor Carrick play well while others are under-performing. I don't need to tell you know the player I'm referring to there is.

After the jump, we'll take a closer look at the performances from Carolina's prospects over the weekend.

Last week, there were a few youngsters in the Carolina Hurricanes system who shined in the opening weekend of the Canadian Hockey League and it was mainly some of the organization's lesser-known prospects like Brock McGinn and Keegan Lowe. It was good to see those players stand out but some of the team's more highly touted prospects such as Ryan Murphy had very quiet performances over the weekend. This isn't anything to be worried about since the OHL season is still in its very early stages, but there are big things expected from Murphy this year since he is the captain of the Kitchener Rangers and one of the most accomplished players on the team, so there are a lot of eyes on him right now. He didn't do much in his first couple of games last week but this week was a little different in both a good and bad way. 

Murphy recorded his first point of the season by getting an assist on a powerplay goal in the Rangers 2-1 over the London Knights last Friday. Murphy was also responsible for helping the Rangers powerplay go 2-4 on the night, which was a key to their success in that game. The night before, however, wasn't so good for either Murphy or the Rangers. Kitchener dropped a 4-2 loss to the Windsor Spitfires that night and Murphy was on ice for all four Windsor goals. Judging by the highlight packages, however, Murphy was at fault for maybe two of those goals. Windsor scored their first goal after Ranger defenseman Ryan Hanes was stripped of the puck in the neutral zone and scored on a partial breakaway. Murphy had a chance to break up the play but he looked a bit slow getting to the Windsor forward. The other goal he was responsible for came later in the contest when he had trouble containing a Windsor forward off the face-off and allowed him to get to the front of the net, screen the goalie and eventually score on the rebound.

It was definitely a rough game for Murphy but those bumps in the road tend to happen in a long season and I'm sure there will be more positive things to report on regarding him over the next few months. Speaking of more positive news, let's take a look at some of the other Canes CHL prospects.