Battered Canes Getting a Great Test of Resiliency Early On

Carolina has had injuries to six of their opening night starters already this season.

Better to get this sort of thing out of the way now, right? This has been one of the weirdest starts to a Hurricanes season that I can remember. We’ve had injuries to four defensemen, two forwards and Pyotr Kochetkov to start the year, and we’re not even halfway through November. Carolina has faced a ton of adversity to start the year and they don’t seem that concerned by it. And that’s a good thing. The team has always had a “next man up” sort of mentality, and given the sheer number of injuries this year, that’s even more relevant. In case you’re new here or not a Canes fan, let’s recap their injuries this year.

• Jaccob Slavin - Missed 11 games

• Shayne Gostisbehere - Missed 7 games

• K’Andre Miller - Missed 6 games

• Eric Robinson - Missed 6 games

• William Carrier - Missed 6 games

• Pyotr Kochetkov - Missed the team’s first 11 games

• Jalen Chatfield - Taken out of Thursday’s game, might miss an extended period of time

It’s been a crazy start to the year for Carolina, but you’re not going to hear the team or the coaches make excuses. In fact, they’ve done perfectly fine with a 9-4-0 record. They’ve played incredibly well despite all of these injuries, and the fact that we’ve only seen this team fully healthy for one game makes me excited. I was talking to someone about how the season has gone so far, and they brought up an interesting point. A fully healthy Canes team put the boot down on a very good New Jersey team, so the ceiling of this team is incredibly high. I want to highlight a few performances here, because it’s worth noting who has stepped up the most.

Alexander Nikishin

Damn straight I’m going to talk about Nikishin first. When we began the year, Rod Brind’Amour made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t going to rush Nikishin into the NHL. He admitted that Nikishin has a bright future with the Hurricanes, but overloading him with too much change at once would do more damage than good. Of course, that was before the Hurricanes lost three defensemen at the same time. Nikishin began the year averaging about 16 minutes a night, pretty much the equivalent of a third pairing or second pairing tweener. Now, he’s back to how it was with SKA, and he’s looking good doing it. Nikishin has had six straight games at over 20 minutes of ice time and has taken leaps and bounds forward both offensively and defensively. He quietly has three points in his last four games and was the team’s best player against Boston last weekend. I’m going to use my good buddy Brandon Stanley’s stats from his tweet on Friday. Twitter won’t let me post the tweet here, so I have to type it out. Nikishin is on pace to finish the year at +69 with 113 shot blocks, 239 hits, and 45 points. That’s an unreal start to his rookie campaign, and he is only going to get better as the season goes along. He hasn’t even really gotten time on the power play yet, either. Nikishin’s success should come as a surprise to no one. After all, Nick and I have been hyping him up for years. Still, seeing the game to game growth from him has been astonishing. We’re looking at a legitimate franchise defenseman in the making. Nikishin likely won’t get a ton of Calder love since he’s older and plays for the Hurricanes, but he’ll certainly earn his flowers with the fan base.

Joel Nystrom and Charles Alexis Legault

If you had told me during the preseason that we’d be seeing games from Legault this year, I wouldn’t have been too surprised. But if you said that Nystrom would also get games and look better, I would have been shocked. Both players have done an admirable job coming up and filling in on defense, which is all you can hope for in a rookie defenseman. Legault has brought some physicality and has defended fairly well, and Nystrom has been a strong defender and moved the puck well in his stint. It’s a tall order to be thrown into the NHL at a moment’s notice, and both players have played very well given the circumstances.

Legault has shown that he still needs some time to adjust to the pace of the NHL game, but when he gets there, he’ll be a really solid physical defender. I don’t see a ton of offense in his game, nor do I think he’ll be put in an offensive role, but he moves the puck well enough to at least work out at the NHL level. And it’s impressive considering we’re only a tad over two years removed from him being drafted in the fifth round. Something to also consider here is trade value. Carolina has the cap space to make some moves happen at the deadline, and having a big, physical RHD to deal at the deadline is going to be attractive to a lot of teams. Legault has been stalwart defensively and hasn’t allowed a ton of shots through, posting a 58.6 CF% and four blocked shots in six games.

Nystrom has been one of the more pleasant surprises this season, especially considering the fact that he was god awful in the prospect showcase. Now, he’s playing third pairing minutes and looking really good in those minutes, too. Nystrom has posted a respectable 54.1% CF at even strength and has seen some tough matchups. While Nystrom doesn’t have a point yet, he’s getting closer to that mark and is making a lot of really smart plays with the puck on his stick. I thought he was really solid against the Wild the other night, and while the Hurricanes will eventually get healthy, Nystrom is one of the first players I’d call up if there’s another injury.

Brandon Bussi

As soon as Cayden Primeau was claimed on waivers, I thought the Hurricanes were going to have to be very, very creative in how they approached their goaltending situation. When they placed a claim on Brandon Bussi, I figured it was going to be a warm body to sit on the bench so that the Hurricanes didn’t have to go with Amir Miftakhov or *shudders* Nikita Quapp. Bussi hadn’t played in a single NHL game to that point, and as a 27 year old goalie, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It certainly wasn’t this, as Bussi has started in four games for Carolina, winning three of them and posting a respectable .916 save percentage. Credit where credit is due, Carolina has gotten some really solid goaltending from him and he’s part of the reason why the team has been so successful early on. He has a 2.1 goals saved above expected, not terrible for four starts, and he’s been what Carolina has needed to keep Frederik Andersen healthy. Andersen hasn’t been great through his first eight starts, so getting this level of play from a waiver claim is very impressive. It shows a lot of faith as well, because even though Carolina reclaimed Cayden Primeau off of waivers, the team has held onto Bussi.

Jackson Blake

Oh man, Jackson Blake has been unreal to start the year. Even when he’s not scoring, his line is creating chances and being an absolute pain to play against. Blake isn’t showing signs of a sophomore slump and is third on the Hurricanes in points to start the year. After a 34-point campaign last year, Blake is currently on pace for 63, including 25 goals. That jump in production would be incredible for the Hurricanes. Blake has stepped up his play in recent games and has been much more consistent this year. He’s finishing more chances and now has the strength to take the puck to the middle of the ice. Most nights, Blake looks like Carolina’s best forward. With Blake, the skill is undeniable. He’s responsible for some of the best goals of the season already. Blake’s biggest issue last year was his inability to finish the chances that he’d create. A lot of it was bad puck luck, but it still was one of his biggest areas of weakness. He still managed to score 17 goals, so any improvement in that regard was going to be huge for him. This year, he’s finishing at a higher level and creating a ton of scoring chances, so it’s great to see this level of play. It wouldn’t shock me if Blake finishes the year out with close to 60 points, either.

Carolina is slowly getting healthier, with K’Andre Miller returning against Minnesota and both William Carrier and Eric Robinson slated to return against Buffalo. With the team returning to their full firepower, I’m excited to see what the ceiling of this team truly is. I believe they’re just scratching the surface of their potential.