The majority of my posts about the Checkers have been focused on their high-powered offense and whether or not it is sustainable in the long-run. This team's offense and scoring depth has played a large role in their hot start to the season, but something that might be getting overshadowed is the terrific play of goaltender Dan Ellis. After signing a tryout deal and beating out John Muse for the back-up goalie spot on the Checkers, Ellis has been lights out in his first nine games of the season. He currently has the best save percentage in the AHL with a .947 mark and the 5th highest goals against average at 1.71. With his last stint in the NHL being a major flop, not much was expected out of Ellis this year so the numbers he has been putting up are surprising to say the very least.

One could say that Ellis has mostly been reaping the benefits of playing behind a strong offensive team like the Checkers, but that statement proves to be false when you look at how much support he has been getting from the rest of the team. The Checkers have actually been outshot 280-286 when Ellis has been in goal. They aren't getting dominated, but Ellis is still facing over 30 shots per night this year, so he has to do a good amount of work every game. That makes his .947 save percentage and two shutouts look even more impressive. Compare that to Justin Peters' .904 save percentage with a little over 27 shots faced per game, and you have to think that Ellis might be in consideration to earn the Checkers starting job relatively soon. Jeff Daniels seems to like the two-goalie tandem so I'm not sure how likely it is that Ellis will earn the starting job, but it's clear that he is performing at a higher level right now.

Does this early-season success mean a lot for Ellis' future? Predicting goaltending performance is a quagmire in itself and it's especially difficult here since Ellis has played in only nine games this season. History has shown that a goaltender who performs well in his first 15 games with a team will give him a prolonged chance to show what he can do. So even if Ellis' performance falls off the map over the course of the year, what he is doing right now might be enough to earn him the starting job in Charlotte and possibly a few games with the Hurricanes if Brian Boucher continues to have injury problems.

Ellis' great performance this season is a perfect example of how unpredictable goaltending can be in general, seeing how he was signed on a tryout contract after being a below-replacement level goalie in his last full NHL season. Trying to guess how he will perform after this stint is losing a battle, but for the time being, he is one of the main reasons why the Checkers have been as successful as they are this year. Yes, the offense has played a key role but having Ellis stop nearly 95% of the shots he has faced in half their games has factored into more than a couple wins. Jeff Daniels bringing him in on a low-risk deal has proved to be a very good move thus far.

If there is one thing that has helped take the minds of Hurricanes fans off the NHL lockout, it is the strong play of the Charlotte Checkers. After last night's win over the Norfolk Admirals, the Checkers have the AHL's best record at 12-3-0-2 and have won five of their last six games, earning points in all of those contests. They have managed to do this despite playing the majority of their schedule on the road, too so the team banking these early wins will certainly go a long way around playoff time. Having the farm team play well is always a good thing, but the most promising aspect from the Checkers start to the season is that most of their production is coming from players who would be battling for roster spots on the Hurricanes.

The AHL has seen a bit of a talent influx thanks to the lockout and there are a lot of players in the league who would be in the NHL right now. These are players who you would expect to thrive in the AHL since they are at a different level than everyone else. The Checkers best player, Justin Faulk, is in this class but just about everyone else who they have received top contributions from are some of their better prospects who were going to be fighting for roster spots during training camp. Guys like Zach Boychuk, Zac Dalpe and Drayson Bowman fit this label the most, as they have been among the Checkers best forwards and have been making the most of their time in the AHL.

There were a lot of people who thought that the lockout would hurt a lot of younger players like Dalpe, Bowman and Boychuk because it would damage their possibility of making the NHL, when it appears to have done the exact opposite. The lockout has allowed them to play in Charlotte without being exposed to re-entry waivers and the three of them, along with a couple others, are making strong cases to be in Raleigh full-time once the NHL resumes. This season was thought to be a "final chance" for players like Boychuk and Bowman to make the Canes full-time and while we will still have to wait for that day, they are doing their best to get the front office and coaching staff's attention by playing lights out hockey in Charlotte.

Take a gander at the AHL's leader boards and in just about every category, you'll see a player from the Checkers and most of them fall in the category mentioned above. Drayson Bowman currently leads the AHL in goals with 11 and Zach Boychuk is right behind him with 10. Boychuk is also 9th in the AHL in points with 16 in 17 games. These two along with Jerome Samson are also among the league leaders in shots on goal, producing over three shots per game. AHL success doesn't always translate over to the next level, so Hurricane fans will have to remember that when looking over these numbers but for the time being, it's great to see some of the Canes more promising young players producing well in the AHL.

Still, it's tough to say whether or not the strong offensive numbers will be enough for Boychuk or Bowman to earn a roster spot on the Hurricanes because the coaching staff is going to choose whomever fits the team the most and that doesn't always correlate to boxcar stats. We know that Muller isn't going to call-up a player like Boychuk or Bowman to plug him in on the fourth line and play 5-8 minutes a night because that isn't playing to their strengths and doesn't do the team much good. This is what Paul Maurice often did with the younger players and most of their stints were over before they even started because of that. A top-six spot is also out of the question with the moves the Hurricanes made over the off-season, so it's more likely that one of the players in Charlotte right now will have to settle into a third line role with the Canes.

With Brandon Sutter out of the picture, it's unknown how the Canes third line will be constructed in the upcoming season, but I think it's fair to say that whoever plays on this line is going to need to have some two-way skill to earn a full-time spot. This would give the edge to Bowman since he has played in this type of role before, can be trusted with killing penalties and has more NHL experience than most of the guys on the Checkers right now. It's still hard to ignore what Boychuk is doing in Charlotte right now and I'm sure the Canes coaching staff has taken notice of it. His size and defensive play have always been the major knocks on his game and that might prevnet him from landing a third-line spot on the Canes, but if his numbers in Charlotte are enough to at least make the coaching staff give him another look, then hopefully he can seize the opportunity as well as he has in the AHL so far.

The last sentence sums up what this is all about, which is making the most of your opportunities. Going into this season, Boychuk knew that he had to really step up his game if he wanted to succeed in the Hurricanes organization and the lockout has given him another chance to show the coaching staff what he can do. He seems to have gotten the message, as he is playing some of the best hockey of his professional career right now and while it may not translate to success at the next level, it might be enough for him to catch the attention of Kirk Muller and the Hurricanes to give him another chance at the NHL. If he can continue to play this well and make a good impression, he might be able to stick around for longer than some thought.

There has been almost nothing but bad news concerning the lockout but outside all of the mudslinging and PR battles, hockey is still being played elsewhere and players like Boychuk, Bowman, Dalpe and Terry are making the most of it.

Before this weekend, the Charlotte Checkers had been involved in only one shootout all season and it came on opening weekend against the Texas Stars. They ended up on the losing end of that game and found themselves in a similar situation this past weekend against the same opponent, oddly enough. The shootout wasn't a major weakness for this team last year but they definitely had their struggles and it looked like it would continue this season after they dropped their first two shootout decisions of the year, scoring only twice in 19 attempts in the process. This mindset would fade out quickly, as the Checkers found themselves in another shootout the next night against the San Antonio Rampage and ended up getting the win in five rounds.

The shootout is unfortunately a necessary evil in professional hockey right now and it's something the Checkers have struggled with thus far, but at the end of the day, Charlotte ended up getting five out of a possible six points on this road trip and I think most will be satisfied with that. It's always critical to earn points against divisional opponents and the Checkers were able to do just that this weekend. Granted, they were playing the two bottom teams in the South Division, but these are still games the Checkers have to win or at least earn points in to continue to gain separation from the rest of the pack. They seem to be doing just that right now, as they currently sit six points ahead of the second place Oklahoma City Barons and are still neck-and-neck with the Abbotsford Heat for first place in the South Division.

The end result was good for the Checkers, but there are some things to be a little concerned over. The most notable one being the team getting outshot 92-87 over the three games this weekend. They weren't getting pasted territorially, but they were still on the losing end of the shot battle against two pretty weak teams. It isn't something to fret over since the Checkers have been good at controlling possession this year and off-games tend to happen. Still, I was expecting a more dominant performance but the Rampage really made the Checkers earn those two wins this weekend.

It actually looked like San Antonio was on their way to pulling off an upset on Friday night when they jumped out on top with two early goals. The Checkers have been in this scenario numerous times this season, though and once again, they were able to battle back and get themselves back into the game. Nicolas Blanchard got things started off with a short-handed goal that came off an odd-man rush and the Checkers just seemed to build off that.  Zac Dalpe would then tie the game early in the third period after keeping in a bad clearing attempt from the Rampage and firing home a wrist-shot. Dalpe struck again less than three minutes later as Chris Terry was able to force a turnover in the neutral zone and create an odd-man rush the other way. Jerome Samson would later ice the game with a bomb from the point for his third goal of the season.

San Antonio got off to a hot start on Sunday night, as well and took a early 1-0 lead with a goal from Greg Rallo, one that Peters would probably want to have back. Once again, though, the Checkers responded late in the first period as Jerome Samson was able to create a breakaway opportunity after exiting the penalty box. He was shut down but the Checkers were able to set up a play after this and Brett Sutter took advantage of the opportunity by scoring his sixth goal of the season. Going into the second period down 2-1, the Checkers tied the game less than a minute into the period after Zac Dalpe found Bobby Sanguinetti wide open in the slot and he fired home a laser of a wrist shot past Rampage goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris. Unfortunately, Sanguinetti would end up helping the Rampage recapture the lead after committing a bad turnover that led to a goal by Scott Timmins. Zach Boychuk would then go onto save the day for Charlotte in the third period, scoring a goal that came as the result of a terrific individual effort. Chris Terry would go onto win the game for the Checkers in the shootout and give Charlotte a weekend sweep of the Rampage.

The only thing that kept Charlotte from a complete three-game sweep of Texas this weekend was a shootout loss at the hands of the Texas Stars. The Stars had the upper-hand in shots in this game but the Checkers had plenty of chances that ended up getting shut down by goaltender Christopher Nilstrop. Their best opportunity was either Riley Nash's breakaway or Drayson Bowman's rebound chance that Nilstrop managed to get to just in time. That being said, Charlotte's Dan Ellis also had to do plenty of work to keep this a tie game, as well. The Stars had a couple of odd-man rush opportunities that Ellis had to shut down and the defense was guilty of a couple of bad turnovers. Justin Krueger in particular had a bad one in the third period that ended up turning into a prime scoring chance for the Stars. In the end, the Checkers got a point and most fans will take that.

Notable performances

• Zach Boychuk's goal was not only a terrific play, it was his tenth goal of the season which ties him with Drayson Bowman for the team lead and with four others for the top spot in the AHL.
  
  
• Bowman had only one assist on the weekend but he also recorded 14 shots on goal over the three games. This improves his shot rate to 3.44 shots per game on the season, which is the highest mark on the team.
  
  
• Tommi Kivisto made his AHL debut on Sunday night after spending most of the year with the Florida Everblades.
  
  
• Zac Dalpe has quietly been on a tear these last six games or so. He two goals and an assist in three games this weekend and he has quietly become the Checkers third leading scorer. He is also very close to recording at least three shots per game, putting him in company with only three other Charlotte players.
  
  
• Bobby Sanguinetti had 9 shots on goal in three games this weekend. His coverage and play in his own end was very shaky this weekend, but he is at least producing as an offensive defenseman.
  
  
• Dan Ellis' shutout against Texas was his second of the season and he now has a save percentage of .947 on the season.

After a pre-Thanksgiving showdown against Norfolk in Wednesday, Charlotte will return to the Time Warner Cable Arena, where they will play their next 10 games. They definitely need to take advantage of this stretch coming up after playing so well on the road to start the year. They will start things off with a two-game series against their new South Division adversaries, the Oklahoma City Barons on Saturday night.

Victor Rask, Carolina's second round pick from 2011, was able to get his first taste of professional hockey this year after spending the first month of the season with the Charlotte Checkers but earlier this week, the team finally made the call to send him back to the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL. Rask had five points in 10 games with the Checkers and seemed to be playing well by the eye-test but the problem was that he couldn't seem to stay in the lineup. Charlotte has a lot of players on their roster now thanks to the NHL lockout, which has led to Jeff Daniels and the rest of the coaching staff inserting guys in and out of the lineup on a daily basis to keep things fresh. Rask ended up being one of those players, as there were many weekends where he would be scratched for one game of a back-to-back.

Sending Rask back to juniors means that he will likely play every night and get the top-six minutes that he needs to develop. It also prevents the team from unnecessarily burning a year off his ELC. Rask is still only 19-years old and is still another year from being considered an overager, so sending him back to junior is no big deal and is likely the best move for both parties involved. I'm sure the Hitmen are glad to have Rask back in the lineup since he had the second most goals on the team last season and the third most points. They are currently in a tight race with Keegan Lowe's Edmonton Oil Kings for first place in the Central Division of the WHL and getting Rask back will provide a huge boost for the team.

In fact, Rask provided some immediate help to the team in his season debut yesterday by recording an assist and being on-ice for two goals. It's hard to ask for a better season debut than that.

After the jump, we will take a closer look at Rask's performance along with the rest of the Canes CHL prospect pool.

In case you haven't heard, the Charlotte Checkers have one the best offenses in the American Hockey League. Even after being shutout by the Texas Stars last night, they still have scored more goals than any other team in the league and have been held to three or fewer goals in only five games this season. They are also the only team in the AHL to currently have at least five players with five or more goals, so the scoring has been relatively spread out amongst the forward corps. The NHL and the Hurricanes might be MIA for the time being, but the Checkers are at least doing their job of keeping hockey interesting in the Carolinas.

The start the Checkers are off to has gotten a lot of fans excited about some of the Canes younger prospects, namely Zach Boychuk who has been a point-per-game player for most of the year, but Charlotte isn't the only team in the league with a high-powered offense. The NHL's absence has led to there being a massive talent increase across the entire AHL and many teams are enjoying hot starts thanks to that. Among those teams are the Abbotsford Heat, Springfield Falcons, Oklahoma City Barons, Grand Rapids Griffins and many more.

I've gone over my concerns about the success of the Checkers offense not being sustainable in the long-run because of inflated shooting percentages, but what's to say that they are the only team going through this? For all we know, there are just as many players on Abbotsford, Oklahoma City and Springfield with high shooting percentages that can't be expected to stay where they currently are. Seeing how the Checkers compare to them in that aspect should give us a good idea of how good this team really is.

In addition to that, it would also be nice to know how the Checkers compare to the rest of the AHL in terms of how much of their production is coming from players who have a chance to make the NHL relatively soon. There might be a lot of NHL talent in the AHL right now but there are still quite a number of players who will likely spend the majority of their careers in the minors and gaudy numbers from those players ultimately do not mean much for an organization's prospect pool and future. Seeing how the Checkers rank in this department will give us a better idea of how much their success means to the Hurricanes organization.

After the jump, we will take a look at where the Checkers stand in both areas.

It's the middle of November and there has still yet to be an NHL game played this season. All fans have to be beyond frustrated right now but I think the Hurricanes fanbase might be among the most pissed off right now. This was looking like a season with a ton of promise for this team. They had one of their most eventful off-seasons in recent memory by acquiring Jordan Staal and Alex Semin and on top of that, their division is pretty much up for grabs right now. There was so much excitement and anticipation heading into this year regarding this team and now it is all put on hold until the owners and Player's Association come to terms with a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Until that time, there isn't anything fans can do except wait and wonder about what could have been.

There are still a lot of things that are left up in the air with the Hurricanes this season, though. Most are wondering how the acquisition of Alexander Semin will turn out, but I think adding Jordan Staal to the mix is a little more intriguing, mostly because there is a lot about Staal that is uncertain. One thing we do know about him is that he was fantastic as a shutdown center for the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last six years and still has a lot of upside remaining. There are a lot who say that Staal can emerge as a huge scoring threat if he is given the right linemates and ice-time, which isn't too crazy to say if you look at his body of work in Pittsburgh and consider that he is only 24 years old, but one thing to remember is that Staal wasn't always confined to the third-line center role with the Penguins.

If you go back to the latter-half of the 2010-11 season, you may recall that both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin missed significant time with injuries, leaving Staal as the team's #1 center during that stretch. There was also a brief time period last year where Staal was placed into this role as the Pens normal top-two centers were out with injuries. How did he perform during these stretches? Well, he had 23 points in 31 games from February to the end of the 2010-12 season and 4 points in the 5 games in October where Malkin was hurt. His numbers are decent enough but once agian, points don't tell us the entire story, especially with a player like Staal.

To get a better idea of Staal's performance, along with just about every other player, you need to take a closer look at their contributions on the ice, which is why I am currently doing a very ambitious project where I am tracking scoring chances, zone entries, zone exits and many other on-ice events for as many games as I can. You may remember that I did scoring chances for the Hurricanes last year, and while those are helpful, they still only tell you part of the story, which is why I will be expanding my studies this season (whenever it starts) and am currently tracking the previous year in my down time.

I am currently at the part of last season where Staal assumed the top-line center role for the Penguins, so after the jump we are going to take a closer look at his performance during the Penguins game against the Montreal Canadiens on October 20, 2011. The analysis starts after the jump.

Once again, there aren't many notable individual performances to speak of among the Carolina Hurricanes NCAA prospect pool, but still plenty of things to talk about regarding their teams. It was also one of those weekends where there was a lot of good news mixed in with bad, so we're going to follow the same format as last week and break things down by those two topics. There's only so much that can happen over the span of two games, so I'm expecting for there to be more weekends like this over the course of the season but hope that we start to see one of these players break out relatively soon. 

Until that day, we'll continue to discuss the happenings of NCAA hockey and what is happening with the teams currently housing Carolina prospects.

Michigan Wolverines (Phil Di Giuseppe)

Good News

The Wolverines took down their in-state rivals Michigan State 5-1 in the first game of their weekend series on Friday. This was a pretty close game for the most part but Michigan exploded in the third period with three unanswered goals included a bomb on the powerplay from Winnipeg Jets prospect Jacob Trouba. Di Giuseppe did not record a point in either game but he was definitely involved with five shots on goal and he had one really good scoring chance in Saturday night's game but was robbed by the Spartan goaltender.

Bad News

On that note, the Wolverines were blown out 7-2 in Saturday night's game and were pretty over-matched by Michigan State in all phases of the game. They fell into a 3-0 hole early and just seem to keep digging themselves deeper as the game went on. Di Giuseppe didn't commit any critical errors in this game from my view point but he ended up getting tagged with a -2 after being on-ice for two Spartan goals.

The Wolverines are still ranked but they are under .500 in conference play and have a tough series against #7 ranked Notre Dame coming up this weekend followed by a home game against Bowling Green the following Wednesday.

Harvard Crimson (Danny Biega)

Good News

Biega recorded 5 shots on goal this weekend and Harvard won their second conference game of the year by shutting out RPI 4-0. We are also going to get a chance to see Biega first-hand next week when the Crimson take on Cornell on a game that will be televised on the NBC Sports Network. Remember to set your calendars for that.

Bad News

While the shutout over RPI was nice, Harvard also dropped a 6-2 decision to Union College in a rematch of last year's ECAC championship game. The Crimson still have a winning record on the season at 3-2 but their two losses were both very, very ugly and it doesn't help that they both came at home. Biega also had a rough night by taking two penalties and ending up a -3. Here's to hoping that he'll play better with the NBC Sports cameras rolling next week.

Harvard will be on the road for the next few weeks when they take on Cornell, Colgate and Merrimack Colleg.e

Minnesota Golden Gophers (Mark Alt)

Good News

Alt was the only Carolina NCAA prospect to record a point this weekend, as he recorded an assist on Eric Haula's goal in Minnesota's game against Alaska-Anchorage. The Gophers were also the only team in this group to not lose any of their games this weekend, picking up a 4-0 win in their first game against UAA and tying them 2-2 in the second game. A little fun fact from the first game is that all of their goals came on the powerplay.

Regardless, Minnesota appears to be in good shape for now with a 6-2-1 record and a 3-2-1 record in conference play. They will have a struggling Wisconsin club at home next week in what should be a good WCHA matchup.

Bad News

The one blemish from Alt's stat-line this weekend was his four penalty minutes from the 4-0 win on Friday night. Two of them came after elbowed an Anchorage player in the head and from the sound of things, it wasn't pretty. Discipline hasn't been that much fo a problem for Alt this year, but let's just hope we don't see him deliver a hit like that again.

Ohio State Buckeyes (Collin Olson)

I'll keep things short here. The good news is that Olson had the best game of his college career on Saturday night against Alaska-Fairbanks, stopping 42 of 45 shots and keeping the Buckeyes in the game for the entire way. The bad news is that the Buckeyes lost that game 3-1 as their offensive issues this year continue. They have yet to score more than three goals in a game and have been stuck playing for the shootout in a lot of cases because of it. They have only two regulation wins on the year and three OT/shootout decisions. This has to be frustrating for Ohio State fans but Canes fans should be happy that Olson has performed well in limited action. He has allowed only 11 goals on 140 shots, good for a save percentage of .921.

The Buckeyes have a CCHA matchup with Northern Michigan on the schedule for next week.

The junior hockey season has been an odd one so far, or at least it has for a lot of the teams currently housing Carolina Hurricanes prospects. Take Ryan Murphy's Kitchener Rangers for instance, they were struggling a fair bit at the start of the year but have straited to turn things in the right direction over the past few weeks. They won all three of their games in the last week and are 8-1-1-0 in their last 10 games. Murphy hasn't been the main catalyst for this turnaround but he has been improving a lot after a rough month of October and had another multi-point performance this weekend. The news of both Murphy and the Rangers turning things around is good news for the Canes organization as a whole.

On the other hand, some teams that were flying high early in the year are now going through a rough patch with the current prime suspects being Daniel Altshuller's Oshawa Generals. The Generals were one of the most exciting teams in the OHL during the beginning stages of the year and were mostly backed by a high-powered offense and one of the OHL's leading offensive threats in Boone Jenner. At the time, Altshuller wasn't providing the Generals with remarkable goaltending, but he was performing well enough to prevent them from losing games and maintain their spot at the top of the East Division. Over the last 10 games or so, things have gotten tougher for the Generals as they have won only three games in that stretch and are hanging on by a thread to the top spot of their conference. Their offense appears to have run into a bit of a bad stretch and Altshuller just hasn't performed well enough to steal games for them, which is something he may need to do eventually.

Brock McGinn's Guelph Storm could also fit into this category but they haven't struggled as much and are still in the mix in the Midwest Division. They certainly helped their cause this week by getting a shutout over the first place team, Owen Sound, but that was undone after they dropped their next two games to Sarnia and Brampton respectively. It's still along season ahead for everyone and we've already seen how much can change over the course of a month, so it will be interesting to see how the standings look come mid-December. Some good news is that all but one of the OHL teams with Carolina prospects are in the top-half of their conference so most of the team's we're following have had a decent first 20 games or so.

After the jump, we will look at the performance of Carolina's CHL prospects in more detail.

The Charlotte Checkers domination of the Peoria Rivermen continued this weekend as they took both games against them in two-game series this weekend. These two wins did not come as easily as they did a couple weeks ago, though as the Rivermen put up a much stronger fight and responded well after getting shutout in back-to-back games. Still, in the end it was the Checkers who came out on top and the two wins improve their record to 9-3-0-1 on the season and give them a six-point lead in the South Division over the Houston Aeros and Oklahoma City Barons. 

Charlotte struggled a bit during the first game of the series on Thursday night, falling behind 1-0 early and having to fight an uphill battle during the early stages. This was a problem for them early in the year, but this team always seemed to be able to battle back and reclaim control of the game and that's exactly what they did against Peoria. Shortly after Anthony Nigro scored the opening goal, Zach Boychuk answered for the Checkers to tie the game and Zac Dalpe added a powerplay goal later in the period to give the Checkers the lead. Peoria would respond in the second period with a pair of goals including a powerplay strike from Ian Cole to reclaim the lead for the Rivermen. Once again, though, the Checkers just continued to fight back and their hard work payed off in the third period with Jeremy Welsh tying the game. Drayson Bowman would then give the Checkers the lead off a rebound chance to score his 10th goal of the season and give the Checkers a 4-3 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining.

This would be a lead that didn't last long for the Checkers as the Rivermen were able to tie the game via a late goal by Derek Nesbitt, who scored twice in this series. The late goal did not demoralize Charlotte, though and they were able to get the win in overtime after Zach Boychuk made a terrific individual effort in the neutral zone to force a turnover and score on a breakaway. Some may say that the Checkers made this win a lot harder than it needed to be, but Peoria put forth a great effort and made the Checkers work for this win. The next night would be a little different.

The opening script was a bit similar with the Rivermen jumping on top early with a 1-0 lead in the first period with a powerplay goal by Taylor Chorney, but things changed dramatically after that. The Checkers would go on to outshoot Peoria 32-12 in the final two periods and outscore the Rivermen 3-1 in the second period. Zach Boychuk played a big role in the comeback as he scored the initial game-tying goal and recorded a secondary assist on Chris Terry powerplay goal. Speaking of which, Terry himself had a big game with a two-goal night and he now has three tallies in as many games since returning from his suspension. Justin Faulk would add another goal in the third period to put this one away for the Checkers, who coasted to a 4-1 victory.

That goal was Faulk's only mark on the scoresheet this weekend, but he is still maintaining an impressive scoring rate with 14 points in 11 games. That puts him tied for third in the AHL scoring race and when you add in his 31 shots in 14 games, it's hard not to be impressed with the season he has had thus far. Also tied for third in the AHL's scoring race is Zach Boychuk, who added four points to his total this weekend and is still registering over three shots per game. With Drayson Bowman inevitably cooling down, I was curious about who would replace his goal production but it looks like Boychuk has done just that, at least this weekend. The return of Chris Terry obviously helps that cause, too since he has been one of the team's top-scorers for the last few years.

One player who has rebounded after a bit of an off-week is Zac Dalpe, who had a goal and a pair of assists this weekend. Dalpe's season got off to a tough start with him missing the first game with an illness and he hasn't exactly been putting up the numbers like Boychuk and Bowman have this year. What he has done, though, is turn in a pretty good season with 10 points in 12 games.  Dalpe is also registering nearly three shots per game and has been getting some bad shooting luck (8.8% shooting percentage), so I think we could see him get some more goals relatively soon. Also in this category is poor Jerome Samson, who was held off the scoresheet completely despite registering eight shots on goal.

Riley Nash also had a very productive weekend with three assists in two games and so did Jeremy Welsh, who picked up a pair of points. These two aren't producing as much offense as some of the other guys on the team both in terms of shots and boxcar stats, but I think they could be players who may begin to emerge once the big guns start to slump. Secondary scoring is always critical and these two along with Brett Sutter will play a big role in it as the year goes on.

If you haven't been keeping up with NHL Numbers over the past week, then you missed a fantastic post from Benjamin Wendorf where he examined which players in the NHL could be labelled as "puck hogs." A puck hog being a player who takes an unproportionally high amount of shots compared to his linemates. Whether or not a player being a "puck hog" is a good or a bad thing is up to you. On one hand, a player that is shooting the puck more often than his teammates is creating more scoring opportunities for himself and the team but on the flip-side, he could be aimlessly shooting from everywhere instead of waiting for a better opportunity to score. These kinds of players are usually labelled as "selfish" and whatnot by the media.

To find out which players are "puck hogs," Wendorf looked at the total number of shots on goal and missed shots every player in the NHL was on-ice for and how many of those shots came from each player. He explains it in more detail in the article, but the main idea is that a player who takes a high percentage of shots he is on-ice for is a "puck hog" by this definition. Wendorf also lists the top and bottom-25 "puck hogs" in the NHL from 2007 through 2012 and you may notice that there are no Carolina Hurricanes players on either list, at least during those years.

This leaves the door open for a lot of questions about the Hurricanes and whether or not they have housed any "puck hogs" over the last five seasons. Carolina fans have always voiced their opinions about players such as Joni Pitkanen not shoot as often as they would like, while others such as Chad LaRose tend to shoot from everywhere instead of waiting for a better scoring opportunity. Do these perceptions match up with reality, though? To find out, I applied the same method as Wendorf to every Carolina Hurricanes player from 2008 to 2012 to see who was hogging the puck the most during those seasons.