One of my favorite moves that Jim Rutherford made last off-season was the signing of Alexei Ponikarovsky to a one-year deal at a very low cost of $1.50 mil. I liked this move because while Ponikarovsky was coming off a bad season with the Los Angeles Kings (5 goals, 15 points in 61 games), he was previously an 18-21 goal scorer for a good part of his career and had top-six potential. The other thing I liked about Poni was his ability to drive possession at a pretty high rate. He has been extremely well at doing this over the last few seasons, so even if he wasn't scoring, he would at least be contributing in other areas. That last sentence sums up his year with the Hurricanes perfectly. 

The Poni Express' career as a Hurricane lasted 49 games before he was traded to the New Jersey Devils for Joe Sova and a 4th round pick, but I think he played a lot better than his 7-7-14 scoring line indicates. He is a player who I thought "did everything but score" because he was used in so many roles this year and performed well in most of them. The only problem was that he just couldn't seem to hit the back of the net no matter how many shots he got off. Whether you want to blame that on a 7.1% shooting percentage or a "lack of finishing ability" is up to you.

Either way, Ponikarovsky has proven himself to be a useful piece but he is more suited for a third-line role now, which is something that the Hurricanes did not need this year. Which is why he has performed better on the Devils, a team that was starving for depth forwards and Ponikarovsky gave them exactly what they needed at the time. I have a feeling that he will have a job in the NHL next year.

After the jump, we will take a look at the underlying stats from Poni's tenure with the Hurricanes and see in which ways he was useful here, and how he was not.

This series has been in the books for almost a week and there has been plenty of time for the pundits and bloggers to create their narratives about the Coyotes sending the Preds home in only five games. Last time I checked, the ongoing story is that that the Preds ran into the "hungrier team" and had their chemistry ruined by two lazy, misbehaving players. Some other explanations I've heard are saying that the Preds took Phoenix too lightly and were "believing the hype of their own team" after they knocked off Detroit.

People are entitled to believe what they want but most of the underlying numbers say that the Preds played much better than the results might indicate. They outplayed Phoenix at even strength, had a stronger powerplay and controlled possession but goaltending ended up being the difference maker. Coyotes goaltender Mike Smith has carried over his incredible play from the regular season into the playoffs and was the main reason why the Coyotes were able to make such short work of the Predators.

All but one of Phoenix's wins were decided by a goal and Nashville actually outchanced Phoenix in all but one game this series, so this series could have gone in a much different direction if the Preds got a few bounces. Pekka Rinne was good, but Mike Smith was just better and that ended up being the big difference maker. With that being said, there were a few other things that went awry for Nashville and they are not all centered around Alexander Radulov.

A closer look at this series is coming after the jump.

After re-upping with the Canes for three years at $4.5 mil. per year, Joni Pitkanen did not have the best season to start off his new contract. He battled injuries for most of the year, missed 52 games a concussion and knee surgery and wasn't exactly great when he was healthy. Pitkanen has always been more known for his offense but he's been a very good all-around type player for the last couple of seasons. This year, he delivered on the offensive front with 17 points in 30 games but his play in the defensive zone was spotty to say the least.

Pitkanen's underlying numbers are pretty interesting because going by shot/possession stats, he appeared to play decent at even strength but his scoring chance data tells a much different tale. Only Tim Gleason and Derek Joslin had a worse scoring chance ratio than him, and the former plays much tougher minutes than Pitkanen does. In my time tracking scoring chances, I have only seen this happen with a few players but it could possibly mean that Pitkanen was on ice for more high quality shots against than others. 

However, Pitkanen didn't get easy minutes at all this year either as he ranked third on the team in corsi relative to quality of competition, which means that he was used regularly against second and third lines. That sounds pretty normal for a guy who plays top four minutes but it's a little tougher than the workload that Pitkanen had the year before. At $4.5 mil. per year, I think Pitkanen should be able to handle these assignments but I also believe that a more stable defense partner could help him, as well. 

A look at Pitkanen's underlying numbers from the past season is coming after the jump.

Sometimes GMs will find hidden gems on the waiver wire and while Andreas Nod isn't exactly a diamond in the rough, he is a very useful player and the Hurricanes were able to get him for next to nothing at the end November. Nodl's career with the Hurricanes didn't have a great start as it took Kirk Muller a little over a month to find out Nodl's strengths and decide where he fits in the lineup. It was then that Nodl's play started to improve and he became a regular on the team's third line with Patrick Dwyer and Brandon Sutter.

Nodl has never been a great puck handler and needs top-nine minutes to succeed but his terrific defensive play is something that gets overlooked by a lot of people and makes him valuable to a team like the Hurricanes. Fortunately, this did not pass over Muller's head and he made Nodl one of the team's "heavy lifters" and Nodl performed fairly well in this role. Nodl's defensive skills keep him from being a replacement level player but you can find guys who have similar skills to him for close to the league minimum. Hence why the Canes were able to get him off waivers.

With that in mind, I think Nodl has a lot of potential and plays a big role on the third line but his offensive skills are something that needs a lot of work. That isn't his role but one of my complaints from this season was that the Hurricanes weren't getting enough offense from their third line and Nodl was a key reason for that. He did a lot of good things even when he wasn't scoring, though and that point is reinforced when you look at his underlying numbers from this year.

There were a lot of bloggers and pundits who predicted the Phoenix Coyotes taking a large step back this season because they lost an top-tier goaltender in Ilya Bryzgalov and replaced him with Mike Smith, a goalie who had a sub-.900 save percentage last season and was waived by the Tampa Bay Lightning. It is probably a safe bet to say that not many thought the Coyotes would make the Western Conference Finals and even fewer that predicted Mike Smith would be the reason why they would get that far. Fast forward to May and the Coyotes are one of the last two teams remaining in the Western Conference on the back of Mike Smith's .948 save percentage.

Going into this series, I gave the Predators the advantage because I thought they would be relying on goaltending less than the Coyotes and that was true for the most part. They outchanced Phoenix 19-11 in game 5 and 15-11 at even strength but Mike Smith, once again, played lights out and was a key role in Phoenix's 2-1 win over Nashville to eliminate them from the playoffs. Phoenix wasn't getting dominated at even strength, but the puck was in their end for most of the night and goaltending was the deciding factor in yet another game. You have to wonder how long this kind of strategy will keep up for the Coyotes but it's gotten them pretty deep in the playoffs now and they are only eight wins away from the Stanley Cup. It is pretty unbelievable when you look at their numbers over the series. We will look at those numbers later, but for now, we will look at how game 5 went.

After a solid rookie season, Jamie McBain began this year in the press box and had to earn his playing time with seven other defensemen also on the team. It didn't take long for him to be inserted back into the lineup and he had quite a wild year to say the least. With his usual defense partner, Joni Pitkanen, being on the IR for most of the season, the coaching staff had a tough time figuring out how to use McBain and his performance on ice either thrived or suffered as a result.

There were games when McBain was used against the toughs and that had mixed results. He managed to hold his own on some nights and got destroyed on others. The word "sophomore slump" came up a lot with McBain this year when he was playing tough minutes when in reality, he was playing a role that he wasn't fit for and probably shouldn't have been used in. Uncoincidentally, he started playing better in a protected third pairing role with Jaroslav Spacek and saw all of his numbers improve.

McBain's versatility is nice to have and he gained a lot of experience this season, but where does he fit on the team long-term? A look at his numbers from this year show that he is best as a third-pairing defenseman for now but might not be completely helpless in a top four role. A look at said numbers is coming after the jump.

Chad LaRose is one player who I've spent a lot of time defending this season because while he doesn't always make the best decisions and isn't an ideal top-line winger, he simply got the job done when it came to generating scoring chances and possession. He isn't a star player and will probably never score more than 35 points, but he can be used just about anywhere in the lineup and is at least passable in whatever role he plays. LaRose showed a lot of that this season as he was used on every line at least once and played a considerable amount of time on both special teams units. Something else that might be overlooked is that this season was LaRose's strongest in the NHL.

I know that 19 goals and 32 points doesn't look like much, but the latter is a career-high for LaRose and his strong possession numbers show that it wasn't a fluke. Spending a lot of time in the top-six and on the powerplay probably helped, though. The truth about LaRose is that he isn't a pure-goal scorer and probably isn't suited for a top-six role. However, he is an excellent third liner and was one of Carolina's better players this season.

After the jump, we will take a look at LaRose's underlying numbers from this year and how much he benefited the team. It might be a lot more than you think.

Nashville head coach Barry Trotz made a risky decision to keep forwards Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn out of the lineup despite their suspensions being repealed. His reasoning was that he didn't want to mess with what worked in game 3 which Nashville won 2-0. This plan ended up blowing up in his face as the Preds were shutout 1-0 by Phoenix last night and now trail the series 3 games to 1.

The Predators did outchance the Coyotes in this game and Mike Smith had to do his part to keep the Coyotes ahead, but the problem throughout the game was that Nashville could not finish their chances. They had control of the game for the last two periods but too many of their opportunities either went off the post or were blocked by the Phoenix defense. Patric Hornqvist's shot data from this game sums things up perfectly. He had 12 shot attempts, four were blocked, five either hit the post or missed the net and only three actually made it on goal.

This was the type of game where the Preds could have used a player like Radulov or Kostitsyn because they had a lot of zone time and chances, but couldn't finish any of them. Radulov and Kostitsyn are two of Nashville's best offensive players and they were kept out of the lineup. I know that hindsight is 20/20 but the Preds haven't exactly been running over the Coyotes this series or scoring a ton. They won game 3 on the back of a strong defensive effort and a shutout from Pekka Rinne. Nashville got off to a horrible start in game 4 and were playing catch-up for the rest of the game and ended up losing because they make the most of their opportunities.

It's a tough loss for the Preds, but I still think that they are far from done. They have outchanced Phoenix in three of the four games this series and can turn things around. It will be very difficult for them to pull it off, though.

Let's not beat around the bush here, the Tomas Kaberle signing was a gigantic misfire by Jim Rutherford. He even admitted it himself. The Hurricanes may have almost made the playoffs in 2010-11 but they were still a team that was rebuilding and had a stockpile of defensemen in their farm system, so bringing in Kaberle on a three year deal was a puzzling acquisition to say the least. I do understand that they were looking for a replacement for Joe Corvo and that they didn't know Justin Faulk would be NHL-ready at such a young age, but committing three years and $12.75 mil. to an aging offensive defenseman isn't something that a team in Carolina's position should do.

Hindsight is 20/20, but those who watched Kaberle in Boston and Toronto the last couple of seasons could have told you that his days of being a top-four defender are long gone. He was used as a third pairing defenseman/powerplay specialist with the Bruins during the playoffs last season and wasn't exactly stellar in that role. That isn't the type of player you give $4.25 mil. per year to and it didn't help that he kept Jamie McBain from playing every night.

That being said, it was thought that Kaberle would be somewhat of an upgrade on the powerplay over Corvo and that he could succeed in a protected role at even strength. That wasn't the case at all in Carolina as he struggled to stay afloat for most of the season, found himself in the press box for one game and was eventually traded to Montreal for Jaroslav Spacek. Rutherford managed to bail himself out of Kaberle's contract but just how bad was he in Carolina? His overall underlying numbers actually are not horrible but that viewpoint completely changes when you add some context to the situation. Follow me after the jump to see what I am talking about.

There are a lot of people who say that a team isn't in trouble in a series until they lose at home, which would make this Predators-Coyotes series very much alive after the Preds shutout Phoenix 2-0 last night. One thing that I have been saying in the first two games is that this series could go either way because both teams are pretty similar in the sense that they aren't strong possession teams and have relied a lot on goaltending this season.

We are now three games into the series and the two teams are even in scoring chances when playing 5-on-5 but the Preds have had the advantage in two of the three games. They didn't get good enough goaltending in the first two games, but that wasn't the case in game 3 as Pekka Rinne recorded his first shutout but the guys in front of him did a terrific job for most of the game in blanketing the Coyotes offense and making their top two lines ineffective for the most part.

Nashville does not need Rinne to stand on his head to win this series, but having him make the big saves when he needs to definitely helps. That's what the case was last night.