There's nothing to get excited about yet but keep an eye on this team.
The Carolina Hurricanes are a weird mix at this point in the season. They are one of the worst teams in the NHL in terms of points earned, however they are also the hottest team in the league with 7 consecutive wins.
The Hurricanes are currently 7 points back of the Atlanta Thrashers for the coveted 8th and final playoff position in the Eastern Conference but there are five teams between Carolina and Atlanta who are within closer striking range.
Still, the Hurricanes, what they have done lately, who they have left in their schedule, and their odds might be worth a look.
Just to win the Eastern Conference the 14th place Carolina Hurricanes are 100 to 1 long shots (+10000, 100/1;
Players Only). Interestingly enough the Atlanta Thrashers, in 8th spot as mentioned, have the exact same odds with Players Only despite the fact that the Hurricanes are on the outside looking in and Atlanta is the team being chased.
Does that not imply that the Hurricanes have at least some believers out there?
On their current winning streak the Hurricanes have defeated some very solid competition as they took out Buffalo twice, New Jersey once, and the Ottawa Senators once. The not-so-solid teams that the Hurricanes have defeated are the Islanders, the Maple Leafs, and the Panthers.
The winning streak, it has to be pointed out, comes on the heels of an injury to Carolina goaltending mainstay Cam Ward. In his place Justin Peters and Manny Legace have been platooning between the pipes for the Hurricanes and neither goalie has given up more than 3 goals in an outing.
Importantly, before Ward left the lineup he gave up 4 goals in back to back games against the lowly Edmonton Oilers and the struggling Calgary Flames. In fact Ward's save percentage this season is only .913 and that does not put him in the top half of the league as there are 18 regular or semi-regular goaltenders that have a better save percentage than that.
Additionally, Ward's goals against average is 2.74, a discrediting statistic that ranks him 28th out of 30 with NHL.com's statistics.
Ward's injury is truly a blessing in disguise for the Carolina Hurricanes who were playing him on a regular basis despite the fact that he was having a terrible year (14-26 straight up).
Now the Hurricanes have Florida and Atlanta coming up in the schedule this weekend and those two games represent an opportunity for the Hurricanes to get right back into the thick of things. If they take away four points this weekend, do not hesitate to sprinkle Carolina for the Eastern Conference championship.
Their current implied probability is about 1% to win that bet however with the success that they have been experiencing that is correlated with a change in goaltending, the most important position in hockey, the Hurricanes might be considered to have a 6% or 7% chance of winning the conference - should they continue their strong play for another week.
After this weekend Carolina begin a tough stretch for two weeks as they will face Washington three times, Pittsburgh twice, and other top teams.
The plan with Carolina is to sprinkle them should they do well this weekend and then, so long as Ward is NOT coming back, pound them if they follow this weekend up with wins against the top teams in their conference.
Even if Ward does come back the Hurricane management will probably be smart enough to play the right goalie (Legace). If they don't then Carolina might as well just go back to Hartford because that's where losing hockey was the norm.
Ward's overrated.