Something SPECIAL is going on in Carolina…

Something SPECIAL is going on in Carolina…

Something special is happening in Carolina right now. After a roaring start to the season, Alexander Nikes getting his first goal in the last game, the Carolina Hurricanes have quite literally made history with one of their defenseman and some of the scoring output has the rest of the NHL on notice. We have to dive into some crazy defenseman stats with Nikeshan and Gospare, plus much much more, including how their lines are way better somehow than they even seem on paper. All that coming up on this episode. But Darius, let’s just start. I mean, what a morning to be a Hurricanes fan. It’s a good morning to be a Canes fan, as the Hurricanes say. They are the only undefeated team remaining in the NHL this season. A top the Eastern Conference. The only team with more points is Colorado, who is 40 and one. They have the advantage. They played an extra game. Darius, there’s so much to talk about here, including some crazy GS to spare stats. Nikes and even other defenseman, other forwards, so much more. But how you feeling on this morning with Carolina? Because to me, watching this team play hockey now, only one game was even really that close, and that was against Philly, this team looks utterly dominant. And I got to say, like something special is going on with Rod Bindmore in this locker room right now. I think dominant is the word. And they’re doing so far this season their best Lavar Ball impression. They’ve never lost, right? They’re just they can’t lose. They can’t lose right now. And they’ve been unbelievable. And a couple players in particular, and like you mentioned, Nikeshian, you never really know what you’re going to get out of a young defenseman, right? coming into the league and kind of figuring out, especially when they have to come over to North America. You never really know. And it’s like, okay, maybe he has some offensive output. He has that touch. That’s cool. He can add that to the team and that’s going to be fun. Or maybe they’re a really good defensive defenseman. This guy literally, if you’re looking at the stats in the advanced analytics, does everything, Josh. It is shocking. This guy blocks shots. He can score goals, and he got his first one, like you just mentioned. Uh, you know, he can play the defensive side of the puck. His gap control is unbelievable. This guy at this age literally does everything. And I think that’s a great thing for the Carolina Hurricanes because one thing that I’ve noticed over the last little while and again this is just my personal opinion. This team I think was lacking star power or maybe just a superstar. And they got that last year with Miko Randon but that was shortlived of course and I always felt like they were missing that. But man looking on paper some of the moves they’ve made this year bringing in younger talent like Nikeshan as well having Goss Bear which we’ll get into in a second. This team I think is a little different and a little special this year and I think something big is brewing in that locker room. They all kind of seem to believe in each other. You just saw the clip there from Rob Brymore as well. Type of coach you want to, you know, run through a wall for. What’s your take on some of the other guys on this team? Because again, I thought they were lacking some star power, but I I do truly believe something special is brewing here. Yeah, exactly right. And you know, we all the story lines today are around Gossip Bear and Nikishian, but again, there’s there’s the other guys too like like we got to talk about Seth Jarvis. five goals in four games again back-to-back 30 goal seasons the last two years and I feel like people are just almost not that we’re not talking about him but like yesterday again two goals one assist Hurricanes fans of course are talking about him but the rest of the NHL you’re not seeing his name pop up all over social media feeds it’s not that emotional story of Nikesha’s first goal but this dude has been dynamite so far and again not just him I think I have the picture of the whole roster here Sebastian Aaho again six points in four games the Hurricanes have six different players who have played all four games that are still at a point per game. Jackson Blake too, the young guy who had a great rookie year coming in with a goal and three assists in the team’s first four games. And you know that star power there, you know, it is there with Aaho. We kind of knew that was there. Taylor Hall still at the age of 33. Like past his prime, but still at a point per game so far, it’s the depth in the high-end scoring so far. Again, it’s a small sample size. Like we’re not here saying this stuff’s going to happen all year. The Hurricanes are not going to end with six players with 80 plus points probably. But right now, these guys are showing that they can take it to that next level. And it’s what happens when you have a team built the way they do and a coach that coaches the way Rod Brendemore does. When you buy into this system, everyone gets their their bit of of fame. I guess 15 minutes of fame. I don’t know if I want to say that. These guys are all showing up every single night. And I think that just goes to show what’s so special about the team. Yeah. And you mentioned a couple names there. We’re talking about Goss Bear. I can’t believe Seth Jarvis, that was a great point that you made, isn’t being talked about in, you know, NHL circles or just isn’t pasted out there like crazy. He’s having a one of the best sneaky good starts to a season. But there’s a couple other guys, you mentioned Taylor Hall, like this team is so deep. A lot of guys are off to really great starts, but you got Robinson who looked really good last year in a small sample size when he got, you know, called up. He was playing some time uh with the team. Stanovven, right? Like he’s going to be a great young player for this team as well. Like these guys are going to start to get going, too. That’s why I think this team is so dangerous. They’re deep. They’re going to get scoring. They’re going to get output from different places when it maybe it dries up from the top line because that happens to every team at certain points. Look at the Florida Panthers last year in the playoffs. They won some of the series because of the scoring from their bottom six. Their top six completely went away. So, I like the way that the Hurricanes have kind of retoled on the fly here. Another guy that they added, we didn’t even talk about yet and he’s had a strong start to the season is Keandre Miller. He was, you know, pasted as the bad guy in New York. And honestly, I think he’s one of those guys that has all the tools, but maybe doesn’t have the best hockey IQ. I do truly believe that. But he has all the tools and if you know how to manage him properly, he can be a great asset for your team. And I feel like he is being managed properly in Carolina so far. So, he’s been fantastic, too. He’s been putting up some points. And not only that, he’s, you know, a big body. He can play that physical style of game when the playoffs come, you know, when he wants. Sometimes he doesn’t do that in the regular season, but seems like it’s all coming together for the Hurricanes right now. Yeah, absolutely. Of course, 40 goal pace for Keandre Miller. We know that’s sustainable. I think he could be one of the many 40 goal scorers. No, I mean that’s not going to happen. But you’re absolutely right. Like a lot of these moves, like the Miller move, especially like if he keeps up this kind of hot start. I mean it was more in the first couple games, last few games maybe not as much, but he still looked decent, right? Like if he can keep that up, that contract’s going to age so beautifully, especially with the rising cap and looking at some other comparables, right? But again, it’s the Decor that’s really the star of the show here today, Darius. And who better to start with than Shane Gospare? Like what what is this stat? Courtesy of the Kane stats brand, Shane Gosspar now has four straight games with at least a plus two plus minus and one point in each game to start the season. So at least a plus two with a point in four straight games to start a season. He’s the first player since Gretzky in 88 to do that. Now that’s just absolutely bonkers. Like that doesn’t even make sense to me, Darius. But it kind of does when you look at again his scoring output this season. Seven points in four games. Tied for the NHL lead with Kale Marmong all defenseman. and Gossip Bear has only played four games. Mar has played five. But when you look at the impact of so many Hurricanes lines, not just their decor, but their forwards as well, you can see why so many guys are showing to be more effective than I think a lot of non-Hurricanes fans or just NHL fans in general would have anticipated coming into the season. They’re working well together. This is every forward line and deep pairing in the entire NHL sorted by expected goals percentage. Minimum 10 minutes played together. So, not much. You can see the Hurricanes have three of the top 12. Gossiper, Nikeshian right up there, sixth on this among all forward and D pairings with an 83.1% expected goals percentage. But I thought Darius, you know what, 10 minutes is really not enough of a sample size. A lot of these Hurricanes pairings and lines have played more time together. When you sort it by any deep pairing or forward line that has played at least 25 minutes together, which I would say is really not that big a qualifying significant. Yeah, Gosses Nikes is number one at 83.1% expected goals. Blake Stanov and Espikov’s number two. Eers Zaho Jarvis is number three despite Eers really not being off to a hot start. And even Slavven and Walker comes in at number eight. Darius, four of the top eight lines or pairings, forward or defenseman in the NHL that have played 25 minutes together are Carolina Hurricanes. And this again just shows like this is beyond special. Like this is something that Rod Bindmore has sort of instituted. But these guys are playing out of their minds right now. And there’s no reason for me to think that this can’t continue. At least to some extent. maybe not these numbers for a good chunk of this season because they are clicking in another way right now. Well, first of all, that Gretzky stat is mind-boggling because I mean it’s absurd and it’s Wayne Gretzky, right? And Gossip Bear has gotten off to a hot start and we know him to be that offensive guy, right? When he wants to turn it on in his entire NHL career, he can be one of the best in the league and he’s showing that he is right now. So, he’s been unbelievable and like you, you know, you just showed as well in terms of the advanced analytics, this is enough of a sample size at this point. I mean, we’re a week and a half, almost two weeks into the season or going to be, I guess, soon into the season that you can look at some of these and especially those numbers which I think are significant. Again, 10 minutes, you know, there’s a lot of defense pairings that are being messed around with around the league right now. Like if you look at the Blues, they’re continuously experimenting with their back end. So, uh, there’s a lot of that going on, but I think these are good enough numbers that you can look at that and go, they are dominating. This is actually domination when they are on the ice, which is almost their entire team at this point. Look at this, right? If you’re looking at the top 10 in the league, they are dominating whoever they are playing. And I can play devil’s advocate and go look at the teams that they’re playing. Maybe it’s the Flyers, you know, and they’re not playing the greatest teams. No, like this is the NHL. The Sabres just put up eight goals the other night and beat the Senators. It doesn’t matter, right? So, they are starting very strong. Doesn’t look like they want to look back. And that pairing with Gosspare and Nikki, by the way, is Gossip Bear, who is an offensive defenseman, and Akish, who’s a rookie. This is super impressive, guys. Like, this is really, really good stuff from the Hurricanes so far this year. So, I’m uh maybe turning more into a believer again. Again, I think that they needed some star power, but they’re just so deep of a team and we’ve seen that, you know, that’s proven to work with, you know, the last couple Stanley Cup champions that maybe they can finally this year get it done. We believe right like this team right now, again, it’s early in the season. It’s a four game sample size. I don’t anticipate this to be the case the entire season long, but when you have a reasonable sample here and you see how the guys are clicking, yes, you’re going to have a rookie wall. Yes, you’re going to have certain guys hit cold streaks. you’re going to lose some games in a row. It’s going to happen, but it’s a matter of how you bounce back from those things. And the Hurricanes have done that pretty well. Again, there is that stigma of them not really showing up all the way in the playoffs. That could very well go away soon. The way this team is built after that whole ranting fiasco last year, it’s really impressive. Leave your thoughts cuz something special is going on in Carolina right now. While you’re down there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. You made it 10 minutes in. You probably aren’t subscribed. The numbers show that most of you aren’t, but we got videos like this coming every single day on all your favorite teams. I’m Josh Gos, my host Darius Dominguez. We’ll catch you in the next one.

The Carolina Hurricanes are off to a blistering start thanks to their d-core and young forward showing out huge. Darius Domingues and Josh Gosse break down all this and more on this episode of Hat Trick HQ.
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