During the season, Checkers broadcaster Jason Shaya checks in each week with his 10 Thoughts - a series of observations about the team and the hockey world in general.
1) Four weeks into the season and the Checkers have the best winning percentage in the AHL and the second-most points. With only one loss on the season in nine games, I still think there are two things that haven't happened yet. First, the team hasn't truly been challenged by an opponent. Second, Charlotte has yet to collectively play their best game. There is still a lot of work to do but the results, as of today, are satisfactory.
2) It should be noted that with all the victories this year and the team getting off to its best start in franchise history, there isn't a Checkers player in the top 15 in league scoring. The team is winning using depth of all four lines and great goaltending.
3) As the weeks go on, the name mentioned more and more amongst hockey people is Morgan Geekie. With nine games played and four goals so far, you have to wonder if he can break Warren Foegele's franchise record 28 goals in season. It should be noted however that Foegele didn't have the benefit of being on the power-play his entire rookie season. Geekie, for the time being, is playing the net-front role left by the absence of Nic Roy. They don't have a similar style of play but so far the results are there for Geekie who is taking an increased role with the team each game.
4) The linesmen are becoming more of a problem by not dropping the puck quickly enough on faceoffs. They will often throw out both centers and continue to delay the game. Most annoying of all is that 99.9 percent of the time, they drop it after players are swapped out. This causes an unnecessary lull in the game that kills momentum and annoys everyone. When the fans are booing officials because they won't drop the puck, it's to the point where someone needs to step in and stop this nonesense. We are in the entertainment business and the linesmen aren't entertaining anyone with these antics.
5) Goaltender Callum Booth absolutely battled his way to a victory last Friday against Binghamton. Noted by his coaches and teammates that no other player works harder than Booth during practice, his teammates were ecstatic for him to win his first game of the season after making 24 saves on 27 shots. As the game went on, he was more comfortable and made some excellent saves in the third period. His opponent that night was NHL veteran goaltender Cory Schiender, so Booth had to earn that victory the hard way. Hopefully there will be many more wins for Callum as the year goes on. Absolutely terrific kid.
6) Forgotten statistic from this previous week was Alex Nedeljkovic's assist in the game against Syracuse and his fist pump as they announced his name in the arena as part of the goal scored by Clark Bishop. Although, I have to say that I am disappointed to be nearly 10 games into the season and Alex has yet to score a goal. Maybe this weekend against Providence…
7) Former NHL general manager Brian Burke is afraid that the Hurricanes postgame celebration is going to be contagious and suddenly teams from all over the hockey world will become copycats. While I respect Brian Burke and understand where he is coming from, in this instance, he is wrong. When everyone in the arena is standing, applauding and smiling while the team has fun in front of their paying customers, it's a good thing. I am going to type this for the second time now: We are in the entertainment business. The Golden Knights had elaborate pregame ceremonies that were the talk of the NHL last spring. Fans made sure they were there early to catch every second. This season, fans in Raleigh aren't leaving that rink after a win until the last Hurricanes player has stepped into the room. We need more of that.
8) I've been asked by scouts and some Canes people who I believe has been our best player so far this season. It’s Andrew Poturalski. This is the best hockey I've seen him play since turning pro.
9) I think in due time, the Hurricanes will get rolling on the power-play. One thing that would help is Lucas Wallmark. I'll take nothing away from Valentin Zykov because he scored the league's most goals last year but if it wasn't for Wallmark, that doesn't happen. Most of the time, Lucas made other team's look silly trying to stop him from making the perfect pass right onto someone's tape for a back-door tap-in goal. Wallmark has received plenty of praise from people who have seen him play this season and I believe he is just getting warmed up.
10) Good for Gary Bettman and the NHL to partner with MGM Resorts International, which will bring hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for the league in the forthcoming years. This increase means players should get a bump in the salary cap numbers as the partnership blossoms. I very much expect other leagues will follow the lead of the NHL in this direction.
Providence comes to Charlotte on Friday and Saturday. They sit at the bottom of the division but that doesn't mean much. Hershey was in the same spot two weeks ago and took 3 out of 4 points from Charlotte and handed them their only loss of the season so far. Puck drop on Friday is at 7 p.m. and the pregame show will be live at 6:45. Join the broadcast on the Checkers app for iPhone or Android or AHLTV, which continues to get rave reviews mostly because of my incredible play-calling abilities.
