Monthly Performance Review: January

RALEIGH, NC. -January? Check.
All-Star break? We're here.
The fourth calendar month of the Carolina Hurricanes' 2021-22 regular season is in the books and it felt like this month had a little taste of everything, didn't it?

There was a thrilling comeback, lopsided wins, being on the wrong side of a rout for the first time, COVID postponements,
schedule updates
, the whole nine.
Let's take a look back at how the team did in the last 31 days.
Previously Monthly Reviews
October: 8-0-0
November: 7-5-1
December: 7-2-0

January Record: 9-2-1

How about a new single-month high for victories? Not bad for only having played one game in the final 13 days of December. When the team returned from the holiday break it almost had a Training Camp 2.0 feel to it, with a few long and hard practices to get prepared for their return to game action.
The crew was supposed to play 14 games in 30 days this month, which would have been a new high, however, postponements in Toronto and Philadelphia within the span of eight days knocked that down to 12.
Some of the biggest stories that did happen in or over the course of those dozen games were...

The Comeback In Columbus

On the very first day of the new year the Canes made headlines for their
7-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets
. This was one of those games that you remember for a long time and we'll look back on when the season ends, for certain. Despite being down 3-0 after 20 minutes of play Carolina had been the better team, but it's not always the better team that wins - its the team the scores more. After Frederik Andersen relieved Antti Raanta the crew would go on to find their offense, scoring seven unanswered and going on to win one of the wildest games that anyone who either watched or was a part of will ever remember.
It was the first time in the last 25 years of NHL play that a team erased a four-goal deficit to win by three in regulation.

All-Star Andersen

Fittingly enough Monday afternoon Frederik Andersen was
named the NHL's Second Star of the Week
. His three-win week put a bow on a month where he went 8-1-0, with a .927 save percentage (SV%) and a 2.22 goals against average (GAA).
He also made NHL history Sunday, becoming the first goalie to record 24 wins in his first 30 games played with a club.
The first-year Cane has now won 13 of his last 14 appearances, single-handedly paving the way for his team in several of those outings. His only loss since the calendar flipped to December came in the team's 6-0 defeat versus Columbus on January 13 and even in that contest Head Coach Rod Brind'Amour described his group's performance as "not good" and made a point to say that it was not on his backstop. That same outing was also the first one since mid-November where he allowed more than three goals.
Point blank, he gives his team a chance to win just about every single night he steps in the cage. That's all you can ask for, right?
He's now headed to Vegas this week alongside Brind'Amour and Sebastian Aho to
represent the club at the NHL Honda All-Star Game
Friday and Saturday.

Penalty Kill Power

The Carolina Hurricanes penalty kill came just 35 seconds short of matching some franchise history this month. Tim Gleason's unit had killed off 35 consecutive penalties, starting back on December 7 in Winnipeg, but eventually coming to a close on January 18 in Boston.
The only goal that the team allowed in a 7-1 smacking of the Boston Bruins was a first period power play tally that was redirected off the skate of Patrice Bergeron and by Frederik Andersen. While all good things must come to an end, the efforts of the team's shorthanded groups have moved them all the way to the top spot in the NHL for the season, now having moved up to a successful kill rate of 89.0%. Another portion to this stat that makes it both equally alarming and impressive is that the they've been shorthanded more than 29 other teams in the league. (

)
A general rule of thumb in the hockey world is that if your special teams units (power play + penalty kill) can add up to 110%, you're in a good spot. Merge their 26.7% power play (6th - NHL) on top of their strong shorthanded efforts and you get a cool 115.7%.

Going Into Break Hot

Just one game past the official midway marker of the regular season schedule, the Canes head into the league's All-Star break on top of the Metropolitan Division and pacing the Eastern Conference in points percentage (.762%). It's largely been all aces for the group, especially after winning a difficult stretch of four games in six days to enter the off week.
Prior to the week Brind'Amour said it would be a bit of a preview for what's to come, given that the Canes will have a few "four-in-six" sequences the rest of the way. They'll play 40 games in 88 days the rest of the way, including eight back-to-back sets.
While certainly they'd have loved to beat Atlantic Division-leading Florida when they had the chance, they did get them to overtime, taking a point and overall having a much better showing than their November meeting. Outside of not having beaten one of the only teams ahead of them in any league ranking, it's hard to pinpoint any major deficiencIes.
Some other mid-season rankings as to where the team is among the league leaders?

Miscellaneous Bonus Notes

Worth A Click:
Canes, PNC Arena Mourn The Loss of Davin Olsen
Recap: Canes Stymie San Jose For Sunday Victory
February's Schedule
All-Star Reactions: Canes Trio Headed To Sin City
Burnside: Ethan Bear's Story