5 Takeaways from the Carolina Hurricanes' Preseason so Far

The Carolina Hurricanes have sacrificed success for experience and diversity this preseason, putting forth a decidedly inferior and more youthful lineup than their opponent in each respective game.

Their 1-4 record to date accurately reflects the outcomes on the scoreboard but certainly not the benefits of the decision: The 'Canes have been able to give more playing time to prospects and training camp competitors than essentially any other NHL team.

Such exposure has led to the seemingly ceiling-less breakout of Victor Rask, allowed an even distribution of goaltender playing time and justified the cuts of promising youngsters Brock McGinn and Haydn Fleury back to the AHL and OHL, respectively.

Yet despite the lack of time for many of the team's stars, bad luck has already cost Carolina Jordan Staal for the next three to four months—opening up a slot for yet another borderline pro to make the opening-night lineup.

Five games into Carolina's seven-game preseason schedule, what takeaways can be drawn so far? A breakdown of five key lessons falls on the coming slides.

Cam Ward looked very much like the unreliable netminder who averaged an .898 save percentage last year in his first outing of the preseason, allowing three goals on 13 shots before being switched out in favor of 18-year-old Alex Nedeljkovic about halfway through.

No. 30 was far better in his preseason start Tuesday vs. St. Louis, stopping the first 14 shots he faced, but then he allowed three on the Blues' final 15 shots to again tumble to an underwhelming .897 save percentage for the game as a whole.

After telling the News and Observer's Chip Alexander last month that he had "done everything I can to prepare myself to play with confidence," Ward's training camp has not gone as he would have hoped.

Nonetheless, he was sharper than the numbers indicated this week in Missouri and will likely get at least one more appearance before next Friday's opening night. Ward still has a chance to salvage his training camp performance.

In his first season in Raleigh, Andrej Sekera instantly catapulted into the Hurricanes' No. 1 defenseman role, shattering his previous career highs of four goals and 29 points with a whopping 11 goals (14th among league defensemen) and 44 points (also 14th).

But how had the 28-year-old never shown such star power before, much less on a Buffalo team with an even weaker defense? That seemingly unanswerable question made the possibility of Sekera being a one-year wonder the unspoken universal thought of the summer.

Sekera's 2014 preseason play has calmed such worries as much as any preseason ever could.

No. 4 has tallied two goals and an assist in three games, playing more than four minutes, 30 seconds in power-play ice time and 20 minutes in total ice time in all three and throwing seven shots on goal. He's looked as good as he did in 2013-14, standing out as clearly the best defenseman wearing red in each start.

He and Justin Faulk will be entrusted this coming season with the responsibility of keeping afloat a defensive unit with no real second pairing.

Carolina's power-play conversion rate in the 2014 preseason—26.1 percent—is currently almost double that of their entire 2013-14 campaign—14.6 percent.

The team is 6-of-23 overall, having struck three times in one game against the Islanders and three times in two games against the Blue Jackets.

Outside of a frustrating 0-of-5 effort against the Blues, the power play has been the NHL's best of the preseason and has contributed a whopping six of the Hurricanes' 11 total goals in five games.

Ever since the coaching staff change of last spring, new boss Bill Peters and promoted assistant Rod Brind'Amour have focused on the power play as a key opportunity for drastic improvement. A new usage for Alexander Semin, a fresh start for Ryan Murphy and a revamped motivation system for Eric Staal will, they hope, help the 'Canes man-advantage unit finally climb out of the NHL cellar.

Their tireless work appears to be already yielding benefits, if the past few weeks of "fake" games are to be believed.

Despite all of the positives of the 'Canes preseason, one could easily the label the entire process as a failure due to one event: Jordan Staal's broken leg.

Staal, Carolina's pivotal second-line center who faced serious expectations of improvement entering 2014-15, will now miss roughly the entire first half of the regular season.

The speculated options to fill Staal's vacated role—shift former fifth overall pick Elias Lindholm back to his natural center position, promote Riley Nash or Jay McClement, or debut rookie Victor Rask (see the next slide) in the top six—are plentiful, but none will fully replace the loss of production.

Meanwhile, Eric Staal faces a critically important season, with his captaincy and even job in Carolina on the line.

His one and only preseason appearance did little to increase confidence. Staal registered zero points and three shots in 17 minutes of playing time against St. Louis; he was, moreover, dominated in the faceoff circle, losing 6-of-8 to Blues' No. 1 center David Backes, 3-of-4 to mere prospect Jori Lehtera and 12-of-19 overall.

September did not prove kind to Carolina's Staal brothers.

Victor Rask took the next big step forward in his sudden career ascension Wednesday night in Columbus. He posted two goals and one assist, as his first career NHL points came in quick succession.

Rask has won 33 of 52 faceoffs (63.5 percent) in three appearances, dominating the likes of Islanders veteran center Frans Nielsen (went 5-of-5, while the rest of the 'Canes were a combined 2-of-6 against him) and Sabres star youngsters Sam Reinhart (5-of-7) and Mikhail Grigorenko (3-of-4).

Thursday, general manager Ron Francis told the News and Observer that he expects Rask, who didn't even play first-line minutes in the AHL last season, to make the 'Canes roster. By the time practice had begun, Rask was centering Lindholm and Jeff Skinner.

Certainly no player has erupted into the spotlight more than Rask in the past few months. He'll soon be faced with the challenge of translating such success into the regular season.