League-Worst Goaltending Key Culprit for Carolina Hurricanes' Disastrous October

Entering the 2014-15 season, Anton Khudobin and Cam Ward were expected to vie competitively for the Carolina Hurricanes' No. 1 goaltender job until one proved superior over the other.

So far, the pair of netminders have put forth a mere one strong performance in seven games—all losses for the last-place Hurricanes—and shown little that could validate either one as a deserving starter.

Just over two weeks into the season, Carolina's team goaltending ranks last in the NHL with a dismal .867 save percentage. The league average, by comparison, currently stands at .913.

Goaltender	Record	Save Percentage	GAA
Anton Khudobin	0-3-1	.891	3.24
Cam Ward	0-2-1	.829	4.24

Outside of the game against the New York Rangers, in which Khudobin stopped 33 of 34 shots to help the 'Canes earn a point, Carolina's save percentage has been below .890 in every other game.

Game	Goaltender	Save %
NYI (Oct. 10)	Ward	.808
NYI (Oct. 11)	Khudobin	.862
BUF (Oct. 14)	Ward	.885
NYR (Oct. 16)	Khudobin	.971
WIN (Oct. 21)	Khudobin	.885
CGY (Oct. 23)	Ward	.792
EDM (Oct. 24)	Khudobin	.821

In last week's back-to-back in Alberta, Ward and Khudobin each started once and each allowed five goals, teaming up for a cringe-worthy .808 save percentage in the two contests. The 'Canes have now allowed five goals against in almost half (three out of seven) of their games to date.

Both No. 30 and No. 31 appear lacking in confidence and form, allowing at least one soft goal every night and struggling (outside of the fluky game in Madison Square Garden) to come up with the big saves when called upon.

It's also been a rough first month on the job for goaltending coach David Marcoux, who was hired in July to replace the fired Greg Stefan.

Marcoux has been unemployed (at least in the NHL universe) for the last five years since being axed by Calgary in 2009; Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff—albeit overworked to the extent of 76 starts in both seasons—posted mediocre .906 and .903 save percentages in Marcoux's final two years there.

The half-decade-long break doesn't appear to have had a positive effect on his coaching abilities.

Lance Thomson/Getty Images

Unquestionably, every part of the team has struggled mightily in this woeful October. After all, the offense has been equally poor on the ongoing road trip, scoring one or fewer goals in three of the four games.

But the performance of Carolina's defense has actually not been as terrible as the scoreboard indicates. Although the 29th-place ranking in goals against isn't pretty, the Hurricanes have nonetheless allowed the 11th-fewest shots on goal and 17th-fewest shot attempts (Corsi) per game, according to war-on-ice.com, in 2014-15.

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Instead, the vast majority of the responsibility for how often the red light behind the Hurricanes' goal has flashed falls upon Khudobin and Ward, whose tandem control of the club's netminding has failed miserably in all aspects.

Yes, regression is inevitable. Better times of some sort are inevitably ahead for both, for two goalies with .926 and .909 career save percentages, respectively, cannot realistically carry on in the mid-.800s over multimonth time spans.

Not everything is mathematical, though, and the interminable nightmare observed in the Hurricanes' crease so far appears just as much due to misaligned positioning, slow reactions and nonexistent reliability as to bad luck.

The first priority for the running-off-the-rails Hurricanes moving forward must be to get the goaltending unit back in order.

Mark Jones has covered the Carolina Hurricanes for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.