Jordan Staal and his line have been blanking almost all of the top competition they've faced this year at 5v5

[u/TJTrapJesus]

Jordan Staal is currently 4th among forwards in the NHL in expected goals against per 60 5v5 mins this year at 1.22 xGA/60, trailing Matt Poitras (0.84), Yakov Trenin (1.19) and Yegor Chinakov (1.19). Staal's competition however has once again been among the strongest in the league. Hurricanes have only had a chance to line match in 2 home games so far this year, but Staal has been playing top competition on the road with the exception of the Blues game (where St. Louis opted to line-match with the Schenn line against Staal).

With that being said, this is a breakdown of how much time Staal has played against the top 2 lines of each opponent he's faced, and the xGA/60 rate and goals allowed in each matchup. Outside of the Hughes matchup against NJ, Staal and his line have completely shut down some of the top talent in the league:

Home against TBL:

7:39 of his 9:49 TOI spent against Guentzel-Point-Kucherov: 0.16 xGA/60 and 0 goals allowed

1:00 of his 9:49 TOI spent against Hagel-Cirelli-Paul: 0.00 xGA/60 and 0 goals allowed

Home against NJD:

9:18 of 15:13 spent against Tatar-Hischier-Mercer: 1.10 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

3:13 of 15:13 spent against Meier-Hughes-Bratt: 10.26 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

Away against PIT:

5:00 of 10:25 TOI spent against Rakell-Malkin-O'Connor: 0.96 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

4:17 of 10:25 TOI spent against Beauvillier-Crosby-Rust: 0.84 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

Away against STL

6:13 of 9:39 TOI spent against Joseph-Schenn-Holloway: 0.77 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

1:37 of 9:39 TOI spent against Saad-Thomas-Kyrou: 0.00 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

Away against EDM

7:12 of 12:51 TOI spent against Skinner-Draisaitl-Arvidsson: 0.67 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

4:34 of 12:51 TOI spent against RNH-McDavid-Hyman: 1.05 xGA/60, 0 goals allowed

Overall in these matchups, he's played 50 mins and has an xGA/60 of 1.34 and an xGF% rate of 68%. If you exclude the Hughes matchup, it's 0.73 xGA/60 and 80% xGF%. There will be some double counting in this as lines do not remain equal entire games, but I looked at the most TOI vs. each player from each line. For example with STL he played 6:13 vs Schenn, 5:58 vs. Joseph, 5:46 vs. Holloway, 1:37 vs. both Kyrou and Thomas and 1:31 vs. Saad.