The Carolina Hurricanes wrapped up the month of October with a 7-3-0 record, following their 6-2 win over the New York Islanders on Thursday, Oct. 30. Their first game of November will take a trip to Boston to face the Bruins for the first time during the 2025-26 season. Winners in recent games, who will come out on top in the second month of the season?
Hurricanes vs. Bruins Preview
The Hurricanes look to carry their momentum into November as they face the Bruins, who’ve won their last two games against the Buffalo Sabres and the Islanders. Despite losing six games in a row, the home side is 3-1-0 over its last four games. Games between the Hurricanes are always intense, and Saturday afternoon’s game (Nov. 1) will be no different. Here is where you can watch or listen to Saturday afternoon’s game:
Watch: FanDuel Sports Network South (Mike Maniscalco & Tripp Tracy)
Listen: 99.9 The Fan
Puck Drop: 1:00 p.m. Eastern
Andrei Svechnikov has been on a scoring run as of late, tallying goals in back-to-back games, after being held pointless through the first eight games of the season. Svechnikov, with Jordan Martinook and Jordan Staal, has been a tough line for teams to face recently after the injuries to William Carrier and Eric Robinson.
Adding the power forward left-winger to a hard-hitting, hard-nose line like Staal and Martinook has opened scoring for that trio. Outside of shutting down the biggest assignments, the third line now has a combined 13 points, most of it recently, after Sevchnikov joined the line and has gotten rolling.
Related: Hurricanes Finish October With 6-2 Win Over Islanders
The second line of Jackson Blake and Logan Stankoven has been a driving force to round out the top six behind Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis, and the surging Nikolaj Ehlers. Blake is now up to three goals and eight points, while Stankoven is up to four goals and seven points in ten games for the Hurricanes. Bradly Nadeau scored his first NHL goal against the Islanders, while Brandon Bussi secured his first point and third win in four career games.
The Hurricanes have felt comfortable enough with Bussi to reassign Pyotr Kochetov to the Chicago Wolves after being activated from injured reserve on Oct. 31. It shows how much confidence the team has in the 27-year-old rookie netminder from Long Island.
The Bruins have won back-to-back games; however, it’s been an up-and-down start to the season as they’re 6-7-0 through the first 13 games. David Pastrnak has seven goals and 17 points for the Bruins, but also has a minus-5 rating. Former Hurricanes forward Morgan Geekie has been on a hot start to 2025-26 as he’s tallied nine goals and 11 points, but is also carrying a minus-5. Pavel Zacha has two goals and 11 points, while sporting an even rating.
In the net, Jeremy Swayman has a 3-4-0 record with a 3.45 goals-against average (GAA) and a .886 save percentage (SV%). Backup Joonas Korpisalo is 3-3-0 with a 3.49 GAA and a .882 SV%. However, when the goalies have seen a combined 389 shots in 13 games, it’s a long night for the netminders. It also doesn’t help when Nikita Zadorov is the only plus defenseman on the blue line (plus-4) and everyone else is even or a minus.
Related: Seth Jarvis’ Early-Season Impact Will Be a Catalyst for Hurricanes’ Success
When it comes down to it, the Bruins are a middle-of-the-road special teams unit, while being bottom half in 5-on-5 play. Regarding the power play and the penalty kill, the Bruins are 13th on the man advantage (22.2%), while they’re 15th on the penalty kill (81.5%). In terms of goals for per game and goals against, they’re ranked 16th, scoring 3.31, and allowing 3.62 on average for 26th in the NHL.
Compared to the Hurricanes, they’re first in goals for (3.90) and 14th in goals against (3.00). It’s no surprise that the Hurricanes are the better 5-on-5 team, as they usually have been for the last few seasons. However, their power play is still 32nd in the NHL (9.7%), while their penalty kill is still rock solid, being 13th ranked (82.1%). It may not be the top three like usual, but it’s still in the top half of the league without Jaccob Slavin in the lineup.
As per usual, it’ll come down to special teams and who can win that battle between the Bruins and the Hurricanes. The visitors are a better 5-on-5 team and hope to control the tempo while forcing the Bruins to play their game. The home side is better overall on the special teams, and will try to rely on that more and make the Hurricanes be on the penalty kill more than they like to be. It’ll be an interesting matchup between two teams who are familiar with each other. Be ready for fireworks to kick off November.
