After two days off following their 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, the Carolina Hurricanes are back in action as they look to get back into the win column. The Hurricanes are 3-1-0 on their current North Carolina State Fair road trip, and their penultimate stop brings them to Denver, Colorado. In the Mile High City showdown, they’ll face the Colorado Avalanche, who are 5-0-2 in seven games this season. Can the Hurricanes get back to winning ways, or will the Avalanche stay unbeaten?
Hurricanes vs. Avalanche Preview
The Hurricanes head into the first of two games against the Avalanche this season, and both games will have something extra to them. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Avalanche announced that they would be wearing Quebec Nordiques jerseys for the first time since relocation. Furthermore, they will be wearing them twice against the Hurricanes on Thursday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Jan. 3 in Raleigh. In a subsequent announcement, the Hurricanes will wear their Hartford Whalers jerseys in an old-school Adams Division throwback. All of that being said, here is where you can watch or listen to Thursday night’s game:
Watch: FanDuel Sports Network South (Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy)
Listen: 99.9 The Fan
Puck Drop: 9:00 p.m. Eastern
The Hurricanes are looking to make adjustments from the loss in Las Vegas and get back to their game against the Avalanche on Thursday night. Despite the loss, Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho kept their point streak alive, which is now at six games. Jarvis leads the team in goals (six) and points (nine), while Aho leads in assists (six). The former also leads in game-winning goals (four) and overtime goals (two), while showing no signs of slowing down. This is Jarvis’ best start in his career, and it’s only six games into his fifth NHL season. He, along with Aho, have been the main cogs in the offense for the Hurricanes to start the season, but are getting some depth scoring from Jordan Staal, Taylor Hall, Eric Robinson, K’Andre Miller and others. Hall, Miller, and Jordan Martinook have four points each through six games.
Related: Hurricanes Notebook: Whalers Throwback Jerseys & No Gostisbehere
One of their other big contributors is Shayne Gostisbehere, who has seven points, leading all Hurricanes defensemen. However, following a lower-body injury back on Oct. 18 against the Los Angeles Kings, he was sent back to Raleigh to recover. The hope is that he will be ready to go when the team is back in North Carolina following their last game of the road trip on Saturday, Oct. 25 versus the Dallas Stars. They’ve already been without Jaccob Slavin, and are now down their best offensive defenseman. The rest of the road trip will see how the Hurricanes can overcome a decimated blue line against two top teams out of the Western Conference in the Avalanche and the Stars.
Luckily for the Hurricanes, they are second in goals per game (4.00) in the NHL, while also ninth in goals allowed per game (2.50). Furthermore, their penalty kill is still top 10 in the league (89.5% – sixth), so that should hopefully help hold off the potent offenses they’ll see in the next couple of games. However, their power play is still struggling, which is second to last in the league at 9.5%. Against the Avalanche’s penalty kill, which is 10th in the NHL at 83.3%, it’ll be a mountain to climb to get a goal on the man advantage. It’ll be interesting to see who the Hurricanes will turn to in goal on Thursday night, but with two days off, it would not be surprising to see Frederik Andersen in the net for Rod Brind’Amour’s team.
Regarding the Avalanche, while on paper their power play is only at 11.5% (30th), it’s clear how close they are to scoring goals; they just can’t finish. When a team has Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Gabriel Landeskog, etc., eventually that will get rolling like the rest of what the team is made of.
Necas leads the Avalanche in assists (six) and points (11), while also being one of four players who are a plus-9 in seven games. While Necas leads in two of those categories, it’s no surprise that MacKinnion leads the team in goals (six), with Necas (five) and Makar (three) right behind him. The speed and scoring threat of MacKinnon and Necas could make things interesting for a Hurricanes’ defense that is without the best defensive defenseman in the NHL in Slavin. Also, it does not help that they have four new players on the blue line to their system (Mike Reilly, Charles Alexis Legault, Alexander Nikishin, and Miller) who have played a total of 10 games or fewer.
Related: Seth Jarvis’ Early-Season Impact Will Be a Catalyst for Hurricanes’ Success
The Avalanche are sixth in the NHL for goals per game (3.43) and are first in goals allowed per game (1.86). After scoring only one goal against the Golden Knights, the Hurricanes will have to dig deep and require help from their depth to contribute to a win on Thursday night. While Jarvis and Aho are both on a six-game point streak, they will need a total team effort against an unbeaten team in regulation in the Avalanche who are looking for an eight-game point streak. So far, Scott Wedgewood has played all seven games for the Avalanche carrying a 5-0-2 record with a 1.84 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage. This will be their first true test against one of the hottest goalies in the league.
In what could be a potential Stanley Cup preview, this will be a game featuring system versus system in the Hurricanes and Avalanche. The former is a more defensive team going up against a high-speed run-and-gun offense from the Rocky Mountains. Plus, we got the best jersey showdown of the season between the white Whalers jerseys and the light blue fleur de Lis Nordiques jerseys. This will be must-watch hockey on Thursday night between the Hurricanes and Avalanche. Who will come out on top in the weather phenomenon showdown?
