Heads up, this game starts at an odd time
3:00 PM ET Morning Skate update
The Canes will in fact go with Tokarski in net tonight. Is it because he gets to face his old mates, is it trying to save some tread on Kochetkov, is it about sending a message to PK after the OT winner? All are valid answers, but no matter what it is, when the Canes return to the ice in Raleigh on Friday against the Golden Knights, Kochetkov will be coming off four days free of playing. We’ll see how he looks.
The rest of the lines haven’t changed, so it looks like for now Smith is insurance in case another defenseman gets hurt.
It looks like Eric Robinson won’t be the only one facing a former team of his tonight, as Dustin Tokarski is the first goalie off the ice at #Canes morning skate in Buffalo.
In his most recent appearance, the veteran backstop had a 14-save shutout over Vancouver.
No surprises… pic.twitter.com/ZwmtC1xrEY
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) January 15, 2025
After a mostly satisfying homestand to start January that saw the Canes take seven out of a possible ten points in Raleigh—and really wasn’t it fitting on Eric Staal night that the team came back to force overtime only to lose?—the team hits the road for a quick trip to Buffalo tonight before another home weekend and then a midwestern sojourn.
Amazingly, leading into Sunday the Canes had played eight games in the span of thirteen days, and the wear was clearly beginning to show by the end. They started late against Toronto, and then just absolutely ground the game down against Vancouver. Anaheim was the big beneficiary, getting two on the board before the Canes were able to rally on Sunday.
Such is the reality of the NHL schedule that has a slow crawl in the first couple of months and then really packs it all in once you get past the halfway point. Having to make up the game in Tampa a week ago also didn’t exactly help the energy.
Still, there is a lot of good that came out of the home stand as the Canes head into Buffalo tonight. Perhaps topping that list is how some of the stars for the team appear to be reemerging. Sebastian Aho has four points in his last five games, Seth Jarvis has four goals in his last five, and Andrei Svechnikov has points in five straight, including goals in three of his last five. The team also welcomed back Shayne Gostisbehere on Sunday and the first Power Play unit looked instantly better.
Martin Necas even turned his hair back blonde, and maybe it’s doing the trick as he assisted in both goals on Sunday. Now if he could just score a goal for the first time since the game against Florida. That said he’s only three points short of meeting his entire production from last season, and just 21 short of matching the 71 he put up in the 2023 season. Perspective helps everything.
Tonight the opponent is the Buffalo Sabres for the first time this season. It’s so odd they are done with the likes of New Jersey who they play four times in this season and yet they still haven’t faced the Sabres who they’ll play three. Make it make sense.
The Sabres come into the matchup last in the Eastern Conference standings, and only seven points ahead of last place in the entire league. They still haven’t fully recovered from the thirteen game winless streak that had them the wrong kind of talk in the NHL earlier this season. That was on display in their last game as they were coming off a two game winning streak and went up 2-0 early against Seattle before giving up six straight to lose 6-2. The final goal came with an empty net, had coach Lindy Ruff using “unacceptable” a lot, and had the Buffalo crowd chanting “Fire Adams” at their current GM and former Hurricane Kevyn Adams. So things are going well.
The Sabres are lead in goal scoring this season by Tage Thompson, who already has 19 on the season, but to speak to just how rough of a season it’s been he’s coming off a -4 performance against the Kraken. Three other Sabres have cracked double digits in goals—JJ Peterka, Jason Zucker, and Alex Tuch. Oh, and the guy drafted ahead of Svechnikov in 2018? Rasmus Dahlin only has six goals but leads the team with a whopping 25 assists which is more than all but two of the Canes. He’s also +2 which is a good stat for a top defenseman on a bad team.
Buffalo is likely to start Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen in goal. He has been as up and down as the team. He’s 13-13-4, and his last two games were a shutout to Ottawa and the five goals allowed to Seattle. Which version will the Canes see tonight?
We’ll see if the Canes switch anything up against the Sabres. They did officially put goalie Frederick Andersen on IR Tuesday, with the goal of opening up a roster spot and bringing back up Ty Smith. In the meantime, there are, uh, plenty of tickets are available, but that could have something to do with the start time as much as the product on the ice. Take note of both that and where you can watch the game tonight, as the Canes are actually on cable, plus a streaming service more people have. As a bonus, no, he won’t be doing color for this one. That crew will be in Minnesota for the Wild against the Oilers, likely the reason this one has such an odd face off time.
- Time: ***6:00 PM ET***
- Location: KeyBank Center, Buffalo, NY
- TV/Streaming: TNT/Tru TV on cable, streaming on Max. Brendan Burke will handle play-by-play while Jennifer Botterill and Shane Hnidy will do the analysis.
- Radio: 99.9 The Fan. Buffalo native Mike Maniscalco will handle play-by-play while Tripp Tracy will do color as only he can.
- Line: ML: CAR -185; PL: CAR -1.5 +140