The Canes take their winning streak on the road.
The Carolina Hurricanes take their eight-game winning streak on the road. The first stop on a three-game Western road trip is Denver, Colorado.
Colorado is off to a disappointing start to the season. The Avalanche are below 500 and are three points behind Utah for the final wild-card spot in the West.
Colorado started the season with four straight losses. The team rebounded with five straight wins, but a three-game losing streak followed. The Aves have won just one of their past five games.
Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev has struggled this season. Georgiev was Colorado’s workhorse last season, starting 62 regular season games and all 11 of the Avalanche’s playoff games.
This season, Georgiev has started seven games and has a 1-5-0 record. He has a 4.05 goals against average and a .847 save percentage.
As such, Georgiev has lost his status as Colorado’s number one goalie. Justus Annunen, a 24-year-old Finn, is the likely starter tonight.
Annunen has compiled a 5-2-0 record with a 2.64 goals against average and .894 save percentage.
Colorado allows many goals, both at even strength and on the kill. The Aves allow the second-most goals per game in the league, and the penalty kill ranks 29th in the NHL.
Injuries are another contributing factor to the sluggish start for Colorado.
Of course, Gabriel Landeskog remains sidelined with his knee injury. There are reports that the Colorado captain suffered another setback in his rehab. Landeskog has not played since winning the Stanley Cup on June 26, 2022.
Valeri Nichushkin is still in the NHL/NHLPA Assistance Program, but is expected to return to the lineup next week.
Jonathan Drouin has been on the injured reserve since suffering an upper-body injury in the season opener.
The biggest blow to the Avalanche this season was Ross Colton’s injury on October 28. Colton broke his foot and is expected to miss six to eight weeks.
Prior to Colton’s injury, he was on Colorado’s top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.
But even with these defensive struggles, some elements of Colorado’s game remain the same.
MacKinnon and Cale Makar rank second and third in the league in scoring. MacKinnon leads the NHL in assists, and Makar has the most goals and assists among defensemen.
The power play is the opposite of the penalty kill. The Avalanche have the league’s second-best power play, scoring over 36 percent of the time.
Unsurprisingly, MacKinnon and Makar are tied for the league lead in power play points.
Needless to say, the Carolina penalty kill must bring their A-game tonight.
The Canes were delayed getting to Denver due to snow. With this disruption in the schedule, Carolina must avoid a slow start.
The encouraging thing about this eight-game winning streak is that the Hurricanes have found different ways to win. Tonight may be no different.
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour said that Spencer Martin will get a start during this road trip, but tonight Pyotr Kochetkov should be between the pipes.
Colorado is second only to Carolina in Corsi percentage, and rank fifth in five-on-five expected goals percentage.
Kochetkov has won six straight games. Stay with the hot hand.
Speaking of hot hands, there are a lot of Canes rolling right now.
The team’s leading scorer, Martin Necas, has an eight-game point streak. In those eight games, he has tallied 18 points.
Jack Roslovic has six goals in the past five games and leads the team with nine.
Andrei Svechnikov has nine points in the last seven games, and fellow Russian Dmitry Orlov has five points in the last four games.
In the win over Pittsburgh, Jalen Chatfield tallied three assists for the first three-point night of his career.
The Hurricanes have been road warriors this season. Let’s see this streak continue.
Here’s how to check out the action:
- Time: 9:00 PM ET
- Location: Ball Arena, Denver, CO
- TV: FanDuel Sports Network South with Mike Maniscalco, play-by-play; Tripp Tracy, color analyst; Hanna Yates, in-game reporter; Shane Willis, analyst.
- Radio: 99.9 The Fan
- Line: ML: CAR -130; PL: CAR -1.5 +185