It’s a new day; yes it is.
Welcome to the first day of a new chapter in Carolina Hurricanes hockey.
A day after acquiring superstar winger Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche and former first overall pick and Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks, the Hurricanes are in Elmont to take on the surging New York Islanders.
There has been no official confirmation that Rantanen and Hall will be in the lineup today, but there have also been no call-ups from Chicago to fill the vacant forward spots left by the departures of Martin Necas and Jack Drury to Colorado.
The Avalanche are set to take on the Boston Bruins today, so it would follow that he’d be able to make the short trip from Boston to New York in time to be available, but we’ll see as more information becomes available.
As far as the opposition, the Islanders are playing easily their best hockey of the season at a time when they desperately needed it.
They’ve won three in a row, taking advantage of a soft portion of their schedule with victories over San Jose, Columbus, and Philadelphia. That streak was preceded by a two-game skid against Ottawa and Philadelphia, but they swept a tough three game road trip before that at Boston, Vegas, and Utah.
Overall, they’ve won six of their last eight games to get back to NHL .500 at 20-20-7. They’re still facing a huge uphill battle to make the playoffs this season, though, as they are only better than Pittsburgh and Buffalo by points percentage in the East.
In terms of points, they’re six behind the Blue Jackets for the second wild card spot with two games in hand.
Part of New York’s success has come via a newfound division of labor in net between Ilya Sorokin and Marcus Hogberg, who has excelled filling in for Semyon Varlamov to the tune of a .952 save percentage this season.
Sorokin had the net in last night’s Islander win over the Flyers, so look for Hogberg to man the cage tonight.
The Islanders are without top defenseman Noah Dobson with an injury, and they signed former Hurricane Tony DeAngelo to a one-year deal yesterday to help fill the void on their blue line.
DeAngelo is subject to waivers because he played overseas this season, but if he clears come 2:00 PM, he could potentially be in the lineup against his former team this evening.
Bo Horvat and Anders Lee share the team lead in scoring with 36 points apiece.
There’s no morning skate for the Hurricanes today, but we’ll hear from Rod Brind’Amour at 5:15 to find out about the lineup and plans in goal.
Here’s how to check out the action:
- Time: 7:30 PM ET
- Location: UBS Arena, Elmont, NY
- 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 -192; PL: CAR -1.5 +140