The Hurricanes look to get the win out of the visitors from Canada’s capital.
The Carolina Hurricanes are back at home on Saturday night for a showdown with the Ottawa Senators.
This contest comes after wrapping up a three-game road trip. The Hurricanes returned to Raleigh for Friday’s practice and Saturday’s morning skate, preparing the team for a back-to-back weekend at home.
The Senators are continuing to push for renewed relevancy as they attempt to climb out of a years-long hole of mediocrity, and they enter tonight’s game at 8-7-1 in mixed form of late.
The Sens fell to the Flyers at home on Thursday night in overtime, but prior to that had rattled off back-to-back wins against Atlantic division rivals from Boston and Toronto.
Ottawa is led by Tim Stutzle’s 21 points in 16 games, while Brady Tkachuk (19 points) and Drake Batherson (16) have proven productive as well. Claude Giroux’s late career renaissance continues near his hometown, as he’s been good for 12 points.
The Hurricanes are in somewhat of a bind in net, as Rod Brind’Amour described Frederik Andersen’s status as “way longer” than the previous week-to-week categorization, while Pyotr Kochetkov is also sidelined for at least this contest.
That means Spencer Martin will have the night tonight with recent call-up Yaniv Perets serving as his backup for the time being.
Martin Necas still has his point streak rolling at 11 games, so whether he can push that to 12 will be a big story to watch tonight. Something else to keep an eye on: the play of Sebastian Aho. He has 14 points in 15 games, so it’s encouraging to see his production still high, but the level of play has not been quite where it needs to be to drive the Hurricanes’ first line and top power play unit.
Look for Aho to be more aggressive in shot/pass decisions to try to find a spark, because if he finds his game, that production looks poised to shoot up in a big way.
Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM at Lenovo Center in Raleigh.