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The Hurricanes head south for the final game of the road trip tonight, facing the Dallas Stars before returning home to take on the Lightning on Tuesday. American Airlines Center has been a house of horrors for the Canes, who have won there just once - in 2014 - in the 20 years since the team moved to North Carolina, and since the Stars moved south in 1993 the franchise is a miserable 2-9-4 with one tie in Big D.
Here’s how the teams enter tonight:
Vital Statistics
| Category | Hurricanes | Bruins |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Hurricanes | Bruins |
| Record | 8-6 | 11-5 |
| Goals/Game | 2.79 | 3.31 |
| Goals Against/Game | 2.71 | 2.06 |
| Shots/Game | 30.9 | 34.3 |
| Faceoff % | 49.1% | 53.3% |
| Power Play % (Rank) | 10.0% (14) | 31.9% (1) |
| Penalty Kill % (Rank) | 70.8% (14) | 85.7% (4) |
| ES Corsi For % | 55.61% | 51.66% |
| ES PDO | 101.2% | 101.0 |
| PIM/Game | 8:38 | 6:30 |
Goaltender #1
| Category | Petr Mrazek | Tuukka Rask |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Petr Mrazek | Tuukka Rask |
| Record | 5-5 | 11-5 |
| Save % | .894 | .939 |
| GAA | 2.73 | 1.96 |
Goaltender #2
| Category | Curtis McElhinney | Jaroslav Halak |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Curtis McElhinney | Jaroslav Halak |
| Record | 3-1 | 0-0 |
| Save % | .943 | N/A |
| GAA | 1.70 | N/A |
Game Notes
- Jeff Skinner and Tyler Seguin were drafted five slots apart in the 2010 NHL Draft, and the two are the fastest players to reach 500 games played from that draft class, Skinner doing so on October 14 in Winnipeg.
- More Skinner milestones: with one more point, he’ll hit 335 for his career and will pass Ray Whitney for sixth place on the Canes’ top scorers list since relocation. Skinner is also sitting on 20 goals in his last 24 games, a scoring rate matched only by the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov.
- A win tonight will give the Canes their best start to a season since 2007, when they started 4-1-1.
- Historically, Ben Bishop has owned the Canes. He’s 7-1-1 all-time against Carolina, all of which came while he was a member of the Lightning, and the only blemishes on his record are an overtime loss last December (the Phil Di Giuseppe game) and a regulation loss in January of 2015, both at PNC Arena. He’s flawless at home in his career against the Hurricanes.
- Jaccob Slavin is averaging 24:57 of ice time per game and has been either right at or above 25 minutes in each of his last two games. Slavin trails only John Carlson and Kris Letang among Metro Division players in ice time, and is 14th among all players in the NHL.
Storm Advisory
- Remember the guy at a Carolina Panthers game who punched another fan in the face? Leave it to the Checkers to turn that black eye to their advantage, releasing a safety video that’s anything but your standard boilerplate announcement. [News and Observer]
- The Triangle Special Hockey Association Sled Hockey program is holding a raffle fundraiser with a grand prize of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a gas tank signed by all members of the 2006 Stanley Cup championship team. $20 to enter and proceeds benefit the Sled Canes. [TSHA]
- @Cane_alytics takes a look at some of the early-season stat trends, including a surprising evaluation for a guy who had a four-point night a few days ago. [Section 328]
- What are some quick fixes for a few of the league’s slow starters this season? Spoiler: one of them involves firing Marc Bergevin, to no one’s surprise. [ESPN]