Carolina Hurricanes vs. Winnipeg Jets: Game Preview and Storm Advisory

The Hurricanes look to keep up in the playoff race as they take on one of the Western Conference’s best in the Winnipeg Jets tonight in Raleigh on the front half of a back-to-back set.

Game Notes

• The Hurricanes and Jets face each other for the second and final time this season, just about a year to the day after their last meeting in Raleigh. On October 14, the Jets took a 3-1 win to hand Carolina its first regulation loss of the season. Micheal Ferland scored the Hurricanes’ only goal.
• Carolina is 50-28-7 with four ties all-time against the Jets franchise, and 22-17-4 with one tie at home. However, most of that history came when the Jets were the Atlanta Thrashers, and since the move to Winnipeg the Canes have been much less successful: 7-10-3 overall, and 3-6-1 on home ice since the 2011-12 season.
• Sebastian Aho is on a four-game goal streak, the second-longest of his career, and he can tie a career high by scoring a goal tonight.
• Trevor van Riemsdyk will play in the 300th game of his career tonight. 141 of those have come with the Hurricanes after he moved from Chicago in the expansion draft shuffle during the 2017 offseason.
• Tonight is the Canes’ 14th back to back of the season, and they have three more following this one. They’re middling in the first game, going 5-5-3, but have been strong in the back halves, going 9-3-1. Hopefully tonight the third jersey bump will help them improve their first-game record; the Canes are 10-1-2 in their black threads this season.
• As has become customary late in the season, the Canes will not skate this morning. Ferland is unlikely to play after suffering an upper-body injury in Boston on Tuesday, and Petr Mrazek is in line to make the start in goal.

Storm Advisory

• Rod Brind’Amour will face, in back-to-back games, his first coach with Carolina and the one with whom he won the Stanley Cup. Paul Maurice says that Brind’Amour’s success comes as no surprise to him. [News and Observer]
• Justin Williams joined Sportsnet yesterday to discuss - what else? - the Bunch of Jerks and Don Cherry’s beloved celebrations. [Sportsnet (video)]
• Meet Bill Burniston, the Canes’ strength and conditioning coach, who is a mountain of a man and presumably the perfect person to head up the weight room for a Rod Brind’Amour-coached team:

• Curtis McElhinney will be sporting some new pads the next time he plays (from his Instagram story):

• Islanders coach Barry Trotz captured his 800th career win earlier in the week when the Isles beat the Senators in a shootout. The road to get there started in Nashville in 1998, with a win over...yep, you guessed it, the Carolina Hurricanes. [The Athletic ($)

Stalking the Standings

The Hurricanes got as much help as they could last night from the Penguins and Sharks. Sure, the ideal outcome would have been for a meteor to strike and neither team to get two points, but barring that, the Penguins did the Hurricanes a favor by keeping the Blue Jackets at bay and avoiding muddying up the race any more.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens, who have a Hurricanes-in-Vancouver-style streak of futility in San Jose, predictably fell to the Sharks, so they remain tied with the Canes on points but Carolina now has two games in hand on them. They won’t fall out of a playoff spot tonight no matter what happens, since Columbus does not play until tomorrow.

• Metro 1: Washington Capitals: 67 GP, 85 points, 104 pt pace, 35 ROW
• Metro 2: New York Islanders: 67 GP, 85 points, 104 pt pace, 35 ROW
• Metro 3: Pittsburgh Penguins: 67 GP, 81 points, 99 pt pace, 35 ROW
• WC 1: Carolina Hurricanes: 66 GP, 79 points, 98 pt pace, 35 ROW
• WC 2: Montreal Canadiens: 68 GP, 79 points, 95 pt pace, 34 ROW
• 9th: Columbus Blue Jackets: 67 GP, 77 points, 94 pt pace, 36 ROW
• 10th: Philadelphia Flyers: 67 GP, 72 points, 88 pt pace, 30 ROW

Tonight’s Rooting Guide

• Hurricanes over Jets (duh)
• Ducks over Canadiens
• Devils over Capitals, just in case the Canes still have designs on a Division title