Carolina Hurricanes vs. Los Angeles Kings: Game Preview

The Carolina Hurricanes are at it again with the whole being the hottest team in the world thing.

After breaking franchise records for point and win streaks through November and December, the Canes are looking to end January on another impressive streak. The Canes head into Tuesday’s tilt with the Los Angeles Kings on an eight-game point streak and a five-game win streak, the most recent of which was a 4-1 win over the league-leading Boston Bruins.

The Canes are hot. Sebastian Aho is maybe even hotter, with goals in four straight games and 14 points over the team’s last 10 games. He’s got 10 goals in the month of January, as his elite play has been a catalyst for another lengthy winning streak for the Canes.

On the other bench Tuesday will be the Kings, who currently hold the third playoff spot in the Pacific Division, two points clear of the Oilers (though with two more games played). On Tuesday in Raleigh, they’ll wrap up a six-game East Coast trip. So far, they’re 3-2-0 on the journey.

Game Notes

• Carolina is 38-35-8-3 against the Kings overall, with a 23-13-5-1 mark at home and 18-12-2-3 mark since relocation. In the first game this year, Brent Burns, Martin Necas and Pyotr Kochetkov powered the Canes to a 4-2 win.
• Speaking of Burns, he leads all active NHL players with 33 assists against the Kings.
• Burns, Aho and Necas enter Tuesday’s game on streaks. Aho has a goal in four straight, Burns has a point in five straight and Necas has a point in three straight.
• Speaking of Necas, he’s two assists shy of 100 in the NHL.
• As already mentioned, Aho is on absolute fire. He’s got 14 points in the last 10 games, and his four-game goal streak is the longest by any Hurricane since Jordan Staal did it in February of 2021. Aho’s 10 goals in January are also third most in the NHL this month and the second-most in a single month in his NHL career. Aho is also one goal shy of tying Jeff Skinner for fifth-most in franchise history and second-most since relocation.
• All three goalies that have played for the Canes this year (Frederik Andersen, Antti Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov) have reached double digits in wins. That makes the Canes just the 14th team in NHL history to have three goalies reach 10 wins in a single season.