Hurricanes @ Jets: Preview and Game Thread

The Carolina Hurricanes (6-1-1) begin their annual “State Fair road trip” with a match against the Winnipeg Jets (4-1-2) on Saturday afternoon.

The Canes have won six games in a row and have looked good doing it. Sebastian Aho with 13 points (6G 7A), Andrei Svechnikov 11 points (6G 5A), and Mark Jankowski are each red hot for the visiting team. Jankowski has a career high five game scoring streak going.

While everything seems rosy for Carolina, they are facing some adversity. Captain Jordan Staal has missed two games due to an injury and is supposed to be out for at least a month. Taylor Hall suffered an injury in the last game against the Capitals and only played four minutes. He is being listed as “week to week”.

To offset the injuries, the Hurricanes have recalled their top forward prospects, Bradly Nadeau and Felix Unger Sorem. Look for both youngsters to see action in this one. In practice on Friday, the lines looked as follows as reported by Ryan:

Those are three completely new lines for the Hurricanes so it will be interesting to see how they do. I predict that coach Brind’Amour will not hesitate to mix up the lines if he feels the need.

Goalie, Pyotr Kochetkov has yet to lose, (4-0-0) this season and will most likely see action between the pipes. His save percentage is a respectable .911.

The team will not hold a morning skate with the early start time so we will go with these practice lines.

The Winnipeg Jets are enduring the holdout by superstar goalie, Connor Hellebuyck. While the most recent Hellebuyck rumor is interesting, the Jets are not waiting around and they are playing good hockey.

https://heavy.com/sports/nhl/winnipeg-jets/connor-hellebuyck-landing-spot-gaining-steam/

The Jets are third in the Central Division (4-1-2) but they are coming off a recent overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. They do have wins over the Avs and Wild though.

They are led by Kyle Connor, (8G 3A) and Cole Perfetti, (5G 3A). Stuart Skinner has been their main man in net. He has a 3-0-2 record with a .906 save percentage.

The game has an early start time of 3:30 PM Eastern. Look for it on Prime Video, Spectrum and your usual alternatives. 99.9 The Fan will broadcast on the radio.