The Chicago Blackhawks are in Raleigh on Monday night for their only away game in February to take on the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes are having another very good season, sitting second in the Metropolitan Division with a 32-17-5 record. They’re also coming off a 3-1 road win against the Vegas Golden Knights, a victory that capped off a three-game Western Conference road trip where they went 2-1-0. This helped improve their 10-game record to 7-3-0, a span in which they’ve outscored their opponents 29-18. This isn’t surprising: not only are the Hurricanes one of the best shot metric teams in the league at 5-on-5 with a 59.80 percent shot attempt share (first in the league) and 55.84 percent expected goals share (third), their special teams are also excellent with the third-ranked power play (27.8 percent) and penalty kill (84.9 percent). Talk about a well-rounded team.
Sebastian Aho easily leads the Hurricanes in goals (19) and points (57), but Seth Jarvis has been gaining on him at an almost point-per-game pace since mid-December and now has 44 points (18 G, 16 A) in 54 games. He also has four points (2 G, 1 A) in his last three games. Andrei Svechnikov is second on the team in terms of point-per-game, going 0.94 in 33 games. Rounding out the top-six most productive forwards for Carolina are Martin Necas (38 points), Teuvo Teravainen (35), and Michael Bunting (33). On the back end, it’s Brent Burns and Brady Skjei, both with 30 points, that are contributing the most to offense.
The Hurricanes will likely run similar lines as in the Vegas game, and it’s interesting to note where Teravainen is in this lineup:
Despite Frederik Andersen — who has been out since early November with a blood clotting issue — being in the starter’s crease at Monday’s morning skate, reports indicate that he isn’t going to start against Chicago. Instead, Spencer Martin will likely be in for his third NHL game this season: he’s 2-0-0 with a .948 save percentage in his two previous games.
The Blackhawks are also coming off a victory, a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday that snapped an eight-game losing streak. Their 10-game record and goal differential is practically the inverse of Carolina’s: they’ve gone 2-7-1 while being outscored 29-16. Yikes. And despite the most recent win, the game Monday is on the road where the Blackhawks have been especially poor, coming in with a 20-game road losing streak. Double yikes. The Blackhawks will have to hope they can take advantage of the Hurricanes coming off what was likely a tiring road trip.
The other bright side is that Connor Bedard pretty much stepped right back into being the most important skater for the Blackhawks, earning one goal and two assists in the three games since his return from injury. Petr Mrazek is also coming off yet another great outing, stopping 40 of 42 shots against Ottawa to pull off the win. Philipp Kurashev picked up two assists in the win — bringing his total to a team-leading 20 — and Nick Foligno added the other goal in the game.
In lineup news, Anthony Beauvillier took rushes on the second line with Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson on Monday morning, likely indicating he’s finally ready to play. The bottom-six was shuffled around a little as a result, and Zach Stanford was on the outside looking in — not surprising when he played less than nine minutes last game.
Mrazek is expected to be the starter against Carolina:
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Hurricanes
44.07% (31st) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 59.80% (1st)
42.32% (31st) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 55.84% (3rd)
2.07 (32nd) — Goals per game — 3.33 (12th)
3.49 (27th) — Goals against per game — 2.81 (30th)
45.7% (31st) — Faceoffs — 52.3% (7th)
12.2% (32nd) — Power play — 27.8% (3rd)
77.5% (t-23rd) — Penalty kill — 84.9% (3rd)
How to watch
When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: PNC Arena, Raleigh, NC
TV: NBC Sports Chicago
Webstream: NBC Sports APP, ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720