Jordan Staal out for Hurricanes vs. Flyers with injury

Earlier in the afternoon, it looked like a quiet night for lineup news. Rod Brind'Amour named his goalie and said nothing else was changing.

Walt Ruff

@WaltRuff

Pyotr Kochetkov starts tonight for the #Canes in Philadelphia. Kochetkov is 2-0 this season, including a 16-save win against the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena last Saturday. No lineup changes in front of him, per Rod Brind'Amour.

That changed before puck drop. Staal is out with a lower-body injury, and the lines that showed up on the broadcast look different from the ones Carolina had been rolling. The team's own projected lineup for tonight had Staal centering Nikolaj Ehlers and Jordan Martinook on the 3rd line, with Jankowski in the middle of the 4th between Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Eric Robinson. Nic Deslauriers was listed as a healthy scratch.

Walt Ruff

@WaltRuff

Per the broadcast, here's how the #Canes will look without Jordan Staal (lower-body injury), tonight in Philly — Carrier - Aho - Svechnikov Hall - Stankoven - Blake Ehlers - Jankowski - Martinook Robinson - Kotkaniemi - Deslauriers Slavin - Chatfield Miller - Walker Gostisbehere - Reilly Kochetkov

So here's the shuffle. Jankowski moves up to take Staal's spot between Ehlers and Martinook. Kotkaniemi goes back to center on the 4th line with Robinson, and Deslauriers comes out of the press box to play the other wing. The top 6 doesn't change. Carrier-Aho-Svechnikov stays together, and so does Hall-Stankoven-Blake, which put up 2 goals and 4 points in Chicago last night. The defense pairs and Kochetkov are the same as planned.

Losing Staal hurts more than his stat line shows. He's the guy Brind'Amour sends out for the hard defensive minutes, and the Canes even use him on the power play just to take the faceoff. If he wins it, he stays out. Once the puck leaves the zone, he heads to the bench and Ehlers takes his place with the 1st unit. Someone else is taking those draws tonight, and on the 2nd night of a back-to-back, that matters.

Carolina was already playing without Seth Jarvis, who's hurt, so this is the 2nd regular forward out of the lineup. They're still rolling, though. The Canes have won 4 straight, the last one coming in Chicago last night. Sebastian Aho leads the team with 5 goals and 9 points and has a 5-game point streak going, and 2 of those goals came the last time these teams met.

That meeting was 8 days ago in this same building, and Kochetkov had an easy night, making 16 saves in the win. He's 2-0 so far. Philly got pushed around last time, and now they see a Carolina lineup that's a little thinner down the middle.

Next up is finding out how bad this is. The Canes have only called it a lower-body injury, with no timeline yet. If Staal misses more time, Jankowski becomes a real 3rd-line center instead of a fill-in, and Carolina's center depth gets tested this early in the season. For one night, though, Brind'Amour's answer is to move Jankowski up, put Deslauriers in, and leave the top 6 alone.