Columbus has the shorter turnaround. The Jackets played an overtime game on the road in Philadelphia and get 1 day off before Raleigh. Carolina gets the same day off but stays at home after beating Boston. The Hurricanes also just finished a 4-game road swing through Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and St. Louis. They went 2-2 on it, so a full week at home is a nice change for them.
Carolina's results lately have been all over the place. They beat Vancouver 6-3 and then lost 6-5 in Edmonton, and after that they allowed 1 goal over 2 games: a 4-0 shutout in St. Louis and the 2-1 win over Boston. According to the club's projected lineup for Boston, Pyotr Kochetkov came into that game 7-0-0 and fresh off a 24-save shutout. Columbus scores off the rush, with Johnson, Fantilli and Zach Werenski all involved on the Philadelphia winner. A goalie who hasn't lost yet and a team that has allowed 1 goal in its last 2 is a real test for that.
Hall's status is still up in the air. The Hurricanes said he practiced fully before the Boston game and felt ready, then left the morning skate after about 5 minutes, and Rod Brind'Amour said he had thought Hall would be alright. Jankowski was skating with the team and said he felt ready to return. Either of them coming back would give Carolina back some depth up front. Columbus has the opposite problem, on the blue line. Ivan Provorov is week-to-week with a lower-body injury, Dante Fabbro was also out on the October 19 report, and the Jackets played Philadelphia without several regular defensemen. That puts a lot of minutes on Werenski against a Carolina forecheck that grinds teams down.
So the matchup comes down to this. Columbus has young forwards who keep winning late but a defense that has trouble protecting a lead. Carolina is a deep, structured team winning without key forwards and looking for a few of them to come back. If the Jackets get an early lead against this team, the question is whether they can keep it this time.