TLDR: The last time these 2 met, Carolina put 7 on the Canucks in Raleigh. On Tuesday, October 20, Vancouver gets the rematch on home ice, and it badly needs something to go right.
Carolina comes to Vancouver as one of the league's hottest teams, even with Taylor Hall out and Seth Jarvis and Jordan Staal still sidelined. Vancouver is home after an 0-5-1 road trip and still without Thatcher Demko. The Hurricanes play in Calgary on the second night of a back-to-back first, so how fresh they are against a rested Canucks team is the open question, along with whether Jarvis is cleared during the trip.
The Hurricanes have been the NHL's best story through October and the Canucks one of its worst. Carolina is 7-1-1 and had won 5 straight as of Saturday. Vancouver is 2-7-1 and winless in 7. The win streak has come without much of Carolina's forward depth. The Hurricanes beat Winnipeg 3-2 without Taylor Hall, Jordan Staal or Seth Jarvis. Mark Jankowski and Jesperi Kotkaniemi each erased a Jets lead, and Nikolaj Ehlers won it with a power-play goal in the 3rd. Carolina's depth carrying it like that is the main reason this team keeps winning.
Carolina still has a game to play before this one. The Hurricanes go to Calgary on Sunday, the second night of a back-to-back that started in Winnipeg, and that result will decide whether they bring a streak into Rogers Arena. This is game 3 of the annual 5-game State Fair road trip. The other thing to watch is Jarvis. He's coming back from offseason surgery on a torn labrum and rotator cuff and is traveling with the team. Rod Brind'Amour said he hopes Jarvis plays at some point on the trip, but he hasn't been cleared yet. Hall is week-to-week with an upper-body injury, so Carolina has called up prospects Nadeau and Unger Sorum to fill in.
Vancouver gets home after a 6-game road trip that went 0-5-1. The way it ended is the worry. In Tampa, the Canucks led 2-0 on goals from Linus Karlsson and Elias Pettersson, then gave up 4 straight, 2 of them from Nikita Kucherov in under 5 minutes. They finished with only 14 shots on Dennis Hildeby. Blowing a lead is a problem. Not being able to get pucks to the net with the game on the line is a bigger one.
The goaltending situation doesn't help. Thatcher Demko is on injured reserve with a hip injury, and the club is hoping he's back before Christmas. That's a long time to get by without your best player at the most important position. Up front, Marco Rossi is out, which takes away a center from a lineup that's already having trouble scoring. If Pettersson and Karlsson are the only threats, Carolina's forecheck can focus on them.
Vancouver does have one real advantage: the schedule. The Canucks will have 2 days at home to reset after nearly 2 weeks away. Carolina will be playing its 3rd game in 4 nights across 3 Western Canadian cities. Puck drop is 7:00 PM PT. For a team that has lost 7 straight, a rested home crowd and an opponent with tired legs is about as good a setup as it will get.
Carolina Hurricanes at Vancouver Canucks — Hurricanes Head to Vancouver Looking for a Repeat of the 7-2 Rout | Polymarket Odds · Barstool Bush
