After a wonderful 5-3 outnumbered win against the Detroit Red Wings, the Carolina Hurricanes will host the Kings on Saturday with some new reinforcements.
The Canes, who played with just 16 skaters on Thursday, called Josh Leivo and CJ Smith back on Friday in an emergency, which will allow Carolina to dress a full squad on Saturday night (though one is still missing six normal starters).
The Hurricanes had to add two more people to the COVID log on Friday, but no more players. In addition to Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Staal, Steven Lorentz, Seth Jarvis, Ian Cole and a member of the training team, goalkeeping coach Paul Schonfelder and a support employee were added to the list.
The Kings have a four-game points streak, a 4-1 win in Florida against the Panthers and a loss to the Lightning in Tampa in extra time. Los Angeles is grappling with its own, minor COVID issue, as defense attorney Drew Doughty entered the minutes on Thursday. They’re also missing out on Andreas Athanasiou, who was placed in the IR on Thursday with a lower body injury.
Population statistics
| category | Hurricanes | Kings |
|---|---|---|
| category | Hurricanes | Kings |
| Record | 20-7-1 | 13-10-5 |
| Goals / game | 3.21 | 2.68 |
| Goals conceded / game | 2.18 | 2.54 |
| Shots / game | 32.96 | 35.14 |
| Face-off profit% | 54.2% | 53.7% |
| Power play% (rank) | 21.4% (11.) | 18.7% (18.) |
| Penalty Kill% (Rank) | 88.3% (2.) | 76.7% (26.) |
| ES courses for% | 55.78% | 52.33% |
| IS PDO | 101.50 | 100.88 |
| PIM / game | 09:30 | 06:51 |
Goalkeeper # 1
| category | Frederik Andersen | Jonathan Quick |
|---|---|---|
| category | Frederik Andersen | Jonathan Quick |
| Record | 15-5-0 | 8-5-4 |
| Save on computer % | .928 | 0.935 |
| ATM | 1.98 | 2.03 |
Goalkeeper # 2
| category | Antti Raanta | Cal Petersen |
|---|---|---|
| category | Antti Raanta | Cal Petersen |
| Record | 4-2-1 | 5-5-1 |
| Save on computer % | .907 | .893 |
| ATM | 2.37 | 3.10 |
Game hints
- This is the second and final meeting between the canes and kings of the season. Carolina won the first game at the (then still) Staples Center 5-4, with Martin Necas scoring the decisive goal in the last minute of the second period.
- Carolina is 36-35-8-3 against the all-time Kings, with a 22-13-5-1 home record against Los Angeles.
- Saturday night’s game will be the 200th NHL game in Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s career. To date, he has 73 NHL points in 199 games.
- As has been the case for a while now, Brady Skjei is only one assist away from NHL assist number 100. On November 26th, he recorded Assist 99 against the Flyers.
- A few more assist milestones likely won’t happen on Saturday but still possible: Teuvo Teravainen is three assists away from his 200th with the Hurricanes and Tony DeAngelo is three assists away from his 100th NHL assist.
Comments are closed.