The Hurricanes are rolling into Chicago with real momentum, and they’ve done it fast.
After a shaky start, Carolina has stacked up three straight wins and suddenly looks like a team finding its edge. Thursday’s 7-2 rout of the Vancouver Canucks was the loudest statement yet. Logan Stankoven collected his first NHL hat trick, Sean Walker posted the first four-point game of his career, and the Hurricanes kept pouring it on from every direction.
That’s the part that should make the rest of the league uneasy. This isn’t a one-line surge.
Over the last two games, Carolina has scored 13 goals in wins over Montreal and Vancouver. Three of the four forward groups have scored at even strength, the power play went a perfect 3-for-3 on Thursday, and the penalty kill even got in on the scoring when Stankoven buried a short-handed goal against the Canucks.
Now the Hurricanes head into a very busy weekend by opening with a meeting against the Blackhawks, a team they split with a year ago. In both games, the road team won. Carolina erased three one-goal deficits before falling in a shootout in Chicago in January, then later capped its season-ending road trip with a 7-2 win in Chicago while resting some regulars.
The Blackhawks, though, are still searching for answers in a rebuild that has dragged on. They’ve missed the playoffs six straight seasons and finished last in the Central Division for four straight years. This season hasn’t offered much encouragement so far, either, especially with Connor Bedard unavailable to start the year.
Chicago entered Thursday night at 1-4-0 after a 4-1 loss to the Islanders. Bowen Byram, who arrived in the draft-night deal that sent away the No. 4 pick, still hasn’t picked up a point.
Frank Nazar is the only Blackhawk with more than one goal, but he was suspended for two games after a bad hit on Bo Horvat late in Thursday’s loss. Spencer Knight has been doing his best to hold things together, but he hasn’t had much help in front of him.
The injury situations on both sides matter here, too. For Carolina, Seth Jarvis took another step in his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery on Thursday by ditching the no-contact sweater and skating in a regular one at the morning skate. There’s still no estimated return date, and the Hurricanes aren’t rushing him, but it’s an encouraging sign as their offense starts to click.
Chicago is still missing Bedard, who has yet to play this season after getting hurt in an offseason training session. The Blackhawks are also without Andrew Mangiapane, who was placed on IR this week, and Teuvo Teravainen, who left Tuesday’s game with an undisclosed injury.
There are a few names worth keeping a close eye on once the puck drops. Anton Frondell was one of the few bright spots for Chicago when the Hurricanes visited in April, scoring both Blackhawks goals in that loss. He’s now the team’s points leader with four, including a goal and an assist in Chicago’s lone win of the season on Tuesday.
Patrick Kane is back in Chicago after short stops with the Rangers and Red Wings, and the summer signing was clearly made with Bedard in mind. That pairing still hasn’t happened, but Kane did score the Blackhawks’ first goal of the season and has added one assist since.
For Carolina, Jackson Blake keeps quietly stacking production while Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov draw the headlines. Blake is riding a four-game point streak and leads the Hurricanes with five assists, four of them on the power play. Both of his assists Thursday helped set up Svechnikov on the man advantage, and he matched the game high with five shots against Vancouver.
Mark Jankowski has also kept the fourth line involved. That unit has scored in back-to-back games, with Jankowski scoring in Montreal before finishing a sharp goal Thursday, selling a pass to Robinson and then beating the goalie upstairs. He scored twice in Chicago at the end of last season, so another goal would hardly be a shock.
In Other News...
Logan Stankoven Just Changed The Feel Around Carolinas Offense
After a slow start to the season, the Hurricanes have started to look more like themselves again, and the change has shown up most clearly in the goals column. Carolina has scored 13 times over its last three games, a stretch that has given the offense some much-needed life and made the attack feel deeper and more dangerous than it did early on.
Logan Stankoven has been right in the middle of that surge, and his latest night gave the group another jolt. His first career hat trick underscored how quickly the Hurricanes offense can tilt a game when their special teams are clicking, with the power play carrying over the efficient finishing touch it had shown dating back to last season. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Goalie News Just Changed Carolina's Metro Race
The Metro race picked up a new wrinkle for Carolina on Thursday when the Rangers announced a major change in goal. New York will be without Igor Shesterkin for the rest of the season after the lower-body injury he sustained against Washington, and Joonas Korpisalo is also sidelined, leaving Dylan Garand to handle the starting job for now.
For the Hurricanes, that matters because every point in the division can swing the standings late, and the Rangers were already one of the teams Carolina has to track closely. Losing a goalie of Shesterkins caliber changes the look of New Yorks path through the spring, and it also changes the kind of margin for error the Hurricanes can expect in the games still ahead. [Read more 🡒]