It’s finally here.
The Carolina Hurricanes open up their season tonight at home against the Montreal Canadiens. Here’s the pre-game report.
Carolina’s projected lineup, according to Michael Smith, is as follows:
Svechnikov - Staal - Teravainen Niederreiter - Aho - McGinn Dzingel - Haula - Martinook Foegele - Wallmark - Necas
Slavin - Hamilton Edmundson - Pesce Gardiner - Fleury
Mrazek Reimer
It’s a positive to see that Ryan Dzingel, Jake Gardiner and Martin Necas are all expected to be in the lineup, though Trevor van Riemsdyk remains sidelined. Some interesting things to note: Brock McGinn will be on the second line with Nino Niederreiter and Sebastian Aho, while Jordan Martinook will play on the third line and Martin Necas will start down on the fourth line. On the blue line, Joel Edmundson will start with Brett Pesce on the second pair, while Gardiner will play on the third. This certainly wasn’t the expectation when Edmundson was acquired and Gardiner was signed but it'll be interesting to see in the season opener.
For the Hurricanes, this is a chance to build off of their unexpected yet impressive run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Sebastian Aho is likely only to trend upwards, Andrei Svechnikov will get a bigger role, Teuvo Teravainen will once again be a force up front and Martin Necas may become a big part of the team’s offense. Petr Mrazek will have the chance to get into as many games as possible and solidify himself as a true No. 1 goalie.
Montreal’s lines at the team’s morning skate were the following, according to Dan Braverman.
Tatar - Danault - Gallagher Lehkonen - Domi - Suzuki Drouin - Kotkaniemi - Armia Byron - Thompson - Weal Cousins
Mete - Weber Chiarot - Petry Kulak - Fleury Reilly - Folin
Price Kinkaid
Montreal’s offense, looks decent this season. They’ll be icing three fairly well-rounded lines and while none is likely to dominate, each one will be competitive. One addition up front is 2017 first-round Nick Suzuki (yes, Ryan’s older brother), while Cale Fleury will make his NHL debut on the blue line (yes, Haydn’s younger brother).
Montreal is coming off two straight seasons of missing the playoffs and the Hurricanes took two of the three meetings between the teams last season.
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