After putting forth an admittedly flat effort in their last outing, the Carolina Hurricanes look for a more well-rounded performance on Wednesday when they open a season-long seven-game homestand against the New York Rangers in Raleigh, N.C.
The Hurricanes have been idle since seeing their five-game point streak (3-0-2) come to an end with a 4-1 setback to the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
“I’ll try to keep it PG here, not very good,” Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said of his team’s effort in Buffalo. “I could feel right from the start we were just flat. No excuses, part of that schedule, long road trip, fighting the flu bug a little here. The energy was just so dead, and we played like it.”
Captain Jordan Staal sat out that game due to an illness. He had scored four goals in his previous four games, including two in the Hurricanes’ 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Friday.
Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere provided a spark with a power-play goal on Sunday. He has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his last seven games.
“Not the best ending (to the road trip). We obviously want to have our best every night and obviously we didn’t have it. It kind of felt like we were just trying to get home,” Gostisbehere said. “(Brind’Amour has) been saying that it was kind of a wasted effort in our sense. We might as well show up if we’re going to be there.”
Pyotr Kochetkov showed up in his last game against the Rangers on Nov. 4, turning aside all 26 shots that he faced in a 3-0 win in New York. However, he’s been ruled out of Wednesday’s rematch.
Seth Jarvis scored in that game and has a team-best 11 goals on the season.
Sebastian Aho had an assist in that encounter and leads the club in both assists (13) and points (21).
Igor Shesterkin, who made 29 saves in that game versus Carolina, turned aside 19 shots on Monday to help the Rangers snap a season-high four-game losing streak in a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues.
“I thought we played a lot smarter tonight than we had in the last couple of games; protecting the puck a little better, knowing when is the right time to try someone one-on-one and we played sound defensively,” Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck said.
Adam Fox set up a pair of goals to boost his team-leading assist (18) and point (21) totals.
Fellow defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov also set up a pair of goals for his second straight multi-point performance.
“When we think of Vladdy we always talk about his defensive prowess … but I think his ability to make some plays off the offensive blue line, they’re sneaky good,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s been involved in a fair amount of goals here in the last little while just by making pretty good decisions along that offensive blue line.”
Captain J.T. Miller remains day-to-day despite missing his second consecutive contest since sustaining an upper-body injury Thursday in Colorado.
