We’re at that time of year where many sports collide on the calendar, and today is no different.
Thanks to the Carolina Panthers having a Hurricanes-like resurgence, they will open up the NFL playoffs today
at 4:30. If you’re a fan of any of the three Triangle University teams, your school is in action as well. Then, of course, the main reason you’re reading is the fact that the Carolina Hurricanes have their last home game before a back-to-back road jaunt at the start of next week.
Last weekend this confluence didn’t exactly go well. Of all the teams mentioned, only the college team in Durham won their game—and frankly that contest was closer than it should have been. If you’re a fan of UNC—like this author which I have not hidden, by the way—then you have the real fun that you have the Panthers at 4:30, UNC at 6, and the Canes at 7.
It’s both fun and exhausting, and it’s why we are fans, right?
The funny part is that the Hurricanes game has a lot of intrigue to it. Speaking of a week ago, fans were concerned at just how rough the team looked in yet again surrendering a multiple-goal lead to Colorado, while staring at a back-to-back and not knowing how their prized find Brandon Bussi would react to his first bad outing. Since then he and the team have responded with three straight wins—a pretty dominant win to the sinking Devils, an inspired home win to Dallas that was just all sorts of fun including the return of Seth Jarvis, and Freddie Andersen’s first win in two months against Anaheim. All of a sudden the Canes are riding high again, in first place in the entire East and four points up on the Islanders in the Metro.
Then news dropped on Friday morning that would point to a reminder of how remarkable it is that this team has achieved what it had already.
Nystrom has done outstanding work since coming up to the main roster. While not scoring a goal he does have eight assists, and is +4 in 33 games played. Not too bad for someone who figured to spend the whole season with the Chicago Wolves. He heads to the Wolves averaging 15:37/game on the ice, showing he wasn’t just playing sheltered time while up in Raleigh. At minimum he’ll be back to Raleigh sooner than later, and there’s little doubt he showcased himself as a chip in case the Canes want to include him in a deal—more on that in a bit.
But the reason Nystrom is back in Chicago? Jaccob Slavin is set to make his return to the lineup tonight. Slavin has been snake-bitten to say the least. He didn’t appear in training camp due to an injury. That injury flared up to the point where he only played in the first two games to open the season, then sat out two months before finally rejoining the team in mid-December. His last appearance was in the carnage in Florida which also took out Jarvis. Rod Brind’Amour would go on to say his injury was completely different this time around, which is as much as we got, and thus we’ve been patiently waiting for him to rejoin the team.
Morning skate in fact confirms that Slavin will be back in the lineup tonight. Here’s what you can expect the pairings to look like:
A third pairing of Nikishin and Gostisbehere? Let’s just take a second and admire the potential there.
On the subject of trades—while the Canes didn’t take the ice on Friday, they made more news as Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman reported the Hurricanes are listening to offers for Jesperi Kotkaniemi. While this news likely sent Montreal Canadien fans into hysterical fits of laughter, it shouldn’t really be much of a surprise to Hurricane fans at this point. Tom Edwards talks about the potential for his move here—you should subscribe by the way as there are few that are as well-versed on the CBA and cap implications as he—but honestly if you’ve listened to Brind’Amour speak plus seen the lineups, it seems clear at this point the two sides just realize it may be time to move on from each other. Usually reporting like this doesn’t get out unless something is close, because once that dam breaks it’s tough to put the water back in.
Oh yeah there’s actually a hockey game tonight! Tonight the NHL’s newest team the Seattle Kraken come to town for the only time in 2025-26. Not too long ago this game would be an afterthought, but the Kraken have started charging up the standings to where if the playoffs began today, they’d be the three in the Pacific. It speaks to just how rough everyone in that division is playing right now that at 48 points, they are not only in third but are just two points out of tying Vegas and Edmonton for first. Meanwhile you look at the other Western Division and…yeah.
That said Seattle is on a tear. After a three game losing streak a month ago, they have taken points in ten straight, going 8-0-2 and rocketing into playoff contention when it looked like they may ben floundering for more draft picks. They are doing this despite only having two players hit double digits in goals—Carolina has six including Jordan Staal—and their leading point producer is Jordan Eberle at 28. Sebastian Aho has 43. The problem for the Kraken is that Eberle has been listed as day-to-day. He’s on the road trip but it’s unknown if he’ll be out on the ice tonight. If he doesn’t, here are the lines to expect:
McCann- Beniers – Kakko
Tolvanen – Stephenson – Gaudreau
Catton – Wright – Winterton
Kartye – Meyers – Melanson
Dunn – Larsson
Lindgren – Fleury
Evans – Oleksiak
Daccord
There have been two reasons for this run. One has been some pretty solid goaltending from the tandem of Joey Daccord and Phillipp Grubauer. both have save percentages above .900, and Grubauer is at .925. The team as a whole is 26th in goals for, but are 11th in goals allowed. The second has been a red hot Power Play where they’ve been clicking at a near 35% during that stretch. Needless to say, it’ll be nice to have Slavin back for this.
The first crack in the Seattle run may have happened in their last game, though. Seattle had a two goal lead against the Minnesota Wild in the third period. The game was in Seattle, but Minnesota came back on Grubauer to tie it up and then win it in Overtime. Now the Kraken begin a five game road trip that had them flying cross-country to start here before three in the Northeast Corridor and then finishing up against Utah. The hope of course is that the Canes can catch them on jet lag and continue what Minnesota started.
Lastly a visit by Seattle means former Hurricanes play-by-play man John Forslund will be in the arena calling the action, and you can bet there will be all smiles in the press box as the two crews catch up with each other before puck drop, and there’s little doubt Forslund will joing all of us in congratulating Mike Maniscalco in being named North Carolina’s Sportscaster of the Year.
Got all that? So if you aren’t going to be inside Lenovo Center tonight, here’s how you can catch the action:
Time: 7 PM
TV: FanDuel Sports Network. Mike Maniscalco will handle play-by-play alongside Tripp Tracy doing color. Hanna Yates and Shane Willis will provide off-ice reports as well as host pregame starting at 6:30 and postgame that will run for about 30 minutes after the conclusion.
Streaming: FanDuel Sports Network App for fans in the Carolinas. Outside of the area, the ESPN app has you covered for tonight as the game will not be on the NHL Network.
Radio: The pregame on 99.9 The Fan starts at 4:30. At 5PM the Hurricanes Radio Network (consisting of 99.9, 730 The Game in Charlotte, ESPN New Bern 107.5/1490, and ESPN Greenville 107.5/1570) picks up the FDSN feed. You can also stream the call on the Hurricanes app.
Odds: Hurricanes -295 Moneyline, Puckline Hurricanes -1.5 at -114/Kraken +240 Moneyline, Puckline +1.5 at -106, O/U 6.5 (+110 Over/-134 Under)
