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By Spencer Knight – @stormsurge_pod / stormsurgepod.com
October 11, 2024
Opening night is finally here! A seemingly never-ending 147 day wait for meaningful Canes games has finally concluded. Tonight the Carolina Hurricanes welcome a familiar foe in the Tampa Bay Lightning to kick off the 2024-25 NHL season.
New Look Roster
It was a summer full of roster changes for the Canes, who will be starting 2 defensemen and 4 forwards who were not on the team last season. Key departures up front include Teuvo Teravainen (Chicago), Jake Guentzel (Tampa Bay), Evgeny Kuznetsov (SKA St. Petersburg – KHL), and Stefan Noesen (New Jersey). On the backend, we said good-bye to Brady Skjei (Nashville) and Brett Pesce (New Jersey).
Replacing these players was no easy task, and with a few large contracts coming off the books after this season, GM Eric Tulsky went with a 1 year retool plan to set the team up for long term success next offseason. On defense, Shane Gostisbehere was brought back to replace Skjei, while Sean Walker replaces Pesce. Up front, Roslovic replaces Teravainen, Kotkaniemi and Drury will battle for 2C, while Robinson replaces Noesen. While there is no direct replacement for the 25 games we got from Guentzel, prospect Jackson Blake will join the team and look to continue his growth.
On the Other Side
The Lightning are doing some retooling of their own, with top players Mikhail Sergachev and Stephen Stamkos leaving the team. Jake Guentzel was the only big name free agent to join them, doing so on a 7 year, $63 million contract. Still, this team is among the best in their division and the league, and pulling out this victory is no small task.
The team boasts a top line of Guentzel-Point-Kucherov that is among the best in the NHL. Their top defensive pairing took a bit of a hit as Sergachev was traded, but Hedman and JJ Moser are still a strong duo. Andrei Vasilevskiy is arguably the best goalie in the league.
In other news, due to Hurricane Milton, the Lightning traveled up to Raleigh on Monday to ensure they were ahead of the storm. They practiced Tuesday and Thursday at Invisalign arena. Our thoughts are with the City of Tampa Bay and the State of Florida as they endure this powerful storm.
Lining Them Up
Based on practices this week, the Canes lineups will likely look as follows:
Roslovic – Aho – Jarvis
Svechnikov – Kotkaniemi – Necas
Martinook – Staal – Carrier
Robinson – Drury – Blake
Slavin – Burns
Gostisbehere – Walker
Orlov – Chatfield
As I wrote in my last post, I’m excited to see Jackson Blake on the roster, but really hope his development isn’t impacted by playing 4th line minutes in the NHL before ever playing any other professional hockey. Fortunately, it looks like he’ll be lining up on the power play as well, joining Drury, Kotkaniemi, Roslovic, and Burns on the 2nd unit.
No word yet on who the starting goalie will be, but my gut says Andersen. Rod seems to prefer the veteran presence until proven otherwise, and with the way Freddie played last season and during the preseason, I think he’ll stick with him. And I don’t disagree. I’ll update below when we get more information on this.
As for injuries, Brendan Lemieux got banged up in the final preseason game and is expected to miss “a while,” according to Rod. He added that Jackson Blake earned his spot in the lineup regardless of this injury. Nothing is guaranteed, however, and he needs to continue to prove he deserves to be in the lineup.
Predictions
As you may have heard on our latest episode, Taylor, Dylan, and I will be predicting the outcome of each game this season. Below are our predictions:
Spencer: 5-3 Canes W
Dylan: 4-3 Canes OTW
Taylor: 3-2 Lightning OTW (BOOOOO)
During the preseason, our veteran group has looked locked in from the get go. In years past, we’ve seen them take some time in the season opener to get going. I think they’ll be ready to go from puck drop with multiple first period goals. The Lightning will likely keep it competitive, though, and I anticipate a tie game or a 1 goal Canes lead entering the third. I expect an empty net goal to seal the deal for the Canes.
For goal scorers, while I won’t predict everything, I like Roslovic to score his first as a Cane in game 1 and the man with the big new contract (Jarvis) to have a multi-point night.
I’ll keep up with all the predictions in future articles. I don’t expect high success, but it will be interesting to track.
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