2024-25 Regular Season, Game 50 Preview: Hurricanes at New York Islanders

The Carolina Hurricanes won another wild one on Thursday night, defeating the Columbus Blue Jackets, 7-4, to earn their fourth straight victory. As is customary, they won despite falling into another early hole, allowing goals to Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko in the first ten minutes. They come out looking like a different team in the second period. Seth Jarvis started it with a power-play goal, opening the dam. Eric Robinson, Jackson Blake, and Sebastian Aho scored three times in 1:22 to open a 4-2 lead, and Jordan Martinook added the fifth goal, giving them five goals in under nine minutes. Columbus didn't go away easily, scoring twice at the end of the period to cut the Canes' lead to one. Jesperi Kotkaniemi provided the insurance marker midway through the third and Jarvis scored into the empty net to finish the Blue Jackets for good. Jarvis had a career-high four points, Aho added three, while Blake, Martin Necas, and Jordan Staal had two each. Frederik Andersen made 18 stops to secure his 300th NHL win.

The Opponent: New York Islanders (20-20-7, 47 Points- 8th in the Metropolitan Division)
Last Meeting: Ten days after the Islanders held on for a 4-3 win on Long Island, the Canes played host at the Lenovo Center. On this night, it would be all Carolina. Andrei Svechnikov opened the scoring on the power play early, forcing a shot through Ilya Sorokin's pads. A few minutes later, Jordan Martinook was on the spot to deposit a rebound to double the lead. Tyson Jost and Sebastian Aho added to the lead in the second period, and Pyotr Kochetkov was perfect the rest of the way. Kochetkov made 32 stops to pick up his first shutout of the season in a 4-0 win. 

Since We Last Met: The roller coaster ride has continued for the Islanders since facing the Canes a month ago. They'll string wins together, then lose a few games, only to start winning again. After beating the Flyers 3-1 on Friday night, they've won three in a row while only allowing three goals. The big news is the injury to Noah Dobson, which will keep him out for a few weeks. Captain Anders Lee has continued to produce, pacing the team with 20 goals and tied with Bo Horvat with 36 points. Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson joined them in the 30-point club with multi-point efforts last night. They haven't been great offensively, but their defense has been decent. They're in the upper half of the league in goals allowed, though Dobson's injury will sting. The team announced they'd signed Tony DeAngelo on Friday, though I doubt he'll be ready to go tonight. This is a big game for New York as they tried to build upward momentum. 

Stories of the Night
1. Immediate Impact?
After Friday's news, I'm not sure what to do with myself. For those who went to bed early last night, the Hurricanes made a blockbuster move, acquiring Mikko Rantanen from Colorado and Taylor Hall from Chicago in a three-team deal. Both Rantanen and Hall are expected to jump into the lineup tonight, which is a surprise to me. I was anticipating their debuts at MSG on Tuesday. Honestly, I don't care about the result tonight. There is a one-game buffer that I'm giving the team as the new guys get acclimated to the system.

2. Interesting Goalie Decision from the Islanders
Unless Patrick Roy pulls a fast one on us and starts Ilya Sorokin on back-to-back nights, the Canes are projected to face Marcus Hogberg on Saturday night. Hogberg has faced the Canes twice before, once with the Senators in 2019 (3 GA, 13 saves in 26:13) and in their last meeting (6 saves in the third period in relief). It's an interesting decision from Roy, especially considering this is the toughest of their back-to-back games. That being said, backup goalies have a knack for feasting on the Canes, so there's no telling what is going to happen tonight. 

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