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Pre-Scout: Hurricanes hoping to breeze past Oilers after Friday’s overtime victory
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Photo credit: © James Guillory-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
Nov 15, 2025, 11:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 15, 2025, 14:16 EST
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Fall turns into winter, Jack Michaels delivers an electric game call, and taxes are due at the end of April. Oh yeah, add the Carolina Hurricanes having a good regular season to that list of certainties.  
Put aside the playoff foibles of the ‘Canes — this is one of the best regular season teams for the better part of a decade. 
Since Rod Brind’Amour took over in 2018-19, the Hurricanes have been just behind Tampa Bay for the most regular-season wins over that span, getting points in two-thirds of their games. 
And look at the standings now, 12-5 and lurking behind the New Jersey Devils for tops in the Metro. If there were an award for consistency, Carolina would win it. 
The Hurricanes had a four-game win streak snapped by the Capitals earlier this week, but rebounded with a come-from-behind OT win 4-3 over the Vancouver Canucks last night. Sebastian Aho buried the winner, and Andrei Svechnikov scored his fifth and sixth of the season, while collecting an assist. 
“We were playing a really good game,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said after the game. “We gave up a couple chances. It’s not like they had to do much to get them. That’s the tough part. The rest of the game, it felt like we were in their end. You don’t always get what you deserve in this game, but we got what we deserved with the two points.”
And not just the real goals per game the Canes are scoring, which are top three in the NHL, the analytics back it up. Carolina is a hard team to stop. 
Goals Percentage, Expected Goals Percentage, Corsi Percentage, Fenwick Percentage, Goals For… all top three in the NHL, some categories the very best. 
Most nights, the Hurricanes are scoring four goals.

Blake thriving in top-six

Per usual, the scoring is fairly evenly distributed. Sebastian Aho is operating at a point-per-game pace, while Seth Jarvis has 10 goals. 
The big addition in the off-season was Nikolaj Ehlers. The Great Dane agreed to a six-year pact worth $8.5 million, as Carolina’s big game hunting of Mikko Rantanen and Mitch Marner were forced to settle a tier below. 
It took a while for Ehlers to get going, not scoring his first in a ‘Canes sweater until Nov. 4. But now he’s humming, on a six-game point streak, settling in on a line with Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake. 
Blake has been a revelation in his own right. The former fourth-round pick and North Dakota NCAA product had 17-17–34 in his rookie campaign. Now, as a sophomore, Blake is putting together an impressive leap, already reaching 12 points, and is ready to rocket past his previous total. 
With Blake now fulfilling a top-six role, the Hurricanes boast the likes of Svechnikov–Aho–Jarvis and Ehlers–Stankoven–Blake. That’s a pretty darn good top-six. 

You have that many goalies?!

Carolina has used four goalies this season, rotating a three-man tandem in the past couple of weeks. Frederik Andersen has played the most games, but was pulled as a likely precaution by a concussion spotter after a spill. He practiced on Thursday. I’m guessing he’ll start against the Oilers tonight. 
Pyotr Kochetkov has had injury problems of his own, but is dressing consistently again, and is 3-0 in his starts after a 14-save victory yesterday. 
Brandon Bussi has performed very well as a third option, 4-1 on the year, winning a week ago against the Leafs. Heck, Cayden Primeau did alright in spot duty in October. 
Not to mention, the team’s top shutdown defenceman, Jacob Slavin, hasn’t played in almost a month. 
For a team bereft of quality goaltending, or struggling to overcome injuries like the Oilers, the Hurricanes seem to find it wherever they look. 

Notes:

  • Seth Jarvis left last night’s game in the first period and didn’t return after Svechnikov’s stick to the face. Brind’Amour said after the game that he doesn’t expect Jarvis to be out long. As well, Jesperi Kotkaniemi left in the second period on an apparent twisted ankle. His status, too, is questioned.
  • By the way, remember the Kotkaniemi offer sheet? Remember how you’ve heard nothing since. The former third-overall pick is just 25 years old, but is just not a top-six player. Career high 43 points in 2022-23, and has only surpassed 30 points in one other season. Luckily for Carolina, the first- and third-round picks of compensation were the only picks in recent memory, it seems, the Habs missed on.
  • Always worth mentioning when Taylor Hall is going to suit up against the Oilers. Quietly going about his business, he has 4-5–9 with a point on the PP. 
  • Speaking of the power play, this is the major flaw in the Hurricanes’ game. It’s quite bad, climbing up to a mighty 14 per cent after going 1/2 last night. Only the Flames have a worse PP. 
  • In the off-season, Carolina ponied up a first- and second-round pick, plus a prospect in Scott Morrow, to acquire K’Andre Miller. The offensively gifted rearguard is bouncing back after career lows, eight points in 11 games. 
  • For those in keeper fantasy drafts, I’m sure you’re aware of Alexander Nikishin, who has been touted over the past couple of seasons as one of the best defence prospects in the game. The 24-year-old Russian made the North American leap and has been a monster of production so far, all while playing a shade over 20 minutes a game. I’d say he was ready. 
  • Carolina historically was a house of horrors for the Oilers at times, but they did win their last game in Raleigh 3-1 on March 1. The two occasions before that, Edmonton was blown out. 

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