With just three games left until the Carolina Hurricanes take their trip to Helsinki, Finland, for the NHL Global Series against the Seattle Kraken, they will take a quick two-game road trip – starting with a game against the Nashville Predators.

The game is scheduled for 8:00 PM EST.

In the Hurricanes’ last game, Pyotr Kochetkov led his team to a 7-0 shutout against the Winnipeg Jets on ‘Kids Day’. In doing so, Kochetkov notched the franchise record for longest winning streak with 10, and moved into second place in NHL history for most consecutive wins to start a season – tying Carey Price. You can read all about the game here!

As for the Predators, they have actually been having an okay-ish season. They are 3-3-4 in their last 10 games, having actually won their latest one, which was against the Tampa Bay Lightning – granted it was shortly after the Nikita Kucherov trade request bombshell.

Fascinatingly, the Predators executed their own trade Sunday afternoon, in a one-for-one swap with the Seattle Kraken – acquiring Shane Wright in exchange for Matthew Wood (no, not the guy who voiced General Grievous in Star Wars).

In the Crease

Pyotr Kochetkov has been the hot hand, and the Hurricanes have veered away from the usual alternating tandem – chances are they’ll start him again against the Predators. However, it would be as good a time as any for Brandon Bussi to get some play time in before the trip to Finland.

This season, Kochetkov’s goals against average is 1.49, with a save percentage of .929.

As for the Predators, Juuse Saros is – as he has been in seasons before – their go-to guy. With them having a two-day break between their Halloween game and their game against the Hurricanes, it is anticipated that he will likely get the start.

This season, Saros’ goals against average is 2.94, with a save percentage of .902.

Projected Carolina Hurricanes Lines

William Carrier – Sebastian Aho – Andrei Svechnikov

Nikolaj Ehlers – Logan Stankoven – Jackson Blake

Jordan Martinook – Mark Jankowski – Seth Jarvis

Eric Robinson – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Nicolas Deslauriers

Defense

Jaccob Slavin – Jalen Chatfield

K’Andre Miller – Sean Walker

Shayne Gostisbehere – Juuso Valimaki

Goaltenders

Pyotr Kochetkov / Brandon Bussi

Projected Nashville Predators Lines

Steven Stamkos – Ryan O’Reilly – Mavrik Bourque

Filip Forsberg – Shane Wright – Nils Hoglander

Ross Colton – Jack Drury – Adam Edstrom

Reid Schaefer – Alex Kerfoot – Jonathan Marchessault

Defense

Roman Josi – Adam Wilsby

Brady Skjei – Nick Perbix

Daemon Hunt – Jayden Struble

Goaltenders

Juuse Saros / Justus Annunen

Special Teams

Carolina Hurricanes power play: 24.1% (9th, up four spots from previous game) Carolina Hurricanes penalty kill: 83.3% (9th, up three spots from previous game)

Nashville Predators power play: 31.9% (4th) Nashville Predators penalty kill: 88.9% (4th)

Hurricanes Game Notes

Slavin skated in his 800th career NHL game Sunday – he and his teammates spoke on the topic in an interview shown on Hurricanes Hockey Network during the pregame show, and Yates reported on what head coach Rod Brind’Amour had said about his superstar defenseman during the game.

In terms of big streaks, Nikolaj Ehlers is on a six-game point streak – having accumulated nine in those games. Also…Andrei Svechnikov is on a two-game roughing penalty streak (I’m sorry, it is a fun stat that I had to note).