Positives Aplenty On Successful State Fair Road Trip

RALEIGH, N.C. - The Carolina Hurricanes' annual State Fair road trip serves as an unofficial benchmark in their season.

In previous campaigns, it had come right after one or two games in Raleigh, but this time around, the team returns home with 15% of its 84-game regular season complete. The sample size is large enough to understand where it stands in some departments and cast a forecast of what could come.

Just shy of a month in, things look good for the defending champs.

Seemingly avoiding a Stanley Cup hangover, Carolina became the first team in the league to reach 20 points in the standings on Saturday following their shutout victory in St. Louis. While its success may not be out of the ordinary, how the club has gone about its business has certainly been impressive.

Next Man Up...

Embarking on the trip without Jordan Staal (calf tear) and Taylor Hall (upper-body injury), the Canes were already down a pair of important pieces up front.

Losing Mark Jankowski, who had become the NHL's hottest scorer with goals in six consecutive games, in the first battle of the trip took the Canes from "banged up" to down one quarter of their forward group.

As Rod Brind'Amour likes to tell the media, and assuredly reminds his team, no one was going to feel sorry for them.

How would they respond?

Carolina did so by flexing its depth and getting key performances from a few secondary pieces.

Among those who stepped up to the plate was Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Just 10 days ago, the 26-year-old was on the outside looking in when it came to the lineup, relegated to the role of extra that he'd fulfilled for most of last season.

Earlier this month, Brind'Amour had candidly said that it was up to Kotkaniemi to figure out what his role on this team was going to be. And after filling a void at wing for a few games with Hall and Seth Jarvis out of the lineup, the losses of Jankowski and Staal allowed him to move back to his natural position.

No. 82 not only turned in four points in five contests on the trip, including three goals, but also played a critical role on both the power play and penalty kill.

In addition to him, a two-goal showing from Nic Deslauriers was a key reason for the victory in Vancouver, and a pair of points for Juuso Välimäki in his first two games with the club is not to be overlooked.

Going 3-1-1 on the trip, Carolina proved that their depth can still get it done.

"With the guys out, we've had guys that came in to the lineup and have really stepped up," Nikolaj Ehlers said. "We did that all last year, and it seems like it's started that way again this year. I'm proud of the guys in here. It sucks that we have guys out, but we've got to play with the guys that we have, and these guys step up. That's exciting for our team."

Jarvy's Right Back To It...

While their depth filled sizable holes, the team received a massive boost on Thursday in Edmonton when Seth Jarvis made his season debut.

Beating the expected four-to-six-month timeline after offseason shoulder surgery, Carolina's leading goal-scorer from the past two seasons not only returned to the lineup, but made an immediate impact.

Although he admitted he felt rusty during his first 20 minutes back in the mix, those feelings faded during the middle 20, when he added a goal to his highlight reel and looked like he'd been in midseason form all along. Putting Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard in the spin cycle, his hands took over from there, getting netminder Devon Levi to glide to the wrong side of the crease for a must-see moment.

Chipping in with a pair of assists on Saturday, Jarvis quickly finds himself at three points in his first two games of the season.

"He's, in my opinion, become a super player. An elite player," Brind'Amour reviewed at Rogers Place. "He can do everything for your team."

Kochetkov's Blazing Start...

Speaking of players who look like they haven't missed a beat, Pyotr Kochetkov hardly looks like a backstop who was limited to just nine games last season.

Announcing his return to the crease by winning his first seven starts this season, including all three on the trip, the league is quickly taking notice that the poke checker from Penza, Russia, is back between the pipes.

Currently tied for the league lead with his seven victories, his 1.70 goals against average sits third, and his .916 save percentage is ninth. Allowing two goals or fewer in six of his seven starts, the accolades are quickly starting to pile up.

He is just the second goalie in team history to start a season with seven consecutive wins and just the third active goalie to start a season with a run of that length, joining Frederik Andersen (8), who did so with the Canes to begin his time with the season (2021-22), and Logan Thompson (2024-25, WSH).

"Excuse my language, but it was a s--- last year for him. We wanted to and were hoping for him to bounce back and feel good, and he's done that," Ehlers said. "We're happy with him. We're happy with Bussi, obviously. We're very confident in our two goalies."

Don't Forget It...

• Logan Stankoven scored four times in the five games and now ranks tied for seventh among all NHL skaters with his eight goals.
• Stankoven's four goals and six points on the trip were tied for the most on the team, alongside Nikolaj Ehlers. After being held without a goal for the first eight contests of the season, Ehlers has come alive and now has three in his last three games.
• Jackson Blake (175 games) became the fastest Canes skater to record 100 NHL points since Martin Necas (158 games on Jan. 15, 2022).
• Thanks in large part to his multi-goal game in Vancouver, Nic Deslauriers finished the trip with three points in his four showings in the lineup.
• Carolina's power play went 33.3% on the trip, upping their season total to 12 goals on the man advantage. Only three teams, Utah (16), Toronto (13), and Edmonton (13), have more.