Avalanche at Hurricanes preview

AVALANCHE (4-1-2) at HURRICANES (4-2-1)
1 p.m. ET; FS-SE, ALT, NHL.TV

Only Joe Sakic (eight games, 1999-2000) and John-Michael Liles (nine games, 2010-11) have opened a season with a longer streak for Colorado.
Sebastian Aho will try to match Victor Rask for the longest season-opening point streak in Hurricanes history. Aho has four goals and eight assists in a seven-game streak for Carolina, which has lost two in a row after a four-game winning streak. Rask had four goals and six assists in an eight-game streak to start the 2016-17 season.
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will make his second straight start for the Avalanche after he made 27 saves in a 5-3 win against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog has four goals and two assists in a three-game point streak.
Hurricanes forward Micheal Ferland has scored in each of the past two games.

They said it

"We like what [goalie Philipp] Grubauer did (in a 5-3 win against the Devils on Thursday). We'd also like to give him a chance to build off of that game. I'd like to see if he could bounce back and equal that performance or even better that performance. So we're going to give him another crack here (against the Hurricanes)." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"The effort has been there. Of all the games that we've played, that [4-2 loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday] was a little off as far as the energy level. I've got to watch that. That's why we need four lines to play." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Alex Kerfoot -- Tyson Jost -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Sven Andrighetto -- Vladislav Kamenev -- Gabriel Bourque
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched: Mark Barberio, Marko Dano
Injured: J.T. Compher (concussion)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Micheal Ferland -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Warren Foegele -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Jordan Martinook -- Lucas Wallmark -- Andrei Svechnikov
Brock McGinn -- Clark Bishop -- Valentin Zykov
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Calvin de Haan -- Justin Faulk
Trevor van Riemsdyk -- Brett Pesce
Curtis McElhinney
Petr Mrazek
Scratched:Phillip Di Giuseppe
Injured: Scott Darling (lower body), Victor Rask (hand)

Status report

Dano was claimed off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets on Monday. ... Bishop was recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Thursday and likely will make his NHL debut. ... Brind'Amour said Darling "is getting real close" to making his season debut after facing shots in practice Thursday.

Stat pack

Grubauer is 4-2-1 against the Hurricanes with a 2.70 goal-against average and .922 save percentage. ... The Avalanche have scored on the power play in six of seven games. ... The Hurricanes are tied for 30th in the NHL on the power play (2-for-25, 8.0 percent).