The Hurricanes are a fast-paced team that will challenge the Oilers to have an equally good start coming out of their extended break after having four goals put past them in the first period of a 6-3 defeat on Nov. 22 at PNC Arena.
Carolina is 7-1-1 in their last nine meetings with the Oilers, having been led by Sebastian Aho with 23 points (9G, 14A) over 13 career games played for an average of 1.77 points per game versus Edmonton, which ranks the highest all-time out of any player with a minimum of 10 games against the club.
The Hurricanes haven’t been able to carry their home form (8-2-1) onto the road this season, where they’re 6-7-0.
“I think their aggressiveness catches a lot of teams off guard and is tough to handle,” Draisaitl said. “To me, they’re one of those teams you need to make two or three really good hockey plays in a row to even get a look at the net, so they've played that way for a lot of years now and it’s a good test for us tomorrow.”
Since that 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes two weeks ago, the Oilers have been getting much better results thanks in large part to their improved power play and penalty kill, but their reduction in odd-man rushes against has been a big contributor to some improved defensive play.
“I think we've tightened things up defensively, especially off the rush, and then I think the special teams lately have been really good,” Coach Knoblauch said. “Since we played Carolina I think the penalty kill has been good, but I think power play had been struggling and not clicking. But right now, I feel that's been going the way it should be.”
