Hurricanes dealing with "obvious" deficiencies as Avalanche arrive

The Carolina Hurricanes will hit the regular season's midway point Saturday night with a good number of concerns going into a matchup with the Colorado Avalanche in Raleigh, N.C.

While the Hurricanes boast one of the Eastern Conference's best records at 24-13-3, there have been recent malfunctions. The Avalanche have played two fewer games than Carolina, but they have the NHL's top point total and a nine-game winning streak.

Colorado is coming off Wednesday's 6-1 victory against St. Louis, completing a two-game homestand by outscoring opponents 11-3.

"I think we have a group of self-motivated guys," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "That's what you need to have if you want to win."

The Hurricanes have lost two games in a row, allowing a total of 12 goals in setbacks to Pittsburgh and Montreal. Those two regulation losses match Colorado's total for the year, so facing the Avalanche figures to leave even less room for error.

"We'll have no chance if we play like that," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We were turning pucks over at an unbelievably high rate for no reason."

It's not ideal to see so many areas fall short and that's a concern for the Hurricanes, who began the week with the best record in the Eastern Conference.

"We have deficiencies clearly, and they're starting to show," Brind'Amour said. "We've held on for a long, long time, but it's obvious."

The Avalanche will arrive with a roster that Carolina fans will recognize. Former Hurricanes Martin Necas, Brent Burns and Jack Drury have played in every Colorado game this season.

Necas, with 19 goals and 32 assists, ranks second on the team in goals and points behind only Nathan MacKinnon (34 goals, 36 assists). Necas and Drury were traded from Carolina to Colorado last January, while Burns left after the season via free agency.

Carolina's goaltending situation looks rough after Brandon Bussi gave up six goals on 22 shots in Thursday's game. That outcome in regulation prevented Bussi from tying a franchise record with 13 consecutive games earning at least one team point.

The alternative to Bussi is Frederik Andersen, who has gone through a rough stretch with eight straight losses (0-6-2).

Brind'Amour will have an option to mix up the lineup if he chooses to use center Noah Philp, who was acquired on waivers from Edmonton earlier in the week. He skated with the team Thursday, but was scratched from the game lineup.

The Hurricanes hope to build off team points leader Sebastian Aho's five-point effort Thursday night. Nikolaj Ehlers and Andrei Svechnikov each added three points, so it marked the first time since March 2024 that Carolina had three players with three or more points in a game. Svechnikov has 100 career multi-point games.

Colorado winger Gavin Brindley got checked out after Wednesday's win over St. Louis with what Bednar said was an upper-body ailment, putting his status in question.

On Friday, forward Brock Nelson of the Avalanche and defenseman Jaccob Slavin of the Hurricanes were named to the U.S. Olympic team. Slavin has been out with an injury since Dec. 19 and has played in only five games this season.