Hurricanes expecting trio of reinforcements vs. Sabres

The Carolina Hurricanes are looking to score their first win of a current four-game road trip when they take on the Buffalo Sabres this Tuesday night at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. They will enter the Sabres game coming off back-to-back losses to the Detroit Red Wings and the Boston Bruins on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

But reinforcements may be on the way for Carolina, which has struggled on both ends of the ice of late. Forwards Jordan Staal and Andrei Svechnikov and defenseman Jalen Chatfield reportedly could return to action for the Buffalo game after each missed time, per Kurt Dusterberg of NHL.com.

The 36-year-old Staal has not played in four games in a row due to a lower-body injury while Svechnikov did not suit up in the last two Hurricanes outings because of an undisclosed reason. Staal has 12 goals and 21 assists for the Hurricanes through 71 games so far in the 2024-25 NHL regular season. Svechnikov, on the other hand, has 19 goals and 26 assists in 66 games.

As for Chatfield, who has six goals and 11 assists, he played against the Red Wings but sat out the meeting with the Bruins.

Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour acknowledged the banged-up situation of his team’s roster and expressed uncertainty about the final statuses of his players.

“We’ve got a lot of guys out of the lineup; that’s not ideal,” Brind’Amour said on Monday. “I don’t know what the lineup is going to be (Tuesday), I don’t know who is available yet. The guys that were skating today, that’s a positive sign, but I don’t know. More than anything, it’s mitigating risk probably by taking them out.”

Carolina and the Buffaloes have split their first two meetings this season, with the Sabres taking the first one in January via a 4-2 score. The Hurricanes defeated the Sabres in February, 5-2. The home team has won each game in this matchup, thus far.

Carolina, which has already locked up a berth in the 2025 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and carries a 46-26-4 record (96 points), has been outscored, 10-4, in its last two outings. After the Buffalo game, the Canes will have five more contests in the regular season.