Face-off: 1300 ET, 15/01/2022
Arena: PNC Arena
Vancouver will be hoping to get back to winning ways after a disastrous swing through Florida but Carolina are also on a recovery mission.
The Canucks suffered a 5-2 defeat against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night before heading north, where they went down 4-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes will be looking for a bounceback game of their own after they were thrashed 6-0 on home ice by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
We think that was a mere blip, though, and in the first of our NHL predictions, we are tipping Carolina to win by more than one clear goal at 2.25.
Carolina Hurricanes Odds
Despite the surprise loss to Columbus last time out at PNC Arena, Carolina have been rolling along nicely and have gone 7-2-1 in their past 10 games to sit in second place in the Metropolitan Division.
Coach Rod Brind’Amour did not hold back in his assessment of the performance and we can expect a much-improved showing from his team.
He said: “There’s no excuse. We weren’t sharp and we weren’t going to be lights out but that was not good.
“Not a good effort by pretty much everybody. We haven’t had those really, ever. That was a poor effort.”
They will hope to get back into the win column on home ice after also suffering defeat to the Florida Panthers last week and we think they will come out firing on all cylinders to score the opening goal in the first period at 1.95.
Despite being shut out for the first time this season on Thursday, both teams have goals in them here and 2.6 for the Hurricanes to win with over 5.5 scores in the match looks a good bet from the NHL odds.
The Hurricanes have killed off 30 successive penalties, so they will at least make Vancouver work hard if they are going to get something out of this match-up.
Vancouver Canucks Odds
Vancouver have been brought down to earth on this eastern swing, having previously won eight out of nine games since Bruce Boudreau took over as coach, with the only defeat coming in overtime against the Los Angeles Kings.
They beat the Hurricanes 2-1 on home ice during that win streak and will hope to tap into the effort that earned them the two points that evening.
Boudreau at least liked the spirit shown against the defending champion Lightning, despite the defeat, and will be looking for more of the same.
He said: “I liked the compete, I thought it was much better than the other night, for sure.
“Anytime you can hold that team to 21 shots…I don’t know what the chances were but I know they didn’t have a lot of them.”
The Canucks will be concerned about their powerplay that has gone 0-for-7 on this trip and it will not get any easier against the elite Hurricanes PK.
Vancouver have delivered at even strength, though, and we again think they will give the Hurricanes some trouble.
Odds of 1.95 for the visitors to score over 2.5 goals catch the eye but we still like 26.0 for a 5-3 home victory in the last of our Carolina Hurricanes vs Vancouver Canucks predictions.
Additional stats
Last result:
CAROLINA 0-6 Columbus
Tampa Bay 4-2 VANCOUVER
Head-to-head: Vancouver 2-1 Carolina
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