Tuesday night brings a Frozen Frenzy to the NHL slate with the entire league in action across the evening. With so many games to choose from, we’re honing in on some of the top matchups of the slate. At 6:30 p.m. EST, the league-leading Carolina Hurricanes welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to town for a potential playoff preview between two squads at the top of their respective divisions.
Get ready for the action with a Golden Knights vs. Hurricanes prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Tuesday night.
Golden Knights vs. Hurricanes prediction, preview
Vegas Golden Knights
Most teams around the league have played at least nine or 10 games, and only a handful have more points than the Vegas Golden Knights. Despite losing back-to-back contests, this team remains positioned to bounce back with the NHL’s points leader in Jack Eichel, who’s notched 16 in his nine appearances (6G/10A). Prized acquisition Mitch Marner has 10 points of his own and is a team-high +8 for an offense that averages 3.44 goals per game, tied for seventh-best in the league. Vegas ranks fourth in FOW% and 10th in goals against per game with 2.67, and special teams results have largely been encouraging as well. The Golden Knights sit in the NHL’s top half in both PP% (27.3%) and PK% (81.5%). Contributions across the board from Mark Stone (13 PTS), Pavel Dorofeyev (8 PTS) Ivan Barbashev (8 PTS) round out a talented forward group, but the play in net from Adin Hill and Akira Schmid leaves something to be desired with both below a .900 SV%.
Carolina Hurricanes
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have the makings of an elite team once more. They just lost their second game of the year to the Stars over the weekend, but otherwise are playing excellent hockey. Seth Jervis (7G/4A) and Sebastian Aho (4G/6A) have 11 and 10 points apiece as the leading scorers, but a minor injury to defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere may sideline the team’s third-highest point scorer. Carolina’s full-strength offense is one of the team’s biggest strengths with 3.75 goals per game, tied for third-most despite having an abysmal power play thus far (6.9%) and Nikolaj Ehlers only tallying three points himself. The Canes play at one of the NHL’s fastest paces with a league-high 34.1 shots a night, so matching that speed can be difficult for opponents. Defensively, Carolina’s blue line sits 12th in opponent scoring with 2.75 goals allowed per game, while primary netminder Frederik Anderson boasts a 4-1 record with a 2.72 GAA and .901 SV%.
Golden Knights vs. Hurricanes pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Hurricanes as -142 road favorites on the Moneyline tonight, while the Golden Knights enter with +120 odds to win outright. The total sits at 6.5 combined goals.
This shapes up as a premier matchup between two of the NHL’s top franchises, so fans are in for a treat here. To this point, the Hurricanes are 2-0-0 at home while the Golden Knights are 2-1-2 on the road. They’ve also already met once this season in a game the Knights won by a 4-1 margin. Both teams are quite deep, and while the star power of Eichel, Marner and Mark Stone gives Vegas a slight edge on the top end, the Jarvis/Aho pairing looks its best right now and Carolina plays a true team-oriented style of hockey under Rod Brind’Amour where everyone plays their role from the first line on down.
While Gotisbehere hasn’t played since October 18 with a lower-body injury, he did return to practice on Monday and could come back on Tuesday to boost the second defensive pairing if active. K’Andre Miller’s return is “around the corner,” per Brind’Amour, so if he’s able to suit up tonight, the offseason addition obviously improves the outlook. However, Jaccob Slavin remains out, a significant absence to make up for. With the various knocks for Carolina, an upset could actually lie around the corner for the Golden Knights.
