Jets vs. Hurricanes Preview: Winnipeg's Eight-Game Skid Meets Kochetkov's Perfect Start in Raleigh

The Winnipeg Jets have pulled just about every lever in the building. They traded franchise goalie Connor Hellebuyck to New Jersey, broke up Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, dressed seven defensemen on Friday and handed the crease to Nico Daws a week after he arrived from the Devils. The losses kept coming anyway, and the next stop on the calendar is the last place a slumping team wants to visit.

Winnipeg (4-7-3) plays the Carolina Hurricanes (11-2-2) at 1 p.m. ET Sunday at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, dragging an eight-game losing streak (0-6-2) into a matinee against the defending Stanley Cup champions. Carolina has won three straight, and its starting goalie has not lost a game since the season began.

Two Seasons Heading in Opposite Directions

The standings are blunt about it. Carolina's 24 points lead the Metropolitan Division by six over New Jersey. Winnipeg's 11 points sit seventh in the Central, with only Chicago below them. Over the last 10 games, the Hurricanes are 8-1-1 and the Jets are 1-7-2, per the AP.

The Jets have not won since a 5-2 home win over Minnesota on Oct. 13. Since then they have lost in just about every way possible: overtime defeats in Chicago and Dallas, one-goal regulation losses to Carolina, St. Louis and Montreal, then two lopsided games against Florida wrapped around a 6-4 loss in Tampa.

Coach Scott Arniel at least saw more fight in Friday's 5-2 loss in Sunrise. "But, now we've got to get over the hump, find a way," Arniel said afterward. Morgan Barron, who scored his first goal of the season in that game, was less interested in silver linings. "This isn't the direction we want our season to go," Barron said Friday.

For Carolina, the assignment is simpler: keep banking points while Taylor Hall and Jordan Staal are out, and do not let a desperate opponent turn a sleepy Sunday afternoon into a trap game.

The Matchup: Winnipeg's Penalty Kill vs. Carolina's Special Teams

If the Jets want to end this thing, they have to stop bleeding goals while shorthanded. Florida scored five power-play goals against Winnipeg across two meetings this week, according to the Jets' website, and Barron admitted the group keeps "getting beat in different ways."

Carolina already exploited that weakness once. In the Oct. 17 meeting in Winnipeg, the Hurricanes went 2-for-2 with the man advantage. Mark Jankowski scored on the power play in the second period, and former Jet Nikolaj Ehlers hammered home the winner 6:43 into the third. Winnipeg went 0-for-1.

The other half of the problem is scoring. The Jets averaged 2.2 goals over their last 10 games, per the AP, and Sunday's assignment is Pyotr Kochetkov, who is 9-0-0 with a 1.66 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage, per the Hurricanes. Those nine straight wins to open a season are a franchise record, and the club notes that no Hurricanes goalie has ever won 10 straight starts at any point in a season. NHL.com projects Kochetkov in net, so a little team history is on the brunch menu.

The goal differential says the rest. Carolina is plus-21 (56 scored, 35 allowed). Winnipeg is minus-13 (34 scored, 47 allowed).

Players to Watch

• Pyotr Kochetkov, Hurricanes G: Beyond the streak, he has been airtight lately: a 24-save shutout in St. Louis, then wins of 2-1 over Boston and 3-2 over Columbus. "He's making a lot of hard saves look pretty easy," Seth Jarvis said this week, per the team's website.
• Kyle Connor, Jets F: The one Jet still producing at full volume. Connor leads Winnipeg with 11 goals and 15 points, and his 5-on-3 strike Friday was his fifth power-play goal, matching his total from all of last season, per the club. The AP credits him with six goals over his last 10 games.
• Logan Stankoven, Hurricanes F: Carolina's goals leader with nine, five of them in his last 10 games, per the AP. He sits between Nikolaj Ehlers and Jackson Blake in NHL.com's projected lineup, and Blake leads the team with 12 assists.
• Sebastian Aho, Hurricanes F: The team leader in points with 19, and the man who scored the late winner against Boston on Tuesday.

Team News

Hall remains out with an upper-body injury. Before Thursday's game, coach Rod Brind'Amour said Hall would miss "probably another couple games," per NHL.com, and NHL.com lists him among the injured again for Sunday. Staal is on injured reserve (calf). NHL.com expects Carolina to roll out the same lineup that beat Columbus on Thursday.

The Jets did not practice Saturday. ESPN lists Josh Morrissey, Nick Bjugstad, Vladislav Namestnikov and Garrett Brown on injured reserve. NHL.com projects Stuart Skinner to start, with Daws as the backup and Clay Stevenson a scratch. Skinner carries a 2.97 goals-against average and gave way to Daws after allowing five goals on 21 shots through two periods Thursday in Tampa, so he has something to prove too.

By the Numbers

• DraftKings lists Carolina at -278 on the moneyline (Winnipeg +225) with a total of 6.5, via ESPN, as of Saturday.
• Carolina is 8-1-1 in its last 10, averaging 3.8 goals and allowing 2.1, per the AP. Winnipeg is 1-7-2, averaging 2.2 and allowing 3.4.
• Carolina won the first meeting 3-2 in Winnipeg on Oct. 17, its seventh straight win at the time.
• The Hurricanes are 4-1-1 at home; the Jets are 2-3-2 on the road.

Our Pick

Our pick: Hurricanes 4-2. Winnipeg's effort in Florida was a step up, and Connor is dangerous enough to steal a goal off any mistake. But the Jets are a leaky penalty kill walking into a team that already burned them twice on the power play, and they have to beat a goalie who has not lost all season. Kochetkov gets to 10-0-0, and the Jets' search for a bottom keeps going.

Odds from DraftKings via ESPN as of Oct. 31. Standings, injury listings and season stats from ESPN; recent-form numbers from the AP preview via ESPN. Projected lineups and injury notes from NHL.com. Quotes from the Jets' and Hurricanes' official sites and NHL.com.