Carolina Hurricanes vs. Los Angeles Kings Pick & Prediction JANUARY 15th 2024

The Carolina Hurricanes understandably are feeling awesome, and they have the results to back that up.

That’s not the case at all for Monday afternoon’s opponent at Raleigh, N.C., when the Los Angeles Kings show up.

The Hurricanes own an eight-game point streak. They’ve won seven of those games, including Saturday night’s 3-2 overtime decision against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins.

“We’ve been through some adversity as a team early on this year, for sure,” Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce said. “We’re starting to roll now, but we’re just a relentless, relentless group. There’s so much faith in our locker room that even if things don’t go our way, we’re going to stick with our plan and put the hammer down.”

In addition to the season-high point streak, Carolina is 10-1-4 in its last 15 games. That includes a 2-0-1 mark so far in the season-long six-game homestand.

The Hurricanes are encouraged by the play of goalie Antti Raanta, who might receive a heavier workload with teammate Pyotr Kochetkov in the concussion protocol. Raanta’s 38 saves Saturday night — the most in a single game by a Carolina goaltender this season — included some real beauties.

“I was seeing the shots and making the saves I had to make,” Raanta said. “That’s what I’ve been focused on. Something like that happens when you do the small things right. It’s great to see a highlight reel save here and there also.”

While the Hurricanes have been surging, the Kings are going in the other direction. They have an eight-game winless streak (0-4-4). Los Angeles lost 5-3 at Detroit on Saturday in the fourth stop of a six-game road swing.

“We’ve got to tell them where we are and we have to be honest with them,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of his message to the team. “We’ve tried to accentuate a lot of the positives … but when it’s all said and done, I think that each individual has to do some inventory-checking and making sure they’re bringing what they can.”

For the Kings, there’s no magic solution to escaping for the funk.

“Just to clean their own game up a little bit and that’s what will get us out of it,” McLellan said.

Monday’s game will have a special tone with former Hurricanes captain Justin Williams set for pregame induction into the team’s Hall of Fame. Williams played eight seasons with Carolina, and he was a key contributor to the franchise’s only Stanley Cup championship in 2006. He also was a member of two Stanley Cup-winning teams with the Kings (2012, 2014).

The Kings and Hurricanes met in the first week of the season, with Carolina prevailing 6-5 in a shootout Oct. 14 in Los Angeles. The Kings had a 30-19 edge in shots on goal that night, marking the fewest shots this season for the Hurricanes.

More recently, Carolina had lost five games in a row that extended beyond regulation until Saturday night’s outcome. Pesce had two goals vs. Pittsburgh, including the winner in overtime that marked just his third goal of the season.

–Field Level Media