The New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes meet Friday in NHL action at the PNC Arena. The New York Islanders look for a win after winning six of their last nine games. The Carolina Hurricanes look for a win after splitting their last eight games. 

The New York Islanders are averaging 2.8 goals per game and are scoring on 20.2 percent of their power play opportunities. Brock Nelson leads New York with 33 goals, Mathew Barzal has 34 assists and Noah Dobson has 166 shots on goal. Defensively, the New York Islanders are allowing 2.6 goals per game and are killing 84 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Ilya Sorokin has given up 97 goals on 1,326 shots faced, and Semyon Varlamov has allowed 71 goals on 865 shots.

The Carolina Hurricanes are averaging 3.3 goals per game and are scoring on 23.8 percent of their power play opportunities. Sebastian Aho leads Carolina with 31 goals, Teuvo Teravainen has 39 assists and Andrei Svechnikov has 223 shots on goal. Defensively, the Carolina Hurricanes are allowing 2.4 goals per game and are killing 87.9 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Frederick Anderson has allowed 98 goals on 1,322 shots faced, and Antti Raanta has allowed 47 goals on 563 goals.

The Islanders are 4-9 in their last 13 games playing on 2 days rest and 4-1 in their last 5 overall. The Hurricanes are 6-1 in their last 7 Friday games and 37-16 in their last 53 home games. The over is 15-7 in Islanders last 22 road games. The under is 11-5-1 in Hurricanes last 17 overall. The Islanders are 0-5 in the last 5 meetings in Carolina and 0-9 in the last 9 meetings.

The New York Islanders have shown flashes of getting their act together, but nothing has been consistent, and they’ve been hard to trust in the underdog role. The Carolina Hurricanes are on the end of a back to back, but they’ve been head and shoulders the more trustworthy team, and they do most of their damage at home. The Canes have also won nine straight meetings against the Islanders. I’ll lay the juice with the Hurricanes at home here.