The Columbus Blue Jackets and the Carolina Hurricanes meet in NHL action from PNC Arena on Wednesday night.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will enter the 2022-23 season looking to shake off a frustrating 2021-22 campaign that saw Columbus finish 37-38-7, missing the playoffs for the second straight year. The Blue Jackets had the major coup of free agency, signing Johnny Gaudreau to a 7-year contract, coming off of a career-high 115 points and 40 goals last season. Jakub Voracek returns after leading the Blue Jackets with 62 points and 56 assists while Patrik Laine is also back as Columbus’ top returning scorer with 26 goals last season. Elvis Merzlikins is back between the pipes after putting up a 27-23-7 record with a 3.22 GAA and a .907 save percentage this season.
The Carolina Hurricanes come into the 2022-23 campaign looking to take a step forward after a fairly successful 2021-22 campaign, ending the year with a record of 54-20-8 and a second consecutive Metropolitan division title. Carolina took out the Boston Bruins in seven games in the opening round before falling to the New York Rangers in seven games in the next round. There’s a fair bit of turnover for Carolina, losing half of their top six scorers after parting ways with Nino Niederreiter, Tony DeAngelo and Vincent Trocheck. The top half of the core is in tact with Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Teuvo Teravainen all back and the Hurricanes had a busy offseason, bringing in Max Pacioretty as well as Brent Burns to help the Carolina defense and key role players like Ondrej Kase and Paul Stastny. Frederik Andersen will likely be the man in goal for Carolina after going 35-14-3 with a 2.17 GAA and a .922 save percentage for the ‘Canes last year.
Columbus is 16-35 in their last 51 road games and 2-6 in their last 8 games overall while the under is 3-0-1 in their last 4 Wednesday games. Carolina is 1-4 in their last 5 games overall and 45-17 in their last 62 home games while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 games overall.
I get the case to be made for a decent-sized underdog like Columbus, but Carolina thoroughly owned the matchup last season and really made one of the biggest team splashes of the entire offseason, bringing in guys like Brent Burns, Paul Stastny and Max Pacioretty to fill some decent voids left by some key contributors from last year. Columbus got the prize of free agency with Johnny Gaudreau, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done given that the Jackets pretty much stood pat with the team that struggled their way through a lot of last season. All in all, I just think there’s too much to like with Carolina at home, so give me the Hurricanes -1.5 to start the season with a bang.