Hurricanes Game Day Preview: Big Apple Showdown vs. Rangers – Hockey Writer – Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes will travel to New York to take on the New York Rangers on Tuesday night (November 4). They are looking for their first win of November after losing 2-1 to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, November 1st. It was the first of four meetings in which both sides disliked each other. Can the Hurricanes get their first win of the month while slowing down the Rangers, who are riding a three-game winning streak?
Hurricanes vs. Rangers Preview
The Hurricanes are 6-4-0 in their last 10 games, but are 1-3-0 in their last 4 games, dating back to Nov. 25 against the Dallas Stars. The Rangers have won their last three games, two of which came in overtime against the Edmonton Oilers and Seattle Kraken. Rod Brind’Amour’s team enters Madison Square Garden with a 4-3-0 record on the road, while the Rangers are winless at home (0-4-1) to start the season. You can watch or listen to Tuesday night’s game here:
watch: TNT, truTV and HBO MAX
listen:99.9 Fans (Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy)
puck dropped: 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Alexander Nikishin scored the lone goal in the Hurricanes’ 2-1 win on Saturday, tied the game with six hits and led both teams with 24:41 of ice time (TOI). He currently leads the Hurricanes in plus-minus at +10 and is tied with Taylor Hall for seventh (six points). In 11 games during the 2025-26 season, Nikishin played more than 20 minutes in 6 of them. He provides a solid foundation on the blue line with Jaccob Slavin, K’Andre Miller and Shayne Gostisbehere out of the lineup.
He has recently been paired with Shane Walker, who has been a top pairing for the Hurricanes. Walker has been doing simple things, which is exactly what Nikishin needs in his first full season in the NHL. Nikishin has been defensive coach Tim Gleeson’s go-to guy on the blueline with Slavin paired with Walker. Those two, along with Jalen Chatfield and Mike Riley, have kept the Hurricanes defense afloat until their mainstays return to the lineup.
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Along with regular contributions from Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis, Jackson Blake has been an efficient player for the Hurricanes over the past few games. Prior to the game against the Bruins, Blake had scored in four straight games and had been outstanding for the Hurricanes this season. So far in the 2025-26 season, he has scored 3 goals and 8 points in 11 games. He scored 8 points, ranking third on the team, behind Jarvis and Aho’s 11 points. His five assists tie him with Jordan Martinuk for third. He did this while averaging a career-high TOI of 16 minutes and 26 seconds. Blake played in 80 games during his rookie season, scoring 17 goals and 34 points. Can he reach 20 goals and 40 points this season?
When it comes to who will be in the crease, Frederik Andersen makes sense after having two days off following the game against the Bruins. However, with seven games over the next 11 days, plus Pyotr Kochetkov returning from injury and Brandon Bussi starting, any one of the three could be in trouble. The Hurricanes must keep three goaltenders or risk losing either Busey or Kochetkov. With so many games over the next week and a half, it would make sense for all three to start at least one, maybe two games. It will be interesting to see how the Hurricanes determine the goaltending situation over the next few games.
Although the Rangers have started the season with a 6-5-2 record, they have been winless in five home games. Adam Fox leads the team in points (11) and assists (8). Taylor Raddysh leads the way in goals (5), but those are all his points in 13 games. Artemi Panarain (minus-4), Mika Zibanejad (minus-8) and Alexis Lafreniere (minus-7) scored a lot, although they each had six or seven points. Surprisingly, as a team, the team ranks second in goals allowed per game (2.38), while some of their top players are far behind in points allowed.
However, when looking at goals per game, the Rangers rank 31st (2.38). They are a team that can allow their opponents to average less than three goals per game, but they cannot average more than three goals per game. Translated to special teams, the Rangers rank 31st on the power play (12.1%) and ninth in penalty kills (84.8%). Compared to the Hurricanes, they ranked 12th in free throw percentage (82.5%) and 32nd in power play percentage (9.4%).
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This will be another game where the Hurricanes’ 5-on-5 play could decide the outcome, especially as they rank third in goals allowed per game (3.64) and 13th in goals allowed per game (2.91). Although both teams’ penalty kill percentage ranks in the top half of the league, both teams have the worst strength performance. The Hurricanes will have to force the Rangers to beat them in a close game at home, something the home team has yet to do after five games in 2025-26.
If the Hurricanes want their first win in November, they’ll have to find Igor Shesterkin (4-4-2, 2.28 goals-against average (GAA), 0.913 save percentage (SV%)) or Jonathan Quick (2-1-0, 1.35 GAA, 0.941 SV%). Both goalies have performed well for Rangers this season. As long as they contain the scoring and control the tempo against the struggling Rangers, the Hurricanes can pull off a win on the road and keep the Blueshirts winless in another game at Madison Square Garden. It will be another full team effort as the visitors are still without most of their regulars and enter an environment that will allow them to understand how they feel.
