RALEIGH, NC – The preparatory work is complete and the Carolina Hurricanes are ready for their first real task.

The team will face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday’s Opening Night event presented by Lenovo and is expected to field the same lineup of 18 skaters it showed off in practice this week.

Jack Roslovic appears to be the man to start the season alongside Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis Jesperi Kotkaniemi gets the focal point between talented wingers Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov.

The return Shayne Gostisbehere is ready to mate with the newcomer Sean Walkerallow Dmitry Orlov And Jalen Chatfield to continue the chemistry they built last season.

Do you want to know who starts in goal? Too bad.

Rod Brind’Amour announced at the press release this morning that he would not be naming a starting goalkeeper and had no plans to do so this season.

“You can just wait and see like everyone else… It’s been the same question for 82 games, I can just avoid it now,” the head coach said.

Brind’Amour admitted that the plan was to use either Frederik Andersen or Pyotr Kochetkov tonight and the other for tomorrow’s game in Tampa, but with Saturday’s game postponed they obviously can’t use that approach now.

Andersen, entering his fourth season as a member of the team, has posted a 69-27-4 record with a 2.22 goals against average and a .918 save percentage in a Canes jersey. Of all NHL goaltenders who have played at least 100 games over the last three seasons, “Zilla’s save percentage of .918 ranks fourth, behind only Linus Ullmark (.924), Igor Shesterkin (.922) and Ilya Sorokin (.919). ).

The 35-year-old was particularly sharp at Carolina’s show finale in Nashville last Saturday, parrying 29 of 31 shots in over 40 minutes of work.

Kochetkov was named to the NHL’s All-Rookie Team in June after going 23-13-4 in a team-leading 42 games last season.

Kochetkov appeared in two preseason games and was the winning goaltender against Tampa Bay in both games. In the team’s first exhibition game at Amalie Arena, “PK” stopped 22/23 and on Oct. 4 at Lenovo Center he stopped 16 of 17.

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Today’s betting odds

Odds at time of publication provided by Fanatics Sportsbook: Sticks -135

To view more Fanatics Sportsbook betting lines, click here.

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The planned lineup this evening…

Forward

Jarvis – Aho – Roslovic

Svechnikov – Kotkaniemi – Necas

Martinook – Staal – Carrier

Robinson-Drury-Blake

defense

Slavin – burns

Gostisbehere-Walker

Orlov – Chatfield

starting goalkeeper

Still open

Injuries

Jesper Fast (neck, out for 2024-25 season)

Brendan Lemieux (unknown, non-practicing)

Joakim Ryan (unknown, not practicing)

Riley Stillman (lower body, practice)

scratch

N/A

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PP1: Aho, Jarvis, Necas and Svechnikov with Gostisbehere

PP2: Blake, Drury, Kotkaniemi and Roslovic with Burns