RALEIGH, N.C.\u00a0– 17 players who appeared in the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup-clinching Game 6 victory in June will look to help their club start the new season with a win against the Florida Panthers this evening.<\/p>\n
Amid Seth Jarvis’\u00a0ongoing recovery from offseason shoulder surgery, Eric Robinson looks likely to get first crack at his spot alongside Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov. The 31-year-old put up eight points in 19 games during the summer’s championship run \u2013 including a team-leading three goals during the Eastern Conference Final \u2013 while thriving on a momentum-creating line with Mark Jankowski\u00a0and William Carrier.<\/p>\n
In turn, Nicolas Deslauriers will slot into Robinson’s previous role, introducing a healthy dose of sandpaper into tonight’s tilt between the last two Cup champs.<\/p>\n
“It’s a pretty easy decision,” said Rod Brind’Amour of the choice to ice No. 44. “Obviously, we know what Florida brings. They’re a bigger team, and he’s one of the stronger guys on our team, so I think it’s a good spot to throw him in there.”<\/p>\n
On the blue line, the lone question mark through camp was the spot next to Shayne Gostisbehere.\u00a0Tonight, you’ll find Charles Alexis Legault\u00a0stationed there, leveling out the team’s defense pairings with three right-handed and three left-handed shots.<\/p>\n
After logging 12 outings with the Canes in 2025-26,\u00a0Legault showcased his physical style of play during preseason action, including dropping the gloves against Florida’s Brady\u00a0Tkachuk in the teams’ exhibition opener.<\/p>\n
“That was\u00a0one of those decisions we had to make coming into camp. We\u00a0know we do like the righty\/lefty [pairings]. That’s\u00a0a big deal,” said Brind’Amour. “I think it just helps, and it\u00a0helps that Charles is a big\u00a0guy that can skate…\u00a0I think we’ll see how this goes, and hopefully it sticks, but we’ve got a lot of good options if it doesn’t.”<\/p>\n
After putting a bow on his preseason with a 22-save shutout in Nashville on Sunday, Brandon Bussi will tend the twine against the Cats. The 28-year-old had a fairy-tale 2025-26 season, which began with him being claimed off waivers from Florida the first week of October. Earning his playing time in net, he went on to be a rock for the unit the whole way, going 31-6-2 in his first full NHL season. He even stood tall between the pipes with a shutout in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final \u2013 just his third appearance of the postseason.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Tonight’s Projected Lineup…<\/p>\n
Forwards<\/p>\n
Robinson – Aho – Svechnikov<\/p>\n
Hall – Stankoven – Blake<\/p>\n
Ehlers – Staal – Martinook<\/p>\n
Carrier – Jankowski – Deslauriers<\/p>\n
Defense<\/p>\n
Slavin – Chatfield<\/p>\n
Miller – Walker<\/p>\n
Gostisbehere – Legault<\/p>\n
Starting Goaltender<\/p>\n
Bussi<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
Seth Jarvis<\/p>\n
Scratches<\/p>\n
Jesperi Kotkaniemi<\/p>\n
Mike Reilly<\/p>\n
Cayden Primeau<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
PP1: Aho, Blake, Ehlers (Staal), and\u00a0Svechnikov with Gostisbehere<\/p>\n
PP2: Ehlers, Hall,\u00a0Jankowski (Staal), and Stankoven with Miller<\/p>\n
Jordan Staal has been taking the faceoffs to start most power plays. If he wins it, he’ll stay on the ice. When the puck comes out of the zone, he jumps off, and Nikolaj Ehlers jumps on with the first unit. When with the second unit, Mark\u00a0Jankowski jumps on when Staal goes off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C.\u00a0– 17 players who appeared in the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup-clinching Game 6 victory in June will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414021,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-414020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}