Carolina Hurricanes battling early injury wave that hit during 6-game road trip out West

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The injuries piled up quickly during the Carolina Hurricanes’ six-game road trip out West, enough so that a reporter asked coach Rod Brind’Amour whether he felt like he left with one team and came back with a different one.

“Good way to put it, yeah,” Brind’Amour said Monday. “It did actually. I don’t know how many guys went out there, but it just felt like every day there was something bad happening.”

The Hurricanes are preparing to play Vegas on Tuesday night in their first home game since Oct. 11. The question is exactly how their lineup will look, both against the Golden Knights and in the games that follow due to a line of injuries.

The list included losing defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere to lower-body injury in the win at Los Angeles on Oct. 18. Offseason blue-line acquisition K’Andre Miller was a late scratch with his own lower-body injury before Thursday’s win at Colorado, then forwards Eric Robinson and William Carrier exited that game early due to injury.

That added to a list that already included goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov (lower body) having yet to play, while top defenseman Jaccob Slavin (lower body) has been out since exiting early against Philadelphia in Game 2.

The good news for Carolina was Gostisbehere and Kochetkov were practicing Monday. Brind’Amour said he didn’t expect Miller to play against Vegas, but noted: “I think he’s around the corner.”

Brind’Amour said Slavin is “a little ways away.” He had said before Saturday’s loss at Dallas that Robinson and Carrier could be out longer-term, but said Monday neither are expected to need surgery and didn’t offer an exact timeline.

Carolina had to weave in multiple call-ups and reserves in the lineup, including forward Bradly Nadeau — a 20-year-old former first-round draft pick — and 2021 seventh-rounder Joel Nystrom making his NHL debut after Miller’s late scratch at Colorado during the road trip. Or there was 27-year-old goaltender Brandon Bussi making his first three career starts in net during the trip with Kochetkov out.

“You have to be excited for the guys who maybe haven’t gotten those minutes earlier, and now you get more opportunities,” top-line center Sebastian Aho said, adding: “I think you just have to look at it as an opportunity.”

Still, it has called for adjustments, with Brind’Amour noting “the game suddenly looks a little different” with the Hurricanes having to defend more compared to maintaining their typical puck-possession pressure in the offensive zone. That included tinkering with five forwards on the power play amid injuries to Gostisbehere and Miller, a unit already struggling to a 2-for-29 start (6.9%) this year.

Carolina won four of six on the Western swing, while both Aho and forward Jordan Martinook met the idea of frustration due to injuries with the equivalent of a shrug.

“There’s 31 teams that aren’t feeling sorry for us in our situation,” Martinook quipped after Monday’s practice.

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