{"id":458630,"date":"2024-12-17T08:50:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=458630"},"modified":"2024-12-16T22:29:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T03:29:09","slug":"nhl-predictions-dec-17-new-york-islanders-vs-carolina-hurricanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/12\/17\/nhl-predictions-dec-17-new-york-islanders-vs-carolina-hurricanes\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL Predictions: Dec. 17 New York Islanders vs Carolina Hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the latest edition of NHL Predictions. Each day, the team here at Last Word on Hockey<\/em> dives deep into analysis for any given game to give you the scoop on what elements can change the outcome. Today, we\u2019re looking at the New York Islanders versus the Carolina Hurricanes. Be sure to keep an eye on our other NHL Predictions as the season moves forward.<\/p>\n

NHL Predictions<\/h2>\n

New York Islanders vs Carolina Hurricanes<\/h3>\n

Time:<\/strong> 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)<\/p>\n

TV:<\/strong> ESPN+; HULU<\/p>\n

These two Metropolitan Division teams meet up in Raleigh for the second time this season. The first matchup saw the Islanders take a 4-3 victory. The big story in that one was the Islanders scoring four in the second period while Carolina struggled to generate anything that period. This has the potential to be an interesting one to watch.<\/p>\n

The Islanders Story<\/h4>\n

The Islanders head into this matchup holding a 12-13-7 record and 31 points. This season they have seemed to find a way to give up leads late fairly consistently. It’s definitely something they would like to leave in the past. But their last loss against the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> again saw them surrender the game-winning goal at the very end of the game. In their last ten, the Islanders are 4-4-2.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the Islanders are really struggling on both sides of the special teams battle. Their 12.2% power play and 64.7% penalty kill are both at the bottom of the league. With a 3.06 goals against per game, they are near the middle in that category. But their 2.63 goals for per game again ranks them near the bottom of the league. Captain Anders Lee<\/a> leads the team in goals (13) and points (25) but the team did see some big pieces return recently in Adam Pelech and Mathew Barzal. Ilya Sorokin will likely get the start, but Semyon Varlamov<\/a> is a very capable backup if called upon.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes Story<\/h4>\n

On the other side, the Hurricanes sit pretty comfortably in third place in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 19-10-1 and 39 points. They have been fighting through a pretty hard slump<\/a> lately but finally managed to put together a good 4-1 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> on Sunday. The Blue Jackets are having their own struggles and were on the second game of a back-to-back, but Carolina put together a 60-minute effort. Of course, that doesn’t mean they aren’t rumoured<\/a> to be looking for some additional help in net.<\/p>\n

One big story from the Hurricanes last victory was their special teams. They didn’t score on the power play (well they did but it got called back), but their penalty kill was perfect. This included killing a four-minute double minor while Sebastian Aho<\/a> put in a shorthanded goal. Aho has had a bit of a slow start this year but plays like that remind you of why he made Team Finland for the 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament<\/a>. For the year, Carolina is 26.8% on the power play and 85.1% on the penalty kill. Even during their slump, special teams have been a big help.<\/p>\n

Martin Necas<\/a> continues to lead the team in points with 44 and goals with 14. Interestingly, Dustin Tokarski backstopped the team to their victory against Columbus. Rod Brind’Amour<\/a> wanted to give him some reps and he put together a very solid effort, only letting in one. Pyotr Kochetkov will likely get the start in this one.<\/p>\n

Prediction<\/h3>\n

Both of these teams have holes they are looking to fix this season. A lot will come down to which team can play a full 60-minute effort. We saw the Islanders take over the last game essentially in one period. And it can happen again. One question is if Carolina’s latest victory will lead to a continuous trend or if it will be a one-off. Special teams might end up making a difference in this one.<\/p>\n

Prediction: Carolina wins 4-2<\/em><\/p>\n

Prop Bets of the Night<\/h3>\n

When looking at prop bets for the night, I’d take a look at Seth Jarvis<\/a> for Carolina. Places like FanDuel are giving him +210 odds. I’d also look at Mathew Barzal for the Islanders with around +300 odds. He had his first game back against the Blackhawks to knock the rust off and will be hungry to score.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Please play responsibly, check for your local rules and age restrictions, some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the latest edition of NHL Predictions. Each day, the team here at Last Word on Hockey dives deep into analysis for any given game to give you the scoop on what elements can change the outcome. Today, we\u2019re looking at the New York Islanders versus the Carolina Hurricanes. Be sure to keep an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4428,"featured_media":458666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4524,10,2,4547,17,4548],"tags":[996,944,703,4108,705],"class_list":["post-458630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl-predictions","category-hurricanes","category-featured","category-hockey","category-islanders","category-nhl","tag-anders-lee","tag-martin-necas","tag-mathew-barzal","tag-pyotr-kochetkov","tag-sebastian-aho"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4428"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458674,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458630\/revisions\/458674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}