Unbeaten Hurricanes start 5,000-mile trip vs. winless Sharks

The unbeaten Carolina Hurricanes begin their longest road trip of the season on Tuesday night when they visit the San Jose Sharks.

Carolina will play six games over a 12-day span before returning home for an Oct. 28 contest with the Vegas Golden Knights. The trip covers 5,225 miles and includes games in three time zones.

"It's always fun getting on the road with the guys and getting to know each other, new guys especially," said Hurricanes team captain Jordan Staal, who needs one goal to hit the 300-mark in his NHL career. "But you look at the lineup of teams, there's some really good teams on the road trip. We're going to have a big challenge, but it's a great identity trip. I think it's something to build our identity on and how we play."

The trip also includes games at Anaheim and Los Angeles followed by stops in Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights and Denver to face the Colorado Avalanche before concluding in Dallas with a contest against the Stars.

The Hurricanes will pack a 2-0-0 record with them thanks to back-to-back home wins over New Jersey (6-3) and Philadelphia (4-3 in overtime).

"You need it, right? You need it," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said of a good start. " ... We've got a tough road trip coming up, so it's nice to have those (wins) in the bank."

The Hurricanes will start the trip without goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov, who suffered a lower body injury in practice last week and was placed on injured reserve Monday. They might also be without star defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who left Saturday's game late with an injury. Slavin didn't practice Monday before the team departed for the airport.

"He's getting looked at again," said Brind'Amour, who reported Slavin "came up a little gimpy" after Saturday's win. "He didn't feel great at the end of the game, so that's TBD, I guess."

Brandon Bussi, a 27-year-old waiver pickup from the Florida Panthers, will back up veteran Frederik Andersen in goal and could make his NHL debut on the trip. The Western Michigan product went 63-31-13 in 111 AHL games with the Providence Bruins from 2021-25 with eight shutouts and a .915 save percentage.

"I'm pretty sure we'll put Brandon in there," Brind'Amour said. "I don't know when, but we don't want to overdo Freddie at the start of the season."

San Jose is still searching for its first win after back-to-back overtime home losses to Vegas (4-3) and Anaheim (7-6). The Sharks blew leads late in the third period of both contests, missing empty-net tries that would have sealed the wins in both.

"Our execution starts with our breakouts and coming out of our D-zone," said San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky after Saturday's loss to Anaheim. "When you play in your D-zone a lot because you turn over the puck a lot, you're going to eventually break, and that's what happened tonight.

"Winning habits were not good ... Really, our whole game wasn't great, let's be honest. So we gotta keep working with these young guys and our team here to have an understanding of what that looks like."

Warsofsky said 18-year-old Michael Misa, the second overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, will make his debut for the Sharks in Tuesday's contest. During Monday's practice, he centered the third line.

--Field Level Media