The Carolina Hurricanes came out of their three-game road trip in great shape with a 2-1-0 record over the last week, which culminated with the Canes' first overtime experience against the Lightning. Right before the road trip started the Canes lost Nino Niederreiter to a lower-body injury. The Canes struggled early trying to replace him, having to come back against the bottom-dwelling Arizona Coyotes and Chicago Blackhawks, and they were never close against the Florida Panthers.
The Canes' initial replacement strategy was to move Jordan Martinook to the top line and shuffle the middle six with Seth Jarvis on the bottom line.