- 1 St. Louis Blues vs Carolina Hurricanes: a 6-1 sweep last season against an unbeaten Kochetkov
- 2 St. Louis Blues: a power play that’s scored in five straight games
- 3 Carolina Hurricanes: Jarvis is back, Staal and Hall aren’t
- 4 Free NHL Prediction: St. Louis Blues vs Carolina Hurricanes
- 5 About our free predictions
- 6 No commitment from us
- 7 Information changes
- 8 Your responsibility
- 9 Responsible gambling
- 10 Legal age
- 11 About visuals
St. Louis Blues vs Carolina Hurricanes: a 6-1 sweep last season against an unbeaten Kochetkov 
St. Louis beat Carolina twice last season and allowed one goal across the two games, a 6-1 aggregate that’s the best recent evidence the Blues have going into Saturday. They’re also 4-2-0 in their last six meetings with the Hurricanes, which is a strange record to hold against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Carolina is 8-2-2 and sits first in the Metropolitan Division with 18 points, while the Blues are 5-4-1 and tied for fourth in the Central with 11. The two teams meet at Enterprise Center at 7pm ET on Saturday 24 October, the first of their two games this season.
Both played on Thursday, and the results pulled in opposite directions. St. Louis beat Vegas 6-2, a performance head coach Jim Montgomery called “the best game we’ve played since the (2025) playoffs.” Carolina led Edmonton 4-2 and lost 6-5 in a shootout after Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl took over the third period.
This is the last stop of a five-game road trip for the Hurricanes. They’re 2-1-1 on it so far and 6-1-1 away from Raleigh overall, and a win would give them their seventh road victory of the season.
The market leans their way at 1.65, with St. Louis at 2.31. Pyotr Kochetkov is expected to start for Carolina, and he hasn’t lost yet this season.
St. Louis Blues: a power play that’s scored in five straight games 
The Blues have scored on the power play in five consecutive games, and one more would give them their longest run since April 2022. That unit converts at 25.0%, eighth in the league, and the penalty kill is even better at 85.7%, fifth.
Mason McTavish scored the winner against Vegas and co-leads the team with 6 goals and 10 points, six of them in his last five games. Dylan Holloway scored twice on Thursday and has points in all six games of his current streak, which also takes him to 10 points.
Justin Barron’s night against Vegas was the surprise. The defenseman scored his first goal for the Blues, added three assists and finished plus-4, the first four-point game by a St. Louis defenseman since Philip Broberg in March 2025. Jimmy Snuggerud has scored in three straight games, and a fourth would match his career-long streak.
Robert Thomas has just one goal this season, but he has 12 assists in 11 career games against Carolina. One more assist would move him past Brian Sutter into sole fourth place on the franchise’s all-time list.
Joel Hofer has started seven of the 10 games and holds a 4-2-1 record with a 2.17 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. He stopped 27 of 29 shots on Thursday, while Jordan Binnington sits at 4.68 and .831 in his three appearances, and the Blues are unbeaten in regulation through four home games.
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Carolina Hurricanes: Jarvis is back, Staal and Hall aren’t 
Seth Jarvis played his first game since Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday and scored in the second period. He missed the first 11 games after shoulder surgery, and he has 5 goals and 4 assists in 9 career games against St. Louis.
Captain Jordan Staal tore his calf on October 11 and is expected to miss one to two months, and Taylor Hall has been on injured reserve since October 19 with an upper-body injury listed as week-to-week. Mark Jankowski was also sent back to Raleigh for evaluation of a lower-body problem.
Sebastian Aho carries the scoring with 16 points in 12 games, and Jackson Blake has 12. Juuso Välimaki scored against Edmonton too, his first NHL goal in nearly two calendar years, on a night Carolina scored five times and still lost.
Kochetkov is the main reason I like Carolina here. He’s unbeaten this season, and his 1.98 goals-against average is tied for sixth among goalies with at least five games. Brandon Bussi took the loss in Edmonton and is 2-2-2, so the rotation puts the stronger of Carolina’s two goalies in front of the Blues.
After St. Louis, Carolina plays four of its next six games at home before two Global Series games against Seattle in Finland. Skyler Brind’Amour and Felix Unger Sorum were recalled from the Chicago Wolves to fill out the forward group.
Probable lineup St. Louis Blues: Joel Hofer in goal (not confirmed); McTavish, Holloway, Thomas, Snuggerud up front; Barron on defense. Full lineup not announced at time of publication.
Probable lineup Carolina Hurricanes: Pyotr Kochetkov in goal; Aho, Jarvis, Blake up front. Staal, Hall and Jankowski out. Full lineup not announced at time of publication.
Free NHL Prediction: St. Louis Blues vs Carolina Hurricanes
Our prediction: Carolina Hurricanes to win (1.65)
I’m backing Carolina on the moneyline. The Hurricanes are 6-1-1 on the road, Kochetkov hasn’t lost a start, and the Blues are still looking for their first three-game winning streak of the season at 5-4-1.
St. Louis has three arguments: a power play on a five-game scoring run, a 6-1 aggregate from last season’s two meetings and a team coming off its best game in over a year. A five-game trip ending the night after a draining shootout in Edmonton doesn’t help Carolina either.
Still, Thursday’s win came against a Vegas team that had just conceded six to Tampa Bay, and the Blues allowed 29 shots in it. Carolina has the deeper roster even without Staal and Hall, and at 1.65 it’s the side to take.
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