Hurricanes vs Blue Jackets: Prediction, Team News and Canadian Odds

Pyotr Kochetkov has started eight games and won all eight. Carolina leads the NHL on twenty-two points with the second-best goal difference in the league, and Columbus arrives having won two in a row with nobody on the injury report. What follows is the call, the injuries that matter and the Canadian prices.

How to watch

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Hurricanes vs Blue Jackets odds

Moneyline prices from 2 Canadian sportsbooks, captured on 2026-10-29. American odds throughout.

These are stored prices rather than live ones, and a hockey line moves the moment a starting goaltender is confirmed, so check before you bet. Availability varies by province: PlayNow is a provincial platform rather than open-market books, and the private sportsbooks operate where they hold a licence. Our NHL betting sites page sets out which operates where, and who is expected in net is on our projected NHL starting goalies page.

Columbus has the fewest games played and no injuries at all

The Blue Jackets are 5-5-0 on ten points, twenty-seventh, with a goal difference of minus seven. Ten games is the lightest workload in the league.

They have won their last two, 4-3 past regulation in Philadelphia and 2-1 over Vegas, and three of their last five went to extra time. Twenty-six goals in ten games is the problem rather than the defence.

Cam Talbot and Jet Greaves have split the crease almost exactly, five starts each at .894 and .883. Columbus has nobody listed as injured.

How they compare

Carolina finished twenty-one points clear of Columbus last season and scored half a goal a game more. The power-play gap was six points, 24.9 per cent against 18.9, and Carolina’s penalty kill was four and a half points better as well.

Carolina leads the league and their goaltender has not lost

The Hurricanes are 10-2-2 on twenty-two points, top of the NHL, with fifty-three goals for and thirty-four against. They beat Boston 2-1 at home on Tuesday.

Pyotr Kochetkov is 8-0-0 with a .918. Eight starts, eight wins. Brandon Bussi has the other six starts at 2-2-2 and a .865, so the gap between them is the widest on tonight’s card.

Three players are out. Jordan Staal is gone until early December with a calf injury, Taylor Hall until around 1 November and Alexander Nikishin until 7 November.

This series does not produce quiet games

Carolina leads the all-time series 38 wins to 31 across sixty-nine meetings and have taken four of the last five.

Those five produced 6, 7, 6, 5 and 11 goals, an average of 7.0. That is the highest head-to-head average on tonight’s card by some distance. Four of the five cleared five and a half, and the one-sided scorelines came in both directions.

Team news

Who starts in goal is an open question. Columbus Blue Jackets has split between Talbot (5 starts, .894) and Greaves (5, .883), and Carolina Hurricanes has split between Kochetkov (8 starts, .918) and Bussi (6, .865). Neither number is a promise about tonight, and the line moves the moment a club confirms its starter.

The full league picture is on our NHL injury report.

Players to watch

Pyotr Kochetkov, Carolina. Eight starts, eight wins, a .918, and the best record of any goaltender in the league.

Cam Talbot, Columbus. A .894 across five, sharing the net almost evenly with Jet Greaves.

Jet Greaves, Columbus. The other half of that split at .883, and the reason neither has taken the job.

Score prediction

Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 Columbus Blue Jackets. Carolina leads the league, Kochetkov has not lost, and this series averages seven goals.

Hurricanes vs Blue Jackets prediction

Carolina is the side we would take and it is the most straightforward call on the card. Top of the league against twenty-seventh, at home, with a goaltender who has won every start.

The case for Columbus is that they are fully fit, rested on ten games played, and have won their last two. Our lean: Carolina, and the over. The last five meetings averaged seven goals, Carolina is scoring 3.8 a game, and Columbus has conceded in every one of their ten.

We rank all 32 each week in the NHL power rankings; the NHL schedule has the rest of Thursday’s games.

19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC). Picks are opinion, not advice, and odds change constantly. Availability varies by province. Please play responsibly. ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 for Ontario residents; see your province’s helpline for resources elsewhere.