Bruins at Hurricanes Tonight: The NHL's Two Best Records Meet in Raleigh, and Geekie Gets a Look at His Old Team

I don't normally call an October game a measuring stick, and the Bruins' coach doesn't either. But when the two best records in the NHL meet, I'm going to watch. Boston (9-2-1) plays at Carolina (9-2-2) tonight at 8 p.m. ET at Lenovo Center, according to BostonBruins.com. The Hurricanes are the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Marco Sturm shrugged off the measuring-stick framing. "Just for me, they are champions, so we've got to bring our best," he said. "For me, it's not a measuring stick. It is more like, 'I want to beat them,' right? Whoever wins the Cup, you try to play your best and show them what you've got."

The numbers favor a good game. Carolina became the first team in the league this season to reach 20 points, a first for the franchise, according to Field Level Media. Boston has 19 points and has played one fewer game. The Bruins carry an eight-game points streak (7-0-1), which includes back-to-back six-goal games against Nashville and San Jose. In eight of their nine wins, they've scored at least four goals, and they have six goals in four different games.

David Pastrnak said what everybody saw Saturday. After the 6-4 win over the Sharks, he told reporters, "We know we were far from our best today. It's OK, we ended up winning, and it's hard to win in this league." He leads the team with seven goals and 10 assists, per Field Level Media. James Hagens has four goals, and Sturm said he's pushing the rookie to get "more to the paint." The goalie matchup is strong too: Carolina's Pyotr Kochetkov is 7-0-0 and Boston's Jeremy Swayman is 7-1-1.

There's a personal angle. Morgan Geekie, who led Boston with 39 goals last season, was a third-round pick of the Hurricanes in 2017 and won the Calder Cup with their AHL affiliate in Charlotte in 2018-19, according to the Bruins' practice report. He played 38 games with Carolina before Seattle claimed him in the July 2021 expansion draft. "I think when you first move on, it's a lot more prominent than it is maybe now. It's still always that extra fire," Geekie said. He now skates on the second line with Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov and has nine points through 12 games, tied for third on the team.

The Bruins have a relaxed room, to hear Geekie tell it. He talked about youthful energy from Minten, 22, and Khusnutdinov, 24: "You kind of see in the room how loose it is when it needs to be." Sturm put the three together about a week ago. Defenseman Will Borgen, acquired from the Rangers in July, has four points in his first season in Boston, with both of his goals empty-netters, and Sturm noted he hadn't scored one since high school until he came to Boston. "He's a quiet kid, but I feel like he plays an aggressive style," the coach said.

Carolina is not at full strength. The Hurricanes are without captain Jordan Staal and forwards Taylor Hall and Mark Jankowski, Field Level Media reported. Seth Jarvis, back from offseason shoulder surgery, makes his home debut after playing in the final two games of Carolina's 3-1-1 road trip with a point in each. Carolina signed defenseman Alexander Nikishin to a one-year contract Sunday, though he is not expected to play right away. Nikolaj Ehlers said the injuries have forced patchwork lineups but that guys have "really stepped up." It is also Carolina's first home game in two weeks, and goalie Kochetkov, who just shut out St. Louis 4-0 to end that trip, said, "We just want to go home because it's been a long trip."

Boston has taken points in all but one of its six road games, the report said. After Raleigh, the Bruins go to St. Louis for Thursday's 8 p.m. ET game at Enterprise Center. Geekie put the approach plainly: "We know we're going to have our hands full. But I think we've been playing great hockey. Everyone is buying in." My take: if Boston scores four again, they win. If they don't, the question is whether the defense that has leaked four to San Jose can hold up against the champs. Tonight we find out.