If I get the chance to look at a weekday matinee NHL game in this space in a major rarity, I'm taking it. We have that today as the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes take on the Seattle Kraken. Puck drop is set for just after noon ET from Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the NHL Global Series. Bet $5+ on any of tonight's NHL games to get $200 in bonus bets at DraftKings Sportsbook:
NHL Network has the telecast. Seattle is the home team, and that matters in hockey because the home side gets the last line change. Carolina will be the home team for Saturday's rematch. These will be the 49th and 50th regular-season NHL games played outside North America in league history.
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Hurricanes vs. Kraken NHL same-game parlay
- Carolina 60-minute line
- Alt under 7.5
DraftKings SGP price: +128 (subject to change)
The Hurricanes will become the fourth reigning Stanley Cup winner to appear in an international game, and Cup winners own a 5-1-0 mark in the previous six matchups. The most recent NHL games in Finland were in November 2024 and saw the defending Cup champions, then Florida, sweep two games against Dallas. Carolina (2-0-0) is one of five teams that has won all of its games contested outside North America.
Carolina might well repeat as Stanley Cup champion, as it's sitting at 14-3-2 and is the +600 favorite. Just two losses by more than one goal, and the Canes enter off back-to-back wins over the Islanders and Blackhawks by a combined score of 14-5. Simply no holes on the roster. Russian netminder Pyotr Kochetkov has been outstanding at 11-1-0 with a 1.67 GAA, .920 save percentage and two shutouts but is only the +1000 sixth favorite for the Vezina Trophy. What's up with that?
One injury concern for the Hurricanes regarding forward William Carrier, as he was removed from the team's last game Saturday for precautionary reasons because of a knee issue. He has a goal, 11 assists and plus-4 rating. But forward and captain Jordan Staal made the trip and might play for the first time since suffering a torn calf muscle during warmups Oct. 11.
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Seattle is the newest NHL franchise, and this will mark the Kraken's first international game, the 27th team in league history to play in one. The only franchises that haven't are Canadiens (very much surprises me), Islanders, Mammoth, Golden Knights and Capitals (also surprising due to Alex Ovechkin). The highest-scoring game outside North America was 10 goals between Panthers-Stars from Tampere, Finland in 2024.
The Kraken have alternated wins and losses over their past six and lost their last game, 4-3 at home to the Rangers on Saturday. They nearly rallied to win from down four goals for the first time in franchise history. Berkly Catton had an assist to extend his points streak to eight games. That's the fourth-longest in team history, with the record 12 by Vince Dunn in 2022-23.
Joey Daccord started that game for Seattle in net but was relieved by Philipp Grubauer, who stopped 15 of 16 shots and has been the better netminder this season, if not great. The German is 5-3-1 with a 3.08 GAA and should get the call today.
The NHL has been at least 5% Finland-born players each season since 2018-19, and both of these clubs have at least one good Finnish player on their side. Sebastian Aho leads Carolina (and all league Finnish players) with 26 points, and Kaapo Kakko is second on Seattle with 13 points. Aho had his 57th career three-point game Saturday to tie Florida's Aleksander Barkov for the fourth-most by a Finnish player in NHL history.
Aho and Kakko were teammates on Finland's bronze medal-winning team at the 2026 Italy Olympics, and both scored in the 6-1 victory over Slovakia for the bronze. No player from Finland has been the top pick in the NHL Draft, but a few guys have gone No. 2 overall, including Kakko in 2019 to the New York Rangers.
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These clubs split a pair of one-goal games last season, each winning at home. Exactly half of all games played outside of North America (24 of 48) have been decided by a one-goal margin or ended in a tie; 12 have gone past regulation.
I'm up a unit on NHL in this space this week thanks to a +101 parlay Tuesday on Devils-Jets. Took the home dog there +1.5 and both to score two goals and I have to say I thought about that again here. I don't play road teams. But this isn't a true road game for the much-superior Carolina, so I'll take my chances on the regulation line along with my favorite alt Under 7.5 play for a solid SGP number. The model has Canes 3.5-3.2. Check out other expert picks in the SportsLine daily newsletter.
