Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal is calling for a more concentrated effort from him and his teammates following a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

"As a group, it just doesn't look like we've completely bought in to how we want to do things, and it's going to look like that," Staal said, per Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer. "It's going to be a .500 club that wins some games and loses some games and kind of ho-hum. It's getting a little frustrating. We're going to need to have everyone. I have to be better, our line's got to be better, contributions from everyone. It's got to start soon."

The Canes entered 2023-24 as one of the league's top Stanley Cup favorites after a busy offseason that saw them land Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting, among others. But the club has got off to an uneven 9-7-0 start to the campaign.

Staal says the physical effort is there, but the effort to play the team's high-pressure, north-south game is lacking.

"The effort's not terrible," Staal said. "The effort of the way we want to play is what's holding us back. The edge that you have in the NHL is you kind of know where the puck's going because that's the way we do things, and it seems right now we're just not really sure what's going to happen. It starts to look like that sloppy stuff you see in the neutral zone when the puck's bouncing around and guys are swirling around and looping around.

"It's a less direct game than the Hurricanes know and love, and I'm sure the fans love to watch. Tonight, they didn't look like they really love that game, and I don't blame them."

Head coach Rod Brind'Amour echoed his captain's thoughts.

"He knows," Brind'Amour said. "He's the one that's put this in place for a long time. It's not enough. It's not consistent enough. It's hard enough to win anyway, and it kind of makes it harder on ourselves. Just getting off a little, trying to be too cute here and there."

Staal is in his 12th season with the Hurricanes and his fifth wearing the "C" on a full-time basis. While he's better known for his abilities on the defensive side of the puck, Staal, who finished fourth in Selke Trophy voting last season, has only mustered one goal and four assists in 16 games.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

New York Islanders forward Bo Horvat wasn't a fan of Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl's actions during the teams' first matchup of the season Monday night.

The two players got into it along the boards midway through the second period of the Oilers' 4-1 victory. Horvat knocked Draisaitl down during a puck battle, and the German responded by cross-checking the back of Horvat's legs.

"I couldn't believe it, to be honest with you," Horvat said Wednesday, according to Newsday's Andrew Gross."I didn't think he did it like that. I thought it was like he pushed the back of my leg. I didn't realize he full-on cross-checked me."

"I'm not going to lie, it looked pretty dirty," he continued. "It definitely wasn't a clean play. I don't know if he was just mad because I hit him a couple of times. But you shouldn't be doing that to the back of guys' knees like that. That's how you get hurt. Luckily, I didn't, but you've just got to be careful of that."

Draisaitl picked up a minor penalty for tripping and was fined $5,000 on Tuesday, the maximum allowable amount under the NHL's collective bargaining agreement.

Horvat is in the midst of his first full season with the Islanders after coming over from the Vancouver Canucks in late January. He's playing out the first campaign of an eight-year, $68-million extension.

The 28-year-old's comments came ahead of his first game back in Vancouver since the trade. Horvat said Monday that the city in which he spent the first nine seasons of his career will "always hold a special place" in his heart.

Heading into Wednesday's action, Horvat ranked second on the Islanders with four goals and 11 points in 13 outings.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Matt and Blake discuss Bo Horvat's tenure in Vancouver, what would possess people to boo him, hear from Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller on the former captain, what Carson Soucy's loss means, the future of Nils Höglander, proposed changes to 3-on-3 overtime, and NFL entertainment value, which has taken a hit this year.

Frank Corrado stops by and tells us about the Bo Horvat he knows, as a former roommate of the Canucks captain. Was he too goody-two-shoes? Did he try too hard? Why didn't more teammates follow his lead? Was it always a losing proposition given the incompetency in his midst? Frank also gives us a hot take of what he'd do with overtime.

Harman Dayal from Canucks Convo joins and discusses how sustainable the Canucks' great start is and whether that'll matter given the cushion they've built up. He talks about the trade fits of Calgary's defencemen Nikita Zadorov and Chris Tanev. He assesses how much the team will miss Carson Soucy, and muses on whether Horvat or Miller are worthy of the Ring of Honour. Presented by Applewood Auto Group.

Follow us on social (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok & YouTube). Powered by Go Goat Sports

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just a few weeks ago, Jay Woodcroft was considered one of the favorites to win the Jack Adams Award as the coach of the year. Fast forward to now, and the Oilers have already made a change behind the bench following a 3-9-1 start to the season.

Clearly, things can change in a hurry in the NHL.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at which head coaches oddsmakers at theScore Bet believe are most likely to be replaced next.

Odds via theScore Bet. Only listed coaches at +4000 or shorter.

The Senators' D.J. Smith is the favorite to be the next coach replaced at +170, which equates to a 37% implied probability.

That's understandable - Ottawa hasn't lived up to its relatively high expectations coming into the season. The Senators have won six of 13 games, and the numbers beneath the surface paint an even bleaker picture.

They've controlled 44% of the expected goals at five-on-five, slotting them ahead of only the Sharks, Blues, and Blackhawks. That isn't the kind of company a team with playoff aspirations should keep.

The Senators have a new owner and a new president of hockey operations, neither of whom brought in Smith. When changes are made up top, the new people in power generally want to bring in their own coach. It feels like only a matter of time before the Senators walk down that path.

Dean Evason is right behind Smith in the pecking order. With just five wins through 15 games, the Wild are off to a miserable start. They're generally a very stout team, but their defensive metrics are down, and the goaltending has been horrible. If things don't turn around soon, the Wild may opt to bring in a new voice and give everyone a clean slate.

Andrew Brunette, Pascal Vincent, and Ryan Huska all have relatively high implied odds of being removed from their posts but are each in their first season on the job. They should all be safe regardless of how many losses they pile up.

Sheldon Keefe isn't too far down the list, although his job feels more secure than the odds indicate. New GM Brad Treliving could have moved on from Keefe in the summer but elected to keep him around and dish out a two-year contract extension that keeps him signed through 2025. It'd take a lot more than an 8-5-2 start for Treliving to go to the Maple Leafs' ownership with a costly change of heart.

Lane Lambert is one name that stands out at +1800. Only three teams have won fewer games than the Islanders to date, and New York owns some truly miserable defensive metrics. Lou Lamoriello is a defense-first general manager and is never shy about making changes behind the bench. The leash is undoubtedly short.

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @ToddCordell.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Vancouver Canucks defenseman Carson Soucy isn't expected back in the lineup until late December at the earliest.

Soucy will miss six-to-eight weeks due to what the club called a lower-body injury.

The 29-year-old left Sunday's win over the Montreal Canadiens early in the second period and didn't return. He's notched two goals and three assists while averaging 16:52 of ice time over 13 games this season.

Soucy is in his first season with the Canucks, who signed him to a three-year contract worth $3.25 million annually when he was a free agent on July 1. He played two seasons with the Seattle Kraken after starting his career with the Minnesota Wild.

The Minnesota Duluth product was driving possession with a five-on-five expected goals for percentage of 50.98, according to Natural Stat Trick. He's not known for his offense, but his underlying numbers show he's been defensively sound.

The Wild drafted Soucy 137th overall in 2013.

Copyright © 2023 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.