"Best team in the league" - NHL Twitter reacts as Hurricanes thrash Sabres

The Carolina Hurricanes won 5-1 over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night, increasing their unbeaten run to seven games. Right winger Stefan Noesen scored one and assisted another for the visitors, while Alex Tuch scored the only goal for the home team.

Carolina Hurricanes are on a seven-game winning streak

The Canes have now won seven games in a row and go into the All-Star break with the #1 position in the NHL Metropolitan Division, boasting a 34-9-8 record.

Today's match was the second meeting between the two teams. The Hurricanes won the previous matchup with a 5-3 scoreline.

The top performer in tonight's game was Carolina Hurricanes' goaltender Antti Raanta, making 29 saves with .967 SV%. In the 17 games that Raanta has started this season, the Hurricanes have won 12 with .897 SV%.

Goals for the Canes came from Sebastian Aho, Stefan Noesen, Brent Burns, Derek Stepan and Jordan Martinook. Aho got the first goal for the Canes and is in formidable form, having scored at least one goal in six consecutive games.

Ukko-Pekka Luukonen made 29 saves for the Sabres and had a .879 SV% in this game. Sabres suffered a huge blow when leading scorer Tage Thompson left the game with an upper-body injury. Thompson has 34 goals and 68 points in 50 games.

The injury also jeopardizes his appearance in the NHL All-Star Game. Thompson is set to play in the 2023 NHL All-Star Game this weekend, but the injury has made his status questionable.

The Buffalo Sabres are now fourth in the Atlantic Division with a 24-20-4 record.

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Srihari is an NHL Assistant Content Manager and writer at Sportskeeda with over 2 years of experience. An engineering graduate in electrical and electronics, he spent one year as a Programmer Analyst at Cognizant.

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The Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs are Srihari’s favorite teams in the NHL. He likes players who are eye-catching with their skills and speed, and believes Oilers star duo Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and Leafs' Auston Matthews are three of the best players in today's game.

When he’s not writing or watching the NHL, he binges on highlights of NBA games. He also loves to play outdoor sports like cricket, basketball and occasionally soccer. Srihari also plays Valorant, FIFA, Call of Duty and other games in his free time. He hopes to add playing the piano to this list soon.

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