<p>The Carolina Hurricanes will be without Andrei Svechnikov for their tilt against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night as the Russian forward battles a lower-body injury.</p>



<p>The injury to Svechnikov comes at a bad time for the Hurricanes, who are visiting a Devils team that could draw even on points with Carolina with a victory.</p>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Andrei Svechnikov will not play tonight due to a lower-body injury.</p>— Hurricanes PR (@CanesPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/CanesPR/status/1635045251038724097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2023</a></blockquote><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>Svechnikov’s absence was a game-time decision and is unlikely to warrant a trip to the IR. Sunday’s contest will be the first that the player misses this season.</p>



<p>Svechnikov’s offense will be missed by a ‘Canes team that has scored just once over their past two games, a 1-0 victory over the Flyers and a 4-0 shutout loss to the Golden Knights.</p>



<p>The number two overall pick in the 2018 draft, Svechnikov is following up a breakout 30-goal season in 2021-2022 with another strong campaign. The 22-year-old is third on the Hurricanes in goals (22) and joint-second on the team in points (55).</p><div class="injected-ad injected-video" data-nn-ad-tech-injection-count="0" data-nn-ad-tech-max-gap="130" data-nn-ad-tech-current-gap="170"></div>



<p>Neither the Hurricanes nor the Devils have missed a beat in their battle to win their division; both teams have won 7 of their last 10 games. Whichever team finishes in second place can look forward to a likely home playoff series with the New York Rangers, who sit 9 points out of the division’s top seed.</p>
