The Carolina Hurricanes routed the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night, defeating them by a final score of 9-2.

In honor of that, here are nine takeaways from the win:

Russian blueliner Alexander Nikishin made his season debut last night after missing the first 18 games of the year.

Nikishin finished the evening registering a goal, an assist and two blocks in 20:21 of ice time and he also had a 65.38% 5v5 chance share.

"It's hard," Nikishin said on his first game back. "It's not easy after five months I don't play. Good team win."

"I think the offensive stuff is not anything that surprises us," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "He’s got a good shot. I don't think that's the part of the game that's going to take a little time with being out. I think just the the reads and all that stuff will probably be something that he'll have to just catch up on. But it was a good start."

The Carolina Hurricanes' top line had been a bit quieter in November after a hot start to the year, but they've really dialed it up the last two games, especially on Saturday.

The trio of Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and William Carrier combined for three goals and were on the ice for four.

They dominated possession having a 7-0 edge in shots on goal in their 5v5 minutes and they generally did whatever they wished with the puck all night.

Both Aho and Svechnikov were cutting through the Blackhawks defense with ease and put together quite a few highlight reel plays in the win.

Who would have thought that when Rod Brind'Amour tossed Will Carrier up on the top line that things would click as well as they have.

Both Aho and Svechnikov are point-per-game players and Carrier has already almost set a new career high in assists less than 20 games into the year.

He's got a useful skillset as a hardnosed forechecker, but there's still plenty of talent there as well, and when you combine that with his work ethic, it's clear why things are clicking.

Carrier did miss the third period after taking a puck off of the knee, but Brind'Amour said the decision to keep him out was just a precautionary one.

"I don't think it'll be an issue," Brind'Amour said. "Just more precautionary there. There was no reason to put anybody out there at that point."

It wasn't just the top line that was going last night, as all four forward lines found their way onto the scoresheet too.

Seth Jarvis, Jackson Blake and Jordan Martinook (x2) all found the back of the net throughout the night and really, the team could have scored way more than nine.

Martinook missed out on the hat trick bid after missing on a wide-open cage, Mark Jankowski hit the frame twice, Svechnikov was also denied a hat trick bid due to hitting the post once and blasting a one-timer just wide, Taylor Hall had a swipe that rolled just to the side of the net.

In total, 15 of the 18 skaters registered at least one point and eight players had a multipoint outing.

It was all Carolina, all night.

With a two-point night, Finnish centerman Jesperi Kotkaniemi has already surpassed last year's point total... in 25 less games.

In 17 games, Kotkaniemi has five goals and 10 points on the year and he's been developing some good chemistry in the bottom six.

"You know, it's bounces here and there," Kotkaniemi said. "Glad to get a couple this year and hopefully gonna keep going like that."

Kotkaniemi hasn't had the easiest go of things in Carolina over the last year, but with the injuries the team has faced, he's found his way back into the lineup and to his credit, he's contributing.

 "It's a tough position when you're in that spot where you're the healthy scratch and your team's winning," Brind'Amour said. "It's not easy. No one wants to be that. But he's never shown any negative way to the team and that's a big deal being able to handle that. You’ve got to wait for your opportunity and then you’ve got to do something with it, and so far, it's been a good start."

The Hurricanes have had a penchant for fast starts this season and especially so over the last two games.

On Long Islander, the Canes scored twice in the opening 3:20 of game time and last night, they scored twice in 3:21.

The Canes have come ready to play nearly every night and when you can start on time, it's easy to snowball.

"The start was incredible," Martinook said. "I think, what’d we give up? One or two shots for the first 15 minutes? And then obviously we're pouring it on. It's fun to be on the side where you're just kind of running downhill. That's what it feels like. So it was a great start by us."

The 9-2 win tied the Carolina Hurricanes team record for goals in a game, with the Canes having scored that many four times now in their history.

Funny enough, they've now done it twice this calendar year, also having defeated the Florida Panthers 9-1 last season.

As stated earlier, they had plenty of opportunity to set a new record, but I'm sure the team isn't disappointed by any means.

There wasn't a ton for Pyotr Kochetkov to do Saturday night, but he did his job nonetheless and with the win, he joined some pretty rare company.

Kochetkov became just the 11th netminder in NHL history to win 11 games in their first 12 games of a season.

And another one of those 11?

Brandon Bussi, who also reached that milestone last season.

The Hurricanes will now fly to Finland to take part in the NHL's Global Series against the Seattle Kraken.

It would have been easy to look past last night's game against a bottom feeder with such a big event on the horizon, but credit to the Canes for locking in.

"A lot of distractions with this," Brind'Amour said. "Everyone has to pack and we were just on a road trip, so they come home and then all you're talking about is Finland. And yet we’ve got a game to play, so that probably, in all this, is the most impressive thing that I take away from the group. That we came ready to play. It was about business, and now we can focus on this trip."

"It's always good to go home and see the family and friends a little bit," Kotkaniemi said about heading to Finland. "I went there last year as well, so that's fun. Looking forward to that again."

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