Oilers forward Zach Hyman battles for the puck with Hurricanes defenseman K’Andre Miller during Edmonton’s 4-3 overtime win Nov. 15. (Karl DeBlaker / AP Photo)

RALEIGH — The Hurricanes kick off a seven-game home stand Wednesday against the New York Rangers. The string of games at home gives Carolina an opportunity to widen its one-point lead over the Devils in both the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference.

1. Wednesday’s game will also be Hurricanes defenseman K’Andre Miller’s first out against the team that drafted him and with whom he played five seasons. Miller was injured and missed Carolina’s 3-0 win in New York on Nov. 4.

After the 2023-24 season, the Rangers were wondering how they would afford Miller’s next contract. He had totaled 73 points in the previous two seasons and had become a workhorse, logging more than 21 minutes a night.

But New York unraveled last season, leading to the firing of coach Peter Laviolette and a reshaping of its roster. That included cutting bait with Miller, a player Carolina was more than happy to get its hooks into.

So now Miller will get to show his former team what he’s capable of.

“I think it’s going to be an emotional game,” Miller said, “but I’m just looking forward to having a good game.”

2. Just when it looked like the Hurricanes were inching toward full health, more bodies started dropping.

Miller missed practice earlier this week but appears ready to play through whatever his recent ailment is. Captain Jordan Staal will likely miss his second straight game with an illness, opening the door for Justin Robidas to play his third career game — and look to extend his NHL point streak to that many games as well. Taylor Hall left morning skate early and Jordan Martinook looked to be favoring a lower-body issue, but both sound like they’re good to go against the Rangers.

Pyotr Kochetkov is dinged up again, and while Jesperi Kotkaniemi joined the full team — albeit in a yellow, no-contact jersey — at Wednesday’s morning slate, there’s still no timetable for Jaccob Slavin’s return.

It’s been this way around much of the league this year, but Carolina has persevered as well as any team. They’ll need to show they can carry on without Staal against the Rangers.

3. Speaking of injuries, Seth Jarvis has had a couple of scary ones. First, he blocked a shot against the Islanders on Oct. 31 that looked serious, but he didn’t miss the next game. Then there was an alarming scene at home against Vancouver on Nov. 14 when Andrei Svechikov’s stick caught Jarvis in the eye.

Jarvis has since been wearing a tinted visor, and he told me Wednesday that it helps deal with the light sensitivity he’s still battling after the scare. In the NFL, players must get a medical exemption to wear a tinted visor, but there’s no such rule in the NHL. Hurricanes equipment manager Nick Roy told me that the team has some tinted visors available for a situation like this and was able to attach it to Jarvis’ helmet. Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere normally wears a tinted visor.

Also a neat tidbit from Roy: He said the league provided the Hurricanes with pink-tinted visors for the 2023 Stadium Series game at Carter-Finley Stadium to help with the bright outdoor lights, but none of the players opted to use one.

4. We might as well clear the air on Svechnikov. Sportnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported during the “32 Thoughts” podcast that he had gotten word of Svechnikov being open to a trade out of Carolina during his early-season struggles.

On Tuesday, Svechnikov called the report “just a rumor” and said there was no validity to the report. Such is the he said, she said of the world of sports journalism.

It’s unknown if someone in Svechnikov’s camp — either himself or a representative — leaked the idea when he was mired in an eight-game point drought, or if another team, hoping to sow some discord, put it out there to try to shake loose a talented but, at that point, underperforming player.

One side that I feel pretty confident did not float the idea is the Hurricanes. Sources told me Carolina considers Svechnikov an essential part of their core, and the team is not looking to move him. As the saying goes, if Wayne Gretzky can be traded, anyone can be traded, but the Hurricanes are in no way shopping Svechnikov.

5. Every move Alexander Nikishin makes, Carolina hockey fans are watching. Whether it’s a drop in minutes one night, a lack of opportunity on the power play or his recent one-game scratch against Winnipeg, anything to do with Nikishin is a lightning rod.

Speaking of rods, Brind’Amour tried to explain his decision to give Nikishin a night off near the end of the road trip.

“(It’s) just a reminder that it’s not always going to be automatic that you play, and you’ve got to earn your ice time,” Brind’Amour said. “And I think we need to make sure we do that right with this player. He’s going to be a really good player in this league, but there’s a big learning curve still.”

The social media monster is always hungry, and some reactions by fans border on doomsday lunacy when it comes to every decision about Nikishin’s progress.

Here’s what everyone should consider.

First, the Hurricanes know they have a special talent in Nikishin. They also know they need to build him up the right way. Think of it this way. When Jeff Skinner arrived as an 18-year-old, he set the NHL on fire and won the Calder Trophy as a rookie. But there was never any attempt to prepare him for what was ahead. And although he’s approaching 400 goals, his career has been a bit of a disappointment given the promise. The sky was the limit for Skinner had he learned to play a complete game.

Compare that to Jarvis, who also joined the league right out of the draft and made an impact. Brind’Amour and his staff knew they needed to bring him along the right way to make him a player around which they could build a winner — something Skinner has never been.

Nikishin is a different situation because he’s already 24 and has played a dominant role in the KHL for a few years. But the KHL, while a very good league, is nowhere near the level of the NHL. Look no further than former Hurricanes journeyman Josh Leivo, who scored 42 goals in 265 career NHL games — including one in seven games with Carolina — going to the KHL and scoring 49 last year.

Nikishin has things to learn, particularly that the NHL is a league where every lapse can be exploited in an instant. That’s not a knock on Nikishin but rather a realization that he’s taken a big step up in competition.

As Brind’Amour said, “You don’t want to be having these four years from now, be talking about these same issues because you didn’t address them.”

There’s a lot to be excited about, but there should also be an appreciation for the patience it takes for most players to get there.