Match-up - New Jersey Devils (11-8-5) @ Carolina Hurricanes (13-9-1)
Road/Home records - 4-5-3 -------------- 6-5-0
TV - MSG Plus, FS-CAR
Puck drop - 7:00 PM ET
Season series - Hurricanes lead 1-0
Last 10: Devils 2-6-2 / Hurricanes 5-5-0
Projected starting goalies - Johan Hedberg (NJ) vs. Dan Ellis (CAR)
Battle of the stats
Goals for/against per game
Carolina - 3.00 / 2.87
New Jersey - 2.42 / 2.67
Power play/Penalty Kill percentage
Carolina - 13.6% / 78.4%
New Jersey - 17% / 78.8%
Here are the projected lines (subject to change) for the Hurricanes:
Lines courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com.
Jiri Tlusty - Eric Staal - Alexander Semin
Jeff Skinner - Jordan Staal - Tim Wallace
Jussi Jokinen - Riley Nash - Pat Dwyer
Kevin Westgarth - Brett Sutter - Drayson Bowman
Jay Harrison - Justin Faulk
Tim Gleason - Joe Corvo
Bobby Sanguinetti - Jamie McBain
Here are the projected lines (subject to change) for the Devils:
Alexei Ponikarovsky - Andrei Loktionv - Ilya Kovalchuk
Patrik Elias - Adam Henrique - David Clarkson
Stefan Matteau - Travis Zajac - Steve Bernier
Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Tom Kostopoulos
Adam Larsson - Anton Volchenkov
Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Peter Harrold - Marek Zidlicky
Notes: Johan Hedberg will start...Bryce Salvador is out tonight with an upper body injury...Henrik Tallinder is expected to sit with a lower body injury...Krys Barch will likely be the other scratch...Adam Larsson is expected to play in place of Bryce Salvador...New Jersey has lost four straight on the road.
Hurricanes to watch out for:
Eric Staal - Staal has been lights out of late recording nine points and a plus-7 rating in his last five games.
Jiri Tlusty - He's having a nice breakout season and his play has been rewarded by playing on the top line with Staal and Semin. Tlusty has 18 points in 23 games on the year and scored the game-winning-goal against the Devils in the only meeting thus far.
Dan Ellis - With Cam Ward out, Ellis will be 'the guy' in Carolina until he comes back. If the Hurricanes want to have a chance at their division, he'll need to continue to play well.
Devils to watch out for:
Patrik Elias - He has goals in back-to-back games and is the Devils' leading scorer with 24 points in 24 games.
llya Kovalchuk - Kovalchuk hasn't put the puck in the net in six games. He's played a lot and has picked up some assists, but he needs to start filling the net.
Johan Hedberg - After a string of less than mediocre starts, Hedberg stepped up and was pretty good in the Devils' win Thursday night. They'll need another good start from him.
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