The Carolina Hurricanes will look to improve to 3-0 tonight, as they host the Tampa Bay Lightning. Here’s the pre-game report.
According to NHL.com’s Kurt Dusterberg, Carolina’s projected lines are:
Niederreiter - Aho - Teravainen Svechnikov - Staal - McGinn Dzingel - Haula - Necas Foegele - Wallmark - Martinook
Slavin - Hamilton Edmundson - Pesce Gardiner - Fleury
Mrazek Reimer
Lines and pairings will stay the same as yesterday, while Petr Mrazek is expected to start in goal.
Tampa Bay’s projected lines, according to Dusterberg, are:
Steven Stamkos - Tyler Johnson - Nikita Kucherov Ondrej Palat - Anthony Cirelli - Alex Killorn Carter Verhaeghe - Yanni Gourde - Mathieu Joseph Pat Maroon - Gemel Smith - Luke Witkowski
Victor Hedman - Kevin Shattenkirk Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak Braydon Coburn - Mikhail Sergachev
Curtis McElhinney Andrei Vasilevskiy
The Lightning are coming off a 4-3 loss to Florida yesterday, having split their first two games against the Panthers. Curtis McElhinney is expected to start against his former team, playing in his first game of the season.
Something I did last year for my New York Islanders pieces (and something I’ll be trying here) is an overperformers and underperformers section. This looks at who, on either team, historically overperforms or underperforms against the specific opponent they’re playing in the upcoming game and what their career stats are against the team (and I know it’s a back-to-back but starting Mrazek doesn’t look great for Carolina’s chances here, based on past performance vs the Lightning).
OVERPERFORMERS CAR: Dougie Hamilton has 11 points in 17 games vs TBL. TBL: Tyler Johnson has 12 goals and 20 points in 20 games vs CAR. TBL: Ryan McDonagh has 18 points and is a plus-13 in 30 games vs CAR. TBL: Ondrej Palat has 17 points in 18 games vs CAR.
UNDERPERFORMERS CAR: Sebastian Aho has five points in nine games vs TBL. CAR: Brock McGinn has one point and is a minus-six in nine games vs TBL. CAR: Petr Mrazek is 1-10-2 with an .864 save percentage vs TBL. CAR: Brett Pesce has two points and is a minus-four in 11 games vs TBL. TBL: Yanni Gourde has one point in seven games vs CAR. TBL: Patrick Maroon has one point in 12 games vs CAR. TBL: Kevin Shattenkirk has four points and is a minus-seven in 16 games vs CAR.
GOALTENDING TBL: Andrei Vasilevskiy is 6-0-0 with a .929 TBL: Curtis McElhinney is 2-3-1 with a .907 CAR: Petr Mrazek is 1-10-2 with an .864 save percentage vs TBL.
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OTHER HURRICANES ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER