Match-up – New Jersey Devils (4-3-3) @ Carolina Hurricanes (3-4-3) Road/Home records – 0-3-2 -------------------- 1-1-0 TV – MSG+, FSCR Puck drop – 6:00 PM ET
Goals for/against per game: New Jersey:- 2.20 (27th) and 2.40 (7th) Carolina: 2.70 (15th) and 3.40 (27th)
Power play/Penalty Kill: New Jersey-20.6% (12th) and 80.5% (19th) Carolina- 21.2% (11th) and 87.1% (6th)
The #Canes look to hold the #NJDevils winless on the road tonight. Read about that & more → #NJDvsCAR gameday hub: https://t.co/d3K4gGNDVx
— Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) November 6, 2016
Tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes (3-4-2) and the New Jersey Devils are set to battle at the PNC Arena and will see each other twice in three days in a home-home series. Both teams are coming into tonight with “short rest… as they both had games yesterday. The Canes were able to steal a win from the Predators despite a poor first period and sloppy overall performance—allowing 5 breakaways and giving up multiple odd-man rushes. The Devils were not as lucky as they squandered an early 1-0 lead and fell 4-1 to the Bolts. Last night appeared to be a common flaw that has haunted the Devils all the way back until Parise and Kovalchuk left them in a major offensive hole—the ability to score goals.
The Canes will need to get off to a fast start as they have a great opportunity to string together their first set of consecutive wins. Helping their chances is the fact that Keith Kinkaid will be starting for the Devils, which means that they won’t have to deal with the Cory Schneider (thank goodness). Kinkaid has started one game this year and lost 3-2 in OT to the Hawks allowing 3 goals on 29 shots. His career averages show that he is a subpar goalie with little experience—just the recipe that the Canes need to get some of the frost of the sticks of the 2nd to 4th line.
The Canes PP has continued to struggle last night and didn’t generate too many prime opportunities—they are now 2 of 17 in their last few games. I think that we will see a lot of 5 v 5 play tonight, as both teams are some of the least penalized teams in the NHL. This appears to bode well for the Hurricanes according to Todd Cordell’s pregame which noted the Canes, “at 5 v 5 are controlling 53.15% of the shot attempts (6th), and 51.63% of the scoring chances (8th).… Coach Peters indicated that he intended to start Lack today, however, that was before Ward’s performance last night. Some of Ward’s best games in his career have come against this Devils team (I would know I’m a Devils fan, so I have cursed his name in many regular season and playoff games!). I really hope that Ward starts for the Hurricanes because he is really starting to find his game. In three of his last four starts he has posted near or above a .933 save percentage and only allowed 10 goals (2.50 GAA almost, bit lower because 2 games went to OT).
The Devils are continuing to have offensive woes and have only scored 22 goals this season in 10 games. They have significantly improved their offense on the 3rd and 4th line as they made the decision this year to go with younger, faster and more rounded players. Previously, the Devils were known for holding a more traditional 3rd and 4th line from “Old Time Hockey… and they were used in much more of a checking and defensive usage.
The Canes will have to keep Taylor Hall in check as he is the biggest offensive threat that New Jersey has this year. The Devils have a similar issue that the Canes do—meaning that their first line has been great, but the rest of the offense has struggled to maintain consistency. 13 of the 22 goals scored by the Devils have come from their first line, so I imagine that it will be the Staal line that is responsible for keeping them off the board—especially given how well Staal is doing on faceoffs. Coach Peters will do his best to take advantage of the last change to ensure that this line is shut down all game.
The main key against the Devils is to ensure that you don’t make mistakes. They are always a team that will play a tough defensive system and look to transition the puck quickly off your errors—something that is ideal for a guy like Hall who has such amazing speed, hands and a shot. The Canes have struggled to not turn the puck over in high danger areas—last night they lost it twice on the offensive blueline and the Predators got breakaways. If the Canes are going to win tonight, they will have to play significantly tighter and probably use more of a dump/chase game to help utilize their speed and the weakness of the Devils D unit.
The Canes switched the lines up in the second period last night and I imagine they will stick with them today—the first period was disastrous, however, they played significantly better in the 2nd and 3rd periods. Unless the scoring gets off to an early start, I expect this to be a tight game that is a 2-1 or 3-2 finish.
Canes anticipated lines tonight:
Skinner- Rask -Stempniak Nordstrom- Staal Aho Teravainen- Lindholm -Stalberg Nestrasil- McClement –Di Guiseppe
Hainsey – Faulk Slavin – Pesce Hanifin – Murphy
Lack (Not confirmed, but Coach Peters said he would start before the Canes played Nashville).
Baskets include lavender #HockeyFightsCancer jerseys worn during warmups tonight. https://t.co/JViFWcR4i0
— Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) November 6, 2016