The Carolina Hurricanes (3-5-4) are returning to the PNC Arena for their next five games. This is a great chance for them to make-up for a slow start, however, they will be facing some difficult teams—Anaheim, Washington, San Jose, Montreal and Winnipeg. Challenging the Canes first in that lineup are the Anaheim Ducks (6-5-3) who come into the night playing their second game in consecutive nights. Last night, the Ducks took on the Columbus Blue Jackets and fell 3-2 in OT. In Chip Alexanders’s pregame, Coach Peters noted, “Starts at home are big, especially when a team is playing back to back. We’ve got to worry about ourselves, though. We’ve got to get off to a good start and if we do that, then sustain it.…
The Canes will continue to be without their top D-man Justin Faulk who has an undisclosed upper-body injury and is listed week-to-week. However, Faulk skated before the teams practice today and so there is some optimism that he will return soon. His absence has left the Canes blue-line with only one veteran, Hainsey. The D-unit needs to play significantly better than it did against the Devils on Tuesday night, as they had a lot of turnovers and also allowed numerous high quality scoring chances.
Cam Ward played spectacular again stopping 39 of 41 shots in a 3-2 shootout loss. While I did not see the whole game, the condensed version showed him making many highlight reel saves. The past few blogs I had talked about it appearing that he found his rhythm—hopefully he can continue giving the Canes a chance every night.
Tonight, the Canes are taking on the team who leads the league with 201 penalty minutes. In fact, they are the third most un-disciplined team while on the road and have been shorthanded 35 times in 8 road games. The Canes PP finally struck for the first time in 5 games against the Devils, as Dahlbeck found the back of the net in the second period. Given that Faulk is injured, the PP units are slightly adjusted for the time being, so it was great to see them connect on an opportunity. I imagine that the Canes will get 3-5 chances on the PP tonight, so hopefully they are up to the task.
While it hasn’t been announced who is starting for Anaheim, I think it will be Bernier. Gibson started last night and only stopped 15 of 18 shots. Traditionally, the rested goalie plays better in situations that involved back-to-back games. Bernier battled a minor injury early in the season, however, has played extraordinarily well posting a .939 save percentage and a 2.01 GAA. Regardless of who starts for the Ducks, both of their goaltenders are having strong starts statistically.
The Ducks are traditionally one of the more physical teams from the western conference—they are second in the league with 361; the Canes only have 221 and are 27th. It will be interesting to see how Coach Peters counters the Ducks strength with the Canes natural speed. Teams that are more physical have had pretty strong success with the Canes—looking at results teams that are top ten in league with hits the Canes lost too—Oilers, Flyers, Senators.
The Ducks are getting Lindholm back tonight-that is a big boost for the offensive threat on their blueline. The Canes have struggled to minimize scoring chances from the point this year, so look for Anaheim to have Lindholm and Fowler engaged often.
Puck drop is at 7:00 (EST) at the PNC Arena and will be on FSPT and FSCR. Unfortunately, I will not be able to watch the game tonight—I will be traveling and will be gone for the weekend. It might not be until early next week that I get another post up.
The Canes projected lines:
Skinner- Rask -Lindholm Nordstrom- Staal - Nestrasil Di Guiseppe- Teravainen -Stempniak Stalberg- McClement –Aho
Slavin – Pesce Dahlbeck - Hainsey Hanifin – Nakladal
Ward (Likely)