Leafs at Canes, Preamble

The Toronto Maple Leafs will meet the Carolina Hurricanes today at 5PM at the RBC. The game is the second of a set of back-to-backs for each team, and the third in four days for the Canes. The Canes are sporting a record of 5-3-2 while the Leafs are 5-3-3.

Last night the Maple Leafs erased a 2-0 deficit to defeat the league-leading New York Rangers, 5-2. The Hurricanes lost at home to Edmonton, 3-1.

Carolina will be without the services of center Matt Cullen, who will miss this game due to a "leg injury". No other information was given about Cullen. Pat Dwyer was recalled from Albany to help fill in, although Dwight Helminen will take Cullen's place on the third line.

Peter Laviolette announced that Michael Leighton will take a turn in goal this evening. Ron Wilson said that Curtis Joseph will fill that role for the Leafs.

Laviolette also stated that he was unhappy with the team's overall effort in yesterday's game against the Oliers. He'll be looking for more effort tonight. (Ray Whitney also mentioned in an interview that the team needs to be more "hungry").

No one can be happy about losing an important point on a soft goal with just a minute and a half left in the game, but the powerplay has been beyond atrocious and is currently performing at just 12% for the year. (6 for 50). That stat will need to improve if the Canes expect to win more than they lose this year.

Tonight, the Hurricanes will be recognizing "Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness". Check out this link for more information.

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I was able to record a couple of short interviews last night.

The first one has Dennis Seidenberg chuckling a bit about Erik Cole "trying to get him every time he could")

In the next one, Tim Gleason describes how he saw Ray Whitney breaking open for a pass.