Predators at Hurricanes: Preseason Game Preview

by Bob Wage on Sep 23, 2011 1:48 PM EDT in Carolina Hurricanes Game Day Previews

The Carolina Hurricanes play their first home game of the preseason tonight as they take on the Nashville Predators at the RBC. The Canes will be looking to even up their record after dropping the first game of the preseason at Buffalo earlier this week.

After skipping last week's Red/White game due to an undisclosed minor injury, Cam Ward will be making the start in goal, although he is not expected to play the entire game. Justin Peters will be the backup.

Several other regulars will be in the lineup tonight. Look for the following line combinations:

Ponikarovsky-Staal-Jokinen
Skinner-Ruutu-Stewart
Terry-Brent-Boychuk
Bowman-Nash-(Brett) Sutter
Pitkanen-Gleason
Kaberle-McBain
Murphy-Faulk

Buddy, from Preds on the Glass created a document with the roster for Nashville, although we don't have the lines. Check that out here.

The listed forwards are: Beck, Bergfors, Bourque, Flynn, Halishuk, Hornqvist, Lajunen, Legwand, Mueller, Puustinen, Smith, Wilson. Defensemen: Blum, Ekholm, Ellis, Hillen, Klein, Laasko, Sloan.

The goalies will be: Anders Lindback and Jeremy Smith.

Those of you hoping to see Shea Weber, Pekka Rinne, and Mike Fisher will have to wait til next time.

For even more info about the Preds, check out what Dirk and his crew are saying over at On The Forecheck.

The Hurricanes will be streaming this game live from their website with John Forslund and Tripp Tracy providing the call. Forslund mentioned on Twitter that there will be a local only feed, so for those of you outside the area, good luck. CH.com.

As always, you can listen to the game via the radio feed on 99.9 The Fan.

Carolyn has updated her Canes Country Camp Guide. Feel free to print it out and take it to the rink.

Canes Country's Guide to 2011 Training Camp

We will be live blogging from the press box with an open thread starting up at 6:45. The puck drops at 7.

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Comments

That’s a very interesting 3rd line of Terry-Brent-Boychuk. It doesn’t seem to be the typical “checking line”.

Here's the SKINNy, the All-STAAL game was CAMtastic!

by PackPride17 on Sep 23, 2011 1:52 PM EDT reply actions

No, but the preseason is less about having roles for your lines than it is dividing ice time pretty evenly and telling guys to play their game.

Advance apologies if the contents of this sports-based post offended you. I'm just aiming to educate the masses. My law professor says they're asses.

Panthers '011: This is what we've been waiting for...we get to overpay the core of a 2-14 team!

by MichaelProcton on Sep 26, 2011 12:01 AM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, other than Brent the other two are not checking types. I’m sure Mo will mix and match as the night goes on.

by Hockeydog on Sep 23, 2011 3:38 PM EDT reply actions

I actually like the second line. Wish there was a true center there, but I guess those are at a premium on this team.

Satan is just a coping mechanism for monotheists.

by wilmnoca on Sep 23, 2011 4:15 PM EDT reply actions

Nash may be close but I think his face-off % needs work.
Another chance for Boychuk to climb back into the hunt for a spot on this team.

by Hockeydog on Sep 23, 2011 4:34 PM EDT reply actions

For the Preds prospects, I know Ryan Ellis is considered a hot shot rookie Defenseman, and Craig Smith has been getting some notice this preseason, especially in the rookie tournament Nashville did with the 2 Florida teams.

So I looked them up on the Hockey Prospectus Top 100 list to get a sense of the expectations. ( I linked it in the morning’s C&C to see how the Canes showed.)

For the Preds who are playing tonight, watch for these 3:
Mattias Ekholm D – ranked 24th
Ryan Ellis D – 49th
Craig Smith, F – 51st

For the Canes roster on the ice tonight, Ryan Murphy, Boychuk and Faulk are in the same list’s top 100 – which goes by potential, but does not account for where each is in their development.

Twitter @HMof2

by Carolyn Christians on Sep 23, 2011 4:49 PM EDT reply actions

Woo Hooo

Roll Canes Roll !! we shall see if the the stream will work here in Forsyth County IP addy if Not it will be Chuck wit the letter K ..which is a very "reasonable " secondary back up and will love to hear Chuck pronounce Poni’s name !! hehehe after SAM So Nov…anything is possible ya know !! hehehe…Thanks Bob…

9/11/01 - Never Forget !!
Long Live #63 The Condor
Go Canes & Checkers !!!

by CaniacSteve on Sep 23, 2011 5:02 PM EDT reply actions