Hurricanes At Lightning: Game Day Preview

by Bob Wage on Jan 12, 2012 3:06 PM EST in Carolina Hurricanes Game Day Previews

The Carolina Hurricanes, (14-23-7) will try to turn around their road woes as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning, (17-20-4) tonight at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. The Canes have won just a single road game since Kirk Muller took over as coach.

There has been much buzz about this, but while Jeff Skinner has been cleared to practice, he will not play in tonight's game. Jaroslav Spacek, who was injured on Tuesday night against the Flyers, will play tonight, but the Carolina lineup is unsettled.

Derek Joslin was recalled today from Charlotte and Muller said that he might go with seven defensemen tonight. Then again, maybe not.

We will wait until tonight to see what the lines will be.

Cam Ward should start in net and he will face Matthieu Garon.

	GP	MIN	W	L	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2011 - Cam Ward	37	2130	14	16		112	3.15	1116	1004	.900	1

	GP	MIN	W	L	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2011 - Mathieu Garon	28	1413	11	11		67	2.85	693	626	.903	1

For information about the Bolts, check out Raw Charge.

Tampa Bay has lost four in a row and Carolina has lost four of their last five. The Canes just lost in Tampa, 5-2 on New Year's Eve, (Steven Stamkos hat trick) and have lost two of three to the Bolts so far this season.

Eric Staal has points in three straight games, (1G 4A).

"Southleast"? The Canes are 1-7-2 so far against teams in their own division.

The game will be televised tonight with the game preview at 7 and puck drop just past 7:30. We will have our open game thread ready to go at 7.

Tweet Comment 10 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Seven D maybe… hummm

by dbaerry34 on Jan 12, 2012 4:54 PM EST reply actions

1-7-2 against the Southeast Opponents

1-7-2 in the Southeast says it all. I never imagined in my worst appraisal of the 2011-2012 Hurricanes that they would be this ineffective more than halfway through the season. Still, there is absolutely a part of me that realizes it is much better to have Muller at the helm and to revamp the team’s composition and approach. Maybe this season will be enough proof that underfunding the team does not work and that the team has to add more top end talent to compete via trade and draft. At least it is fun to watch the Hurricanes play uptempo hockey and to have a coach who rewards excellent play with more time on the ice.

by abramsdoug on Jan 12, 2012 5:00 PM EST reply actions

another thing

This record against division opponents should quiet those that are worried about the future conference opponents. The Canes need to get better, regardless of who they’re playing most of the time.

Then again with the NHLPA nixing the realignment plan that doesn’t really matter.

by Kubota on Jan 12, 2012 7:08 PM EST up reply actions

Tell It All Brother...Tell It All

Could not have said it better myself……..there have been some improvments but still much to be done……….

by littlepig on Jan 12, 2012 5:07 PM EST reply actions

Muller Home & Away

At home under Muller, the Canes are 5-5-1 while scoring 2.82 goals per game and giving up 2.82 goals per game.

Away under Muller, the Canes are 1-7 while scoring 2.75 goals per game and giving up 3.63 goals per game.

In other words, its not looking too promising tonight. I’m going to guess that Tampa wins the game tonight 4-2.

Staal & Dalpe; The New Dynamic Duo or The Canes Crusaders!

by PackPride17 on Jan 12, 2012 5:16 PM EST reply actions

Chip just tweeted:

RT @ice_chip: At game tonight, scouts from Preds, Jets, Kings, Bruins, Sens, Wings, Blackhawks.

twitter @jbk_ltd

by Jamie Kellner on Jan 12, 2012 5:29 PM EST reply actions

Both teams play the Bruins in the next week or so, and the Jets down the road which may explain that. But neither play the other teams soon so my guess is that with the trade deadline about a month and half away and teams getting closer to be able to afford taking on the CAP space of partial salaries, that some of this is true scouting work by potential trade partners for either team.

Tampa has some definite holes as well especially since Hedman will be gone for a while and their goaltending has been a problem all year. Of course we can dream and hope that there will be rich offers for those players we want to move. But the word I hear is that JR is perceived to be over valuing some of our assets. You’ll all recall what he wanted for Whitney and how that turned out. My guess is his asking price for say Gleason and Ruutu is very high.

by sittler27 on Jan 12, 2012 6:05 PM EST up reply actions

5 Scouts for the Preds

….according to J Forslund. Who are they scouting and what does Nashville have that we want?

by dskad on Jan 12, 2012 6:53 PM EST via iPhone app reply actions

Erik Cole played at least 25 min last game

Last game of Montreal, Erik Cole played at least 25 min. on 2 lines….

Was he doing that in Carolina?

Good acquisition for Montreal though, they were looking for a Power Foward for a long time, but the team still sucks :-S

by Sou on Jan 12, 2012 7:24 PM EST reply actions

Cole averaged a little over 18 minutes TOI per game with us last season. That was second among forwards, with Eric Staal topping that list at just under 22 minutes.

twitter @jbk_ltd

by Jamie Kellner on Jan 12, 2012 7:31 PM EST up reply actions