Coach John Tortorella and his New York Rangers, (16-16-3) are in town for a game with the Carolina Hurricanes, (9-20-6) tonight at the RBC. This will be the first of two games in Raleigh over the next 10 days for these two teams. They match up again on New Year's Eve, next week Thursday night.
While the Hurricanes are in last place in the NHL, they have been playing well at home and currently have an 8-7-2 record with three home wins in a row.
The Rangers have had troubles of their own. Upset with the team's effort after a recent loss to the New York Islanders, Coach John Tortorella had an expletive filled press conference. He later benched highly paid vets Wade Redden and Ales Kotalik, then moved Chris Drury to the fourth line. The team has responded with two straight victories over the Flyers and Islanders, (and Drury scored), but all is not wine and roses in the Big Apple.
Before their last two wins, they had lost five in a row and eight of their last nine.
Redden and Kotalik are expected back in the lineup tonight.
The Canes returned defenseman Bryan Rodney to Albany and sure enough, Tim Gleason attended the morning skate and will be back in tonight's lineup. Niclas Wallin remains out.
Other than the addition of Gleason, look for the same lineup as played in the Florida game on Saturday night.
Cam Ward will be between the pipes, probably facing Henrik Lundqvist.
Carolina is led in scoring by Ray Whitney, (24 points) and Tuomo Ruutu, (23 points). The Rangers are led by Marian Gaborik, (24 goals and 45 points) and Vinny Prospal, (29 points).
Patrick Dwyer has the longest point streak on the Canes with two goals in the last two games.
For more information about the Rangers, check out the Blueshirt Banter.
The game will be televised by FS Carolinas starting at 7. We will have the game day thread open at 6:30 and will be reporting live from the RBC.