There will be winning and losing streaks on the line tonight when the Carolina Hurricanes, (14-24-7) visit "The Joe" to tangle with the Detroit Red Wings, (23-16-6). The Hurricanes have won three in a row and four of their last five. They are 5-2-1 in their last eight games.
The last place team has been playing well lately, probably more like they thought they would be at the beginning of the year. The recent influx of youth on the club certainly has not hurt that cause.
Before the Red Wings lost 6-0 to the Islanders on Tuesday night, they had just beaten the Sharks, 4-1 and the Kings, 2-1. Like the Hurricanes, they have been battling key injuries all season long and they were playing better hockey recently.
There is also a very long streak in play tonight. The Carolina franchise has not won a regular season game at "The Joe" in over 20 years. Will they be able to break through now?
The Canes will be starting the same group which started the Leafs game and the Ottawa game before that.
- Staal, Whitney, Cullen
- Jokinen, Sutter, Kostopoulos
- Dwyer, Brind'Amour, Tlusty
- Yelle, Boychuk, Samson
Gleason, Pitkanen, Alberts, Ward, Carson, and Wallin will be on defense. Cam Ward will make his 14th consecutive start in goal.
Jimmy Howard will start for the Wings, his 10th straight for the home team.
According to the Detroit News, the lineup for the Red Wings will be as follows:
.Henrik Zetterberg-Pavel Datsyuk-Todd Bertuzzi
• Drew Miller-Valtteri Filppula-Danny Cleary
• Patrick Eaves-Darren Helm-Kris Draper
• Brad May-Justin Abdelkader-Kirk Maltby
That's right, the Canes will be facing "homeboy" Patrick Eaves. Will he hurt his old 'mates? Eaves has scored five goals and seven assists in 34 games so far this season.
For more in depth information about the Wings, check out Winging it in Motown, another great SBN blog.
The game will be televised locally in HD by FS Carolinas starting at 7:30. Or, listen to 99.9 The Fan. We will have the open game thread kick-started here at 7.