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That Carolina Hurricanes, (14-25-7) return home to face the Atlanta Thrashers, (20-19-7) for a late starting game (8 p.m.) tonight, at the RBC. The game will have a late start because of an earlier scheduled NC State basketball game, so expect the ice to be a bit worse than usual.
Yesterday, the Hurricanes announced the recall of young forward Drayson Bowman. Tonight will mark the NHL debut for the young sniper. Bowman has played well since recovering from an earlier injury this season and he will be placed on the Brind'Amour line along with Tom Kostopoulos, at least to start things off. Jerome Samson was sent back to Albany.
For now, the Hurricanes have the lines as follows:
- Staal, Whitney, Cullen
- Jokinen, Sutter, Tlusty
- Brind'Amour, Bowman, Kostopoulos
- Yelle, Boychuk, Dwyer
The defense will remain the same as it's been in recent games. (Pitkanen, Gleason, Carson, Ward, Alberts, and Wallin)
Cam Ward will make his 15th consecutive start in net.
In the last nine games, Ward has been on fire and has a GAA of 2.19 and save percentage of .934. He can tie the franchise record for wins (130) with his next victory. Will it be tonight?
Brandon Sutter and Jiri Tlusty both have three game point streaks on the line.
After a hot start, Atlanta has cooled off and is 2-5-3 in their last 10 games. The problem of re-signing or trading Ilya Kovalchuk seems to be a big distraction for them, but they are still extremely dangerous, as the Canes found out when the Thrashers scored five unanswered goals to erase a three goal Carolina lead in the third period of their last clash at the RBC.
For more information about the Thrashers, check out Bird Watchers Anonymous.
There will be no local television for this game. Check out Center Ice or listen to 99.9 The Fan. We will have the open game thread here starting up at 7:30 and I will be reporting live from the game.