The Carolina Hurricanes, (16-28-7) are in the "Big Apple" to take on the New York Rangers, (24-22-7) tonight for the final meeting of the season between these two clubs. The Rangers won the first two games of the series, but the Canes won the last meeting in New York, 2-1 in overtime.
This is another first game of a back-to-back sequence as the Canes will hurry home afterward so they can face the New York Islanders at the RBC on Thursday night.
Two games in a row or not, Cam Ward will get the start tonight. As Coach Paul Maurice mentioned yesterday, he likes how the goalie works in back-to-backs.
Ward will most likely face "King" Henrik Lundqvist for New York. (Lundqvist is unconfirmed at this time).
Defenseman Joe Corvo traveled with the club and could possibly make a return to the ice tonight after an eight week hiatus as he recovered from of a deep laceration to his calf. There is no official word from the club concerning tonight's lineup as of the publishing of this article. If we get an update, we will post it.
For now, we know the forwards will be the same as in recent games:
- Staal, Jokinen, Whitney
- Cullen, Kostopoulos, Samsonov
- Sutter, LaRose, Tlusty
- Yelle, Brind'Amour, Dwyer
Eric Staal and Ray Whitney each have five game point streaks. Jussi Jokinen has scored in three straight.
Staal missed 10 games due to an injury earlier in the year, but has scored 33 points in his last 26 games since returning.
The powerplay has been deadly in recent games and is now connecting at 17.8% of the time, good for 17th best in the league. (tied with Atlanta.) That is a huge jump from their previous 13% rating which was at 28th in the league. Paul Branecky published an article yesterday reporting that the team has hit on 38.1% of powerplays in the last five games.
The Rangers are led by Marian Gaborik, who usually fares very well against the Canes. For more information about the New Yorker's, be sure to check out the Blueshirt Banter.
The game will be televised by FS Carolinas starting at 7 tonight. We will have the open game thread running here at 6:30.