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Another Try At Home: Penguins at Hurricanes, Game Day Preview

By Bob Wage
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The Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins meet for the first time this season as both teams tackle the second half of back-to-back contests tonight at the RBC.

Last night the Hurricanes outlasted the Rangers in a high scoring, 4-3 affair.  The Pens lost to the Flyers, 3-2 in a physical, fight filled contest.  The game marked the third loss in a row for Pittsburgh as they were dumped by Tampa Bay 5-3, and lost a disappointing OT game, 1-0 to the Blues earlier in the week. 

The last four games they have gone 0-20 on the powerplay. Obviously, they will be hungry for improvement at the RBC.

The Canes are on more of a high note and went 2-4 on their powerplay chances last night.   But they have yet to win a game at home, (0-1), and will be looking to break that streak.  

Neither team had a morning skate or media availability this morning, so the starting lineups were not released.  It's assumed that Brent Johnson will get the nod in goal for the Pens.  

Using the same logic that Paul Maurice used for starting Justin Peters in Los Angeles after the San Jose game, one might think that Peters would get the call again tonight, but John Forslund seemed to hint otherwise on the broadcast last night.  We will find out who will be in net for the Canes sometime before game time.

GP MIN W L EGA GA GAA SA SV SV% SO
2010 - Brent Johnson 5 302 4 0 7 1.39 143 136 .951 0

GP MIN W L EGA GA GAA SA SV SV% SO
2010 - Cam Ward 8 445 5 3 22 2.72 295 273 .925 0

GP MIN W L EGA GA GAA SA SV SV% SO
2010 - Justin Peters 1 59 0 1 4 4.07 27 23 .852 0



Evgeni Malkin is questionable for tonight's game.  He was injured on Friday night and it's not known how serious it is.  For more info about the Penquins, check out  Pensburgh, our SBN partner or you can see the NHL.com game preview here.

Will the Hurricanes stick with last night's group?  Will Paul Maurice keep Sergei Samsonov up with Eric Staal and Jussi Jokinen, or will Chad LaRose slide back into the first line?  Will Drayson Bowman and Zac Dalpe be scratched again?  Who will start in goal?  The coach had a lot to think about on the plane last night.

You can view and print Hockeymom's game day sheet here:

Canes Country Gameday Guide Oct 30th vs Penguins

Note:  The Hurricanes will be wearing their road white jerseys tonight as the Penguins wear their classic blue.  Not sure about the reasons for the switch, but Carolina has won more games in white this season than they have in red, so they probably don't care. 

Game time is 7 and FS Carolinas and 99.9 The Fan will have all the action.  I will be reporting live from the arena in the open game thread starting at 6:30.