The Carolina Hurricanes, (11-19-6) begin a busy stretch with the first of four games in six nights tonight, as they start things off against the New Jersey Devils, (19-14-1) at the RBC. The Canes have already lost twice to this team earlier this season, both times in Newark, (4-2 and 3-2).
Tim Brent will return to the lineup tonight and Riley Nash was reassigned to Charlotte. Look for the following lines, (from CH.com).
- Bowman, Staal, LaRose
- Ruutu, Jokinen, Ponikarovsky
- Dwyer, Sutter, Tlusty
- Stewart, Brent, Nodl
- Gleason, McBain
- Spacek, Allen
- Faulk, Harrison
It has been confirmed that Cam Ward will start in net for the Canes and according to Fire and Ice, it looks like he'll be facing Johan Hedberg.
Hedberg is 13-7-2 with two shutouts lifetime against Carolina.
Fire and Ice also has the Jersey lines as follows:
- Parise, Henrique, Kovalchuk
- Sykora, Elias, Zubrus
- Tedenby, Zajac, Clarkson
- Sestito, (Boulton, Carter, Janssen)
- Salvador, Fayne
- Volchenkov, Foster
- Urbom, Taormina
For more info on the Devils and this game, check out the fine preview over at In Lou We Trust.
Tuomo Ruutu is currently the hottest of the Hurricanes and has points in four straight games, (3G 2A).
Nodl, Harrison, and Jokinen each have points in two straight.
There will be no local television for this one, but the game will be on Center Ice. You can also listen on 99.9 The Fan. We will have our game thread ready to go at 6:30.