Hurricanes at Avs: Game Day Preview, 10/25/13

Carolina Hurricanes at Colorado Avalanche
October 25, 2013 - 9:00 pm ET
Pepsi Center - Denver, CO
TV - SportsSouth 
Radio - 99.9 The Fan

SB Nation Rival Blog: Mile High Hockey

Hurricanes Record: 4-3-3 (11 pts.)

Avs Record: 8-1-0 (16 pts.)

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Tonight's game will be broadcast on SportsSouth alternative channels instead of on Fox Sports Carolinas. Please make note of the channels. The Canes have conveniently linked a channel guide for the viewing area on their Broadcast page.

Cam Ward is on injured reserve as is Anton Khudobin, so the Carolina Hurricanes will look to Justin Peters and Mike Murphy to handle their goaltending as they take on the Colorado Avs tonight at the Pepsi Center in Denver.

The Avs are off to a franchise best starting record under the fiery coaching of Patrick Roy and the new coach has some top end talent to work with.

The team is led by Matt Duchene, (9 points), P.A. Parenteau, (7 points), and rookie Nathan MacKinnon, (7 points).  Look for former Capital Semyon Varlamov to start in net.  Varlamov is 3-0-3 lifetime against the Canes.

According to Mile High Hockey, the following lines will most likely start for the home team:

O'Reilly - Duchene-  Downie
Landeskog - Stastny - Tanguay
McGinn - MacKinnon - Parenteau
Cliche - Mitchell - Bordeleau

Barrie - Hejda
Wilson - Guenin
Benoit - Sarich

After a tough and gutsy game against the Wild last night, the Canes did not have a morning skate in Colorado.  But according to various sources, Jeff Skinner is doubtful for tonight.

There is no official word, but I would expect Elias Lindholm to step in for Skinner.  Tim Gleason is also close to returning to the line up, but there is no word on that yet either.  We will post any updates in the comment section, so stay tuned.

If Skinner is out, Kirk Muller might switch up the lines but for now, look for the following:

The lines are updated below:

Semin - E. Staal - Tlusty

Gerbe - J. Staal - Dvorak

Ruutu - Nash - (Bowman)

Sutter - Lindholm - Westgarth

(Skinner and Dwyer banged up)

UPDATED

Faulk - Sekera

Murphy - (Gleason)

Hainsey - (Komisarek)

(Harrison and Bellemore are confirmed out, but the pairings are in question)

Eric Staal currently has a five game point streak and has a total of eight points (3G 5A) in 10 games so far.

We will have our open game thread ready to go a bit early tonight, at 8 Eastern.  TGIF!