Hurricanes vs. Islanders: Game Preview 11-7-2013

Carolina Hurricanes vs New York Islanders
Thursday, November 7, 2013 - 7:00 pm ET
PNC Arena - Raleigh, NC
TV - SportsSouth
Radio - 99.9 The Fan

SB Nation Rival Blog: Lighthouse Hockey

Hurricanes Record: 5-7-3 (13 pts.)
Islanders Record:6-6-3 (15 pts.)

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

After five painful games the Carolina Hurricanes were able to pull victory from the jaws of defeat Tuesday night.  A late regulation goal from Jordan Staal, set up by brother Eric Staal, and an overtime winner by new Cane Manny Malhotra ended a five game losing skid and got Carolina two big points in the standings.

This is the second match up this season between the Hurricanes and the Islanders.  The Canes traveled north to Nassau Coliseum on October 19th and came away with a 4 - 3 victory over the Islanders.  The Hurricanes took a commanding 4-1 lead early in the third period on Jiri Tlusty's second goal of the night before relaxing a bit prematurely and letting the Islanders make things interesting with two late third period goals.

Two interesting notes about the October 19th Islanders game.  First, this was the last victory prior to Tuesday night's win over the Flyers.  Second, it was the last time the Canes scored more than two goals in a game.

The Canes made a somewhat surprising roster move Wednesday afternoon when they sent Elias Lindholm, their first round pick from the most recent NHL Entry Draft, to Charlotte and recalled Chris Terry.  Tuesday night Lindholm was lined up along Jordan Staal and Nathan Gerbe.  No word yet on how the lines will shake out with Terry in the lineup.  We will try to keep you updated as reports from today's practice come in.

(Update)

The lines at the morning skate were as follows:

Tlusty - E. Staal - Semin

Gerbe - J. Staal - Ruutu

Terry - Nash - Dwyer

Dvorak - Malhotra - Bowman

The defensive pairings are the same as recent games:

Sekera - Faulk

Murphy - Harrison

Hainsey - Bellemore

Justin Peters gets his seventh straight start.

The Islanders will come to Raleigh with a slightly different look from that the Canes saw in October.  In late the Islanders traded Matt Moulson, a 2014 first round draft pick, and a conditional 2015 to the Buffalo Sabres for two-time 40 goal scorer Thomas Vanek.  In the four games since joining the Islanders Vanek has 1 goal and 2 assists for 3 points and is +3.  The Islanders are 2-2-0 over the same span.

The game thread will be open at 6:30.