Carolina Hurricanes vs Minnesota Wild: Game Preview 11-9-13

Carolina Hurricanes vs Minnesota Wild
November 9, 2013 - 7:00 pm ET
PNC Arena - Raleigh, NC
TV - Fox Sports Carolinas
Radio - 99.9 The Fan

SB Nation Rival Blog: Hockey Wilderness (twitter @hockeywildernes)

Hurricanes Record: 6-7-3 (15 pts.)
Wild Record: 9-4-4 (22 pts.)

The Carolina Hurricanes and Minnesota Wild last faced each other a mere 16 days ago, on October 24th. The Hurricanes went into St. Paul having won two straight games including a big win against Metro rival New York Islanders.

Then this happened... goaltender Cam Ward went down early in the game with an injury, the Canes lost the game by a 3-1 margin, and then went on to lose forward and top scorer Jeff Skinner, all semblance of a scoring touch, and the next four games. Only in the last week have the Canes begun to recover from the loss in net of Ward (and before him Anton Khudobin). With a renewed discipline on team defense, starting from the net out with a resurgent Justin Peters, they now face the Wild for a second time having won their last two, including a big shutout win at home against Metro rival New York Islanders Thursday night.

Meanwhile, the Wild continued to click along at a strong pace going 4-1-1 in their last six games, the most recent a 3-2 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals. While their 22 points is only good enough for fourth in the Central Division, it matches the top records in the Eastern Conference.

The Canes didn't practice on Friday or have media availability so there really isn't any news in terms of the line-up, so we'll assume the depth chart and injuries as reported Thursday night, and provide updates after the morning skate.

Forwards

Defensemen

Goaltenders

Out of the line-up: Forwards Jeff Skinner and Kevin Westgarth (both upper body), defenseman Tim Gleason (also upper body), goaltenders Cam Ward and Anton Khudobin (both lower body)

Depth Chart
Injury Report

A few recent Hurricanes features:

• From Mike Maniscalco, WRAL Sports: Canes need to find offense for big upcoming month
• From Chip Alexander, News and Observer: Canes seek ways to end scoring slump
• From Kyle Hanlin and Michael Smith, this week's installment of the Hurricanes Report podcast

The Wild held an optional practice at Raleigh Center Ice on Friday, and a few players participated. Those who didn't took in a little hoops action over at PNC Arena where the floor was set up for Wolfpack basketball.

Zach Parise took a shot to the wrist late in the Capitals game and wasn't able to participate in the shootout, but isn't expected to miss tonight's game. Parise has been on a scoring streak with six points in four games. Mikael Granlund is also hot with eight points in his last seven games.

Defenseman Clayton Stoner, who suffered a leg injury Thursday night, received treatment on Friday and is questionable for tonight.

Also injured for the Wild are Keith Ballard (upper body) and Mike Rupp (IR, knee).

Head coach Mike Yeo has not declared a starting goaltender but has mentioned he would like to work Nicklas Backstrom into the lineup. Josh Harding has been red hot with a league best 1.16 GAA and .949 save percentage. Backstrom skated at RCI on Friday but Harding did not.

• From Ryan Stanzel, Wild.com View from the Lighthouse: Optional Day in Raleigh
• From Michael Russo, StarTribune Russo's Rants: Wild hits the NC State hardwood; Parise good to go vs. Carolina

We'll have the open game thread ready to roll at 6:30 pm. See you at the rink.