Hurricanes vs Blue Jackets: Preview

Carolina Hurricanes vs Columbus Blue Jackets
April 2, 2016 - 7:00 pm ET
PNC Arena - Raleigh, NC
Fox Sports Carolinas - 99.9 FM - WRALSportsFan app
SB Nation Rival Blog - The Cannon

Vital Statistics

*Stats from NHL.com and War on Ice

Game Notes

• The Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets wrap up a four-game season series tonight, and the Canes are looking to sweep their Metro division rivals. After taking back-to-back games in January, the teams met in Columbus a little over a week ago, and after spotting the home team a goal in the second period, the Canes flipped the switch in the third with goals from Victor Rask, Chris Terry, and Elias Lindholm in a span of under two minutes, and held on for a 3-2 win thanks to a 42-save performance by Eddie Lack.
• The Canes wrapped up the month of March, perhaps fittingly, with an emotional game against the captain they traded at the end of February, and came away with a rare win against the New York Rangers on Thursday night. With a 6-2-6 record in March, they improved to 84 points, their best showing since 2010-11. And no fooling, it's April and the Hurricanes are in the playoff picture. Well, that might be a stretch, but STILL... The Canes would have to win out and get some help from other teams (their tragic number is now down to two, so they could be eliminated as early as tonight), but much progress has been made to even get to this point and to have something for fans to continue to cheer on as the season winds down.
• Speaking of which, in and around tonight's game there are a ton of activities planned as part of Fan Appreciation Week including a South Plaza party, team poster giveaway, live music during intermission, Stormy's birthday, and the jersey off the player's back giveaway.
• The Canes didn't practice yesterday but will do so this morning, so stay tuned for updates coming out of the morning skate. After Thursday's game Derek Ryan and Sergey Tolchinsky were reassigned to the Charlotte. The Checkers are fighting for a playoff spot and with a win last night are back in the postseason race. Unless Phil DiGiuseppe and/or Riley Nash are available to return, and there has been no indication that they are, the Canes will likely announce more recalls shortly for tonight's lineup. Update 11:00 am: Brody Sutter and Brendan Woods have been recalled from Charlotte and will be in tonight's lineup.
• Victor Rask has five goals in his last five games, and Jeff Skinner has five points (2g, 3a) in his last five games. Rask (five points in five games), Noah Hanifin (four points in three games) and Jaccob Slavin (three points in three games) all are point-per-game producers against Columbus.
• The Blue Jackets mounted a strong comeback attempt in the third period but came up short in a 4-3 loss to the Islanders Thursday night. They have lost four straight games in regulation and have dropped seven in a row on the road, and as they have much of the season, are playing with a depleted roster. Forward Sonny Milano made his NHL debut in Thursday's game. Cam Atkinson leads the Blue Jackets with 49 points (27g, 22a), Boone Jenner leads with 29 goals, and Brandon Dubinsky leads with 30 assists. Jared Boll is eligible to return to tonight's game after serving a four-game suspension that kept him out of the game on March 24. Joonas Korpisalo will get the start in net tonight, the 4-3 overtime loss to the Canes on Jan. 9 is his solo prior appearance against Carolina.

Projected Lineups

Hurricanes (4/2 morning skate)

Joakim Nordstrom - Jordan Staal - Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Chris Terry
Nathan Gerbe - Jay McClement - Brad Malone
Brenda Woods - Brody Sutter - Patrick Brown

Jaccob Slavin - Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin - Brett Pesce
Ron Hainsey - Ryan Murphy

Eddie Lack
Cam Ward

Injuries and scratches: James Wisniewski (IR ACL), Andrej Nestrasil (fractured vertebra), Phillip Di Giuseppe (upper body), Riley Nash (upper body), Michal Jordan (healthy)

Blue Jackets (4/2 team media report)

Brandon Dubinsky - Boone Jenner - Cam Atkinson
Sonny Milano - Alexander Wennberg - Brandon Saad
Scott Hartnell - Nick Foligno - Oliver Bjorsktrand
William Karlsson - Gregory Campbell - Matt Calvert

Ryan Murray - Seth Jones
Dalton Prout - David Savard
Dean Kukan - Cody Goloubef

Joonas Korpisalo
Sergei Bobrovsky

Injuries and scratches: Jack Johnson (IR shoulder), David Clarkson (DTD lower body), Fedor Tyutin (undisclosed), Curtis McElhinney (knee), Jared Boll, Rene Bourque

Storm Debris

• Canes Gameday Hub [CH.com].
• Canes refuse to let changes slow them down [N&O].
• Promotions Schedule for tonight's Fan Appreciation events and giveaways [CH.com].
• Canes players reading tweets? Yes, please:

How did @NHanifin respond when he read this tweet?

Find out here → https://t.co/l4QQrZuGv1 pic.twitter.com/p7nKOrWuQt

— Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) April 2, 2016