Carolina Hurricanes vs New York Islanders: Game Preview, Stats, Potential Lines and Rosters

New York Islanders (16-16-8) at Carolina Hurricanes (20-15-7)

January 14, 2017 — 7:00 p.m. ET

PNC Arena — Raleigh, NC

Fox Sports Carolinas - 99.9 The Fan - WRAL SportsFan web and app

SB Nation rival blog: Lighthouse Hockey

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Game Notes

• Happy Star Wars Night! There will be Star Wars characters along with music and games throughout the contest. Also offered is a package featuring an awesome Canes themed Star Wars t-shirt.
• The Canes started slow last night but Jeff Skinner took things into his own hands early in the second period, putting the Canes into a lead they would not relinquish. Meanwhile, the Islanders took a little longer to get going, but skated away with a 5-2 win of their own over the Panthers.
• Only two players for the Islanders have double-digit goals. One is John Tavares, which is no surprise. The other one is Anders Lee, of all people, who had the team lead all to himself until Tavares scored a hat trick last night. Both players have 14 goals; Tavares holds the scoring lead with 30 points.
• Tonight is the first of five meetings between the Canes and Islanders, including a home and home series in mid-March. Carolina won last year’s season series 3-1, and have earned points in 11 of the last 15 games between the two.
• Two familiar faces who have their names on the Stanley Cup from 2006 will grace PNC with their presence tonight. Doug Weight is an assistant to Islanders coach Jack Capuano, and Andrew Ladd makes his first visit to Raleigh as a member of the Islanders. Ladd signed a free-agent deal in July but has largely been a disappointment, with just 12 points in 40 games.
• Skinner extended his points lead with a three-point night yesterday against the Sabres. He now sits at 35 points, three ahead of Victor Rask, and is just three goals away from his fifth 20-goal season in seven NHL seasons.
• The Canes are now up to 14-4-1 on home ice, a top-10 pace in terms of points per home game despite playing the second-fewest home games (tied with four other teams) behind Minnesota’s 18.

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Projected Lines and Rosters

Since both teams played yesterday, we will not get a handle on how they will line up until later tonight. Bill Peters did make one change late in the game, swapping Teuvo Teravainen for Derek Ryan, and it remains to be seen if that will be a permanent change. Here's how the lines looked yesterday at the end of the games:

Hurricanes

Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Teuvo Teravainen

Brock McGinn - Jordan Staal - Elias Lindholm

Sebastian Aho - Derek Ryan - Lee Stempniak

Joakim Nordstrom - Jay McClement - Viktor Stalberg

Brett Pesce - Jaccob Slavin

Ron Hainsey - Justin Faulk

Matt Tennyson - Noah Hanifin

Cam Ward

Michael Leighton

Injuries and Scratches: Bryan Bickell (IR multiple sclerosis), Eddie Lack (IR concussion), Ty Rattie (healthy), Ryan Murphy (healthy), Klas Dahlbeck (healthy)

Islanders

Anders Lee - John Tavares - Josh Bailey

Andrew Ladd - Brock Nelson - Ryan Strome

Alan Quine - Anthony Beauvillier - Jason Chimera

Nikolay Kulemin - Casey Cizikas - Cal Clutterbuck

Nick Leddy - Adam Pelech

Thomas Hickey - Johnny Boychuk

Calvin de Haan - Dennis Seidenberg

Thomas Greiss

Jean-Francois Berube

Injuries and Scratches: Travis Hamonic (IR lower body), Shane Prince (healthy), Stephen Gionta (healthy), Scott Mayfield (healthy)