Carolina Hurricanes at Calgary Flames: Game Preview and Storm Advisory

The Hurricanes will try to build on a solid outcome two nights ago in Edmonton as they take on former Hurricanes goalie Eddie Lack and the Calgary Flames in the second to last game of their long Western Conference road trip. Another road win would go a long way in getting this group over the traditional slow start.

Game Notes

• Tonight is the first matchup against the Canes for Eddie Lack, traded to Calgary over the summer. Lack played 54 games over the past two seasons for Carolina, but won’t play tonight as the Flames will send Mike Smith out to the crease.
• The Hurricanes reassigned Trevor Carrick to the Charlotte Checkers yesterday. This most likely means that Trevor van Riemsdyk, who joined the team in Edmonton on Monday, is ready to draw back in on the blue line.
• In looking at the goals per game and goals against per game statistics above, you may have thought you detected a typo. But it’s true: both the Hurricanes and the Flames have identical GF/GP and GA/GP averages up to this point in the season.
• The Hurricanes trail all time with an ugly 21-42-8 record against the Flames, including a 7-26-3 resume playing in the Saddledome.
• Prior to the Hurricanes’ win last October in Calgary, the team hadn’t notched two points on the road against the Flames since 2002.
• Tonight is the first of two games the Hurricanes will see the Flames. The second will come in late January at PNC Arena.
• Noah Hanifin was hot against Calgary last season, notching 4 assists in the 2 game series.

Storm Advisory

• Some kind words from a Flames blogger about our young team two nights ago while watching the game:

• Former Hurricanes goaltender Justin Peters is making the move from the KHL’s Dynamo Riga to the Cologne Sharks in the DEL, his second change of the season. [Haie.de]
• Well done, HFBoards Canes top members, on this masterful bit of trolling.

HFBoards

Here’s some background on what’s going on here: a few weeks ago, HFBoards upgraded its platform and along with the upgrade came a new ‘like’ feature for comments, along with a Notable Members section that highlighted, among other things, commenters who received the most likes on their posts.

The Canes forum regulars, already well known for pimping themselves out as bandwagon draftees to other playoff-bound teams as well as for constantly being abused with attendance jokes and inane trade proposals, started a like campaign to plant themselves on the leaderboard, and from there, it grew into an elaborate plan to not only take over the entire leaderboard but to do so in style. And yes, the spelling of ‘Sabers’ is a deliberate inside board joke.

Relocation rumors and eight years without postseason hockey can do strange things to a fan base.

• And here’s how the HFBoards NHL community reacted to the conspiracy hatched by fellow Hurricanes fans. [HFBoards]
• After being cut from the USA Olympic Team roster, former Hurricane James Wisniewski is hinting that he may hang up the skates.

• Check out the new Canes Corner podcast in which Adam Gold and John Forslund praise Slavin’s Tuesday night performance. [WRALSportsFan.com]
• Teuvo Teravainen and Jaccob Slavin combined for quite a game in Edmonton on Tuesday. However, the Hurricanes aren’t the only team with those two last names on the roster. [North State Journal]
• The attendance in Vancouver is steadily declining and there’s no easy solution. (Oh really, now? Tell me more.) [The Athletic ($)]