Carolina Hurricanes at Calgary Flames: Game Night Hub

The combination of a two time-zone difference and being the visiting team meant that the Hurricanes’ “morning” skate actually went off at about 1:30 Eastern today, so we had to wait a little while to get the updates for the lineup tonight. Bill Peters is making a few changes to the lineup that won 5-3 in Edmonton on Tuesday, including reinserting Janne Kuokkanen in place of Martin Necas and mixing up the forward lines accordingly.

(And literally as we hit publish on this article, the lines were corrected: Josh Jooris, not Kuokkanen, will be on the fourth line tonight. Both rookies will be scratched.)

Another change will be on the back end, where Trevor van Riemsdyk was activated from injured reserve (the team release is at the end of the article) and will slot back in alongside Haydn Fleury tonight. Here are Peters’ comments after practice, and here’s how the Canes will look tonight:

Teuvo Teravainen - Jordan Staal - Justin Williams
Sebastian Aho - Victor Rask - Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner - Derek Ryan - Brock McGinn
Joakim Nordstrom - Marcus Kruger - Josh Jooris

Jaccob Slavin - Brett Pesce
Noah Hanifin - Justin Faulk
Trevor van Riemsdyk - Haydn Fleury

Scott Darling
Cam Ward

Scratches: Janne Kuokkanen (healthy), Martin Necas (healthy), Klas Dahlbeck (healthy), Lee Stempniak (IR upper-body)

As for the Flames, they’re riding high to start the season, but an open question is which Mike Smith will show up: the one that has started every game this season and is 4-2 with a save percentage of nearly .930, or the one who has faced the Canes 16 times in his career and has a measly three wins to show for it.

Micheal Ferland suffered a lower-body injury on Saturday, but is expected to be in the lineup tonight. The combination of Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, which has gone for fifteen points in the first six games of the year, will be joined by Jaromir Jagr in a new combination, with Jagr getting up to speed after signing with the Flames just before the season.

And, of course, no Eddie Lack tonight, so neither of the Canes’ goaltenders from last season will take part in tonight’s game. Here’s how the Flames will line up:

Johnny Gaudreau - Sean Monahan - Jaromir Jagr
Matthew Tkachuk - Mikael Backlund - Michael Frolik
Kris Versteeg - Sam Bennett - Micheal Ferland
Tanner Glass - Matt Stajan - Troy Brouwer

Mark Giordano - Dougie Hamilton
TJ Brodie - Travis Hamonic
Matt Bartkowski - Michael Stone

Mike Smith
Eddie Lack

CANES ACTIVATE VAN RIEMSDYK FROM INJURED RESERVE

Defenseman eligible to play in tonight’s game against Calgary

Ron Francis, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has activated defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk from injured reserve.

Van Riemsdyk, 26, has missed Carolina’s last three games after suffering a concussion in his Hurricanes debut on Oct. 7 against Minnesota. The Middletown, NJ, native has registered 31 points (8g, 23a) in 159 career games.