Carolina Hurricanes at Toronto Maple Leafs: Lineups and Game Discussion

The Hurricanes are two games into a three-game stretch that will see them play three of the top five teams in the League standings. A one-game trip to Toronto tonight, where the Canes have had plenty of success over recent seasons, may be the opportunity they need to steal two points and avert what could otherwise be a problematic week.

The Canes have won at least one game at Air Canada Centre every season since 2006-07, and since the 2005 lockout ended Carolina is 13-7-2 on the road against the Maple Leafs. Bill Peters indicated yesterday at practice that the Canes will go with the same lineup for the second straight game, but plans to make changes tomorrow when the team returns to PNC Arena to face the Blues.

Mike Maniscalco will be a busy man tonight on the FSC broadcast, interviewing Ron Francis at the first intermission and then talking with Bryan and Amanda Bickell at the second, so make sure to plan your snack runs around those features tonight.

Here’s how things will look tonight:

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

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

Scott Darling
Cam Ward

The Maple Leafs have been off since defeating the Kings on Monday and are in the middle of a three-game homestand that wraps up Saturday with a visit from the Flyers. Mike Babcock hasn’t had to make too many changes to his lineup, but one thing that may force a change is a minor injury that would prevent a brother-vs.-brother showdown. James van Riemsdyk did not practice this morning and will be a game-time decision tonight.

Here’s how the Leafs will look:

Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Leo Komarov
Connor Brown - Tyler Bozak - Mitch Marner
Matt Martin - Dominic Moore - Josh Leivo

Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Andreas Borgman - Roman Polak

Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney