Carolina Hurricanes vs. Dallas Stars: Lineups and Game Discussion

Bill Peters came out of Saturday’s overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks promising changes to the Carolina Hurricanes’ moribund power-play units for tonight’s matchup against the Dallas Stars at PNC Arena.

Ask and you shall receive...I guess.

So the big changes are swapping Brock McGinn for Victor Rask and Jaccob Slavin for Noah Hanifin on the second unit. That’s it.

I’ll give Peters a mulligan on Brett Pesce manning the point on the top unit, because Justin Faulk (who, one would hope, would normally be in that spot) left practice early with an undisclosed injury. Peters said he expects Faulk to play tonight, so stay tuned. But where is Hanifin? Is he really the problem here?

Phil Di Giuseppe, who was recalled yesterday from Charlotte apparently as insurance, won’t be in the lineup tonight, so Brock McGinn will be back in after a two-goal performance and a nasty blocked shot against the Blackhawks on Saturday.

Jeff Skinner, who apparently can’t get a power-play promotion even if he scored fifty goals in fifty games at this point, sat down with the Stars’ Scott Burnside before the game to offer his thoughts on the matchup:

Here are Bill Peters’ comments from this morning, and here are the Canes’ projected lines:

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

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

Scott Darling
Cam Ward

Scratches: Klas Dahlbeck (healthy), Phil Di Giuseppe (healthy), Lee Stempniak (upper-body)

As for the Stars, tonight kicks off a three-game road trip that will swing through Florida after leaving Raleigh. Marc Methot is out injured tonight, injured in Friday’s win over the Islanders, but Tyler Pitlick returns tonight to face the team against whom he scored his only two goals of the season three weeks ago in Dallas.

Here’s how the Stars will look tonight:

Gemel Smith - Jamie Benn - Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark - Tyler Seguin - Devin Shore
Jason Spezza - Martin Hanzal - Tyler Pitlick
Antoine Roussel - Radek Faksa - Brett Ritchie

Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Jamie Oleksiak - Stephen Johns

Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen

Scratches: Jason Dickinson (healthy), Remi Elie (healthy), Marc Methot (lower body)