Florida Panthers at Carolina Hurricanes: Lineups and Game Discussion

The Carolina Hurricanes return home from a two-game western trip still in search of their first victory in almost two weeks. They will try to get off their skid against another team on a four-game winless streak in the Florida Panthers. While a cloudy Tuesday night with a matchup of two struggling teams may not draw an audience full of energy, it will be imperative for the Canes to create and sustain some needed life as they try to get their season back on track just over one month in.

Brett Pesce (concussion) and Lee Stempniak (IR lower body) both skated this morning, but neither will play tonight. Pesce has yet to clear the concussion protocol, and Bill Peters hinted at Stempniak being sent on a conditioning assignment to Charlotte before getting back into the lineup.

Here are Peters’ comments to the media from this morning, and these lines will begin action on Tuesday:

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

Jaccob Slavin - Justin Faulk
Haydn Fleury - Trevor van Riemsdyk
Noah Hanifin - Roland McKeown

Scott Darling
Cam Ward

Scratches: Lee Stempniak (IR lower body), Brett Pesce (concussion), Patrick Brown (healthy), Klas Dahlbeck (healthy)

As mentioned previously, the Panthers are in a rut themselves, so expect to see desperation on both sides this evening. For the Panthers, keeping the puck out of their own net is the key to getting back on track, as they have given up an average of almost six goals per game in their four-game winless streak.

So there you have it, a punchless offense of recent days for the Canes versus a team buried in goals against in the Panthers. Not exactly an immovable object versus an irresistible force, but something will have to give on Tuesday night.

Panthers head coach Bob Boughner plans to trot out the following lineup for tonight’s tilt:

Jonathan Huberdeau - Aleksander Barkov - Evgenii Dadonov
Connor Brickley - Vincent Trocheck - Nick Bjugstad
Jamie McGinn - Jaren McCann - Radim Vrbata
Micheal Haley - Derek MacKenzie - Colton Sceviour

Keith Yandle - Aaron Ekblad
Michael Matheson - Mark Pysyk
Ian McCoshen - Alex Petrovic

Roberto Luongo
James Reimer