Carolina Hurricanes at Nashville Predators: Rosters and Game Discussion

The ugly taste from Tuesday’s 8-1 pasting at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs will, finally, be washed out of the mouths of the Carolina Hurricanes as their long sojourn comes to an end tonight with a matchup against the Nashville Predators in Music City.

The Canes did not hold an official morning skate today, instead calling for an optional practice, so we don’t have any good clues as to the lineup for tonight. One would think that the players who were lucky enough to not have their names attached to Tuesday’s catastrophe would draw back in tonight, but Bill Peters gave no such hints in speaking to the media this morning. This is nothing more than a guess, so take it for what it’s worth:

Brock McGinn - Jordan Staal - Justin Williams

Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Teuvo Teravainen

Sebastian Aho - Derek Ryan - Elias Lindholm

Joakim Nordstrom - Marcus Kruger - Phil Di Giuseppe

Jaccob Slavin - Brett Pesce

Noah Hanifin - Justin Faulk

Klas Dahlbeck - Trevor van Riemsdyk

Cam Ward

Scott Darling

The Predators have a long history of success against the Hurricanes at home, only losing three games to Carolina at Bridgestone Arena since their debut in 1998. However, recent history has tilted toward the Canes in this series, and a Preds loss tonight will mark four straight Carolina wins, and the Canes’ second straight season sweep. There is plenty on the line for the Predators tonight, who with a win would break a four-way tie atop the Western Conference and could move them into sole possession of first place depending on results elsewhere.

The Preds also took an optional skate this morning, so these lines are projections based on how they skated at practice yesterday:

Filip Forsberg - Ryan Johansen - Viktor Arvidsson

Kevin Fiala - Kyle Turris - Craig Smith

Calle Jarnkrok - Nick Bonino - Pontus Aberg

Scott Hartnell - Colton Sissons - Austin Watson

Roman Josi - Mattias Ekholm

Alexei Emelin - P.K. Subban

Matt Irwin - Yannick Weber

Pekka Rinne

Juuse Saros