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Maple Leafs at Hurricanes: Game Preview, Notes, Statistics, How to Watch

The Hurricanes seek to win 2 in a row tonight and take the season series from the Leafs.

By Cody Hagan
NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs at Carolina Hurricanes James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto Maple Leafs (30-22-14) vs Carolina Hurricanes (27-27-10)
Saturday, March 11th, 2017 - 7:00 pm ET
PNC Arena – Raleigh, NC
FOX Sports Carolinas, 99.9 The Fan - WRALSportsFan Web and App
SB Nation Rival Blog: Pension Plan Puppets

Vital Statistics

Category Hurricanes Bruins
Category Hurricanes Bruins
Record 8-6 11-5
Goals/Game 2.79 3.31
Goals Against/Game 2.71 2.06
Shots/Game 30.9 34.3
Faceoff % 49.1% 53.3%
Power Play % (Rank) 10.0% (14) 31.9% (1)
Penalty Kill % (Rank) 70.8% (14) 85.7% (4)
ES Corsi For % 55.61% 51.66%
ES PDO 101.2% 101.0
PIM/Game 8:38 6:30

Goaltender #1

Category Cam Ward Thomas Greiss
Category Cam Ward Thomas Greiss
Record 23-20-9 21-15-4
ES Save % .909 .922
GAA 2.68 2.66

Goaltender #2

Category Eddie Lack Jean-Francois Berube
Category Eddie Lack Jean-Francois Berube
Record 3-5-2 3-2-2
ES Save % .891 .896
GAA 2.97 3.42

Game Notes

  • The Carolina Hurricanes will look for 2 straight wins with the Toronto Maple Leafs in town tonight. The Canes are coming off a fantastic victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night while the Leafs enter tonight having won their last two contests.
  • Valentin Zykov scored his first NHL goal Thursday night in his first career NHL game. He should be paired with Jordan Staal and Sebastian Aho once again, and we will see if he can make some magic happen again against the Leafs.
  • Speaking of Aho, he had two goals against the Rangers and continues to lead the offensive drive alongside Jeff Skinner. If either of these guys are going good the Hurricanes have a chance to win, and when both are hot and scoring the Hurricanes turn in to a dangerous team as we saw Thursday. Skinner has points in three straight entering play tonight.
  • Jaccob Slavin continues to lead all Canes skaters at a plus-15 rating. Averaging 23:20 per game, Slavin has become the number one defenseman in Carolina.
  • The Leafs and Canes have split the season series so far with tonight being the rubber match up. On November 22nd the Canes won 2-1 in Toronto but then lost 4-0 at home to the Leafs on February 19th.
  • Toronto currently has the best power play in the NHL at 23.7%. The Hurricanes penalty kill, which was for most of the season the best in the NHL, has dropped off dramatically in the past six weeks (down to number 6 in the league overall). The PK gave up three goals to a Rangers team who hadn’t scored a PP goal in five games, so the Canes will need that unit to step up tonight if they want to win.
  • Look for the Canes to go back to Cam Ward coming off a season-high 40 save performance against the Rangers. Ward is 17-11-3 in his career against Toronto with a 2.62 GAA.
  • The Hurricanes Homegrown Series continues tonight. As usual the game will feature live music during intermission, a featured homegrown beer and food selection, along with the wicked poster shown below for the first 1,000 fans in attendance. So make sure you get there early! All the info regarding the rest of the Homegrown Series and the events for tonight can be found here.