Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins: Lines and Game Discussion

The Hurricanes take on the 82-point-having Boston Bruins tonight, and thanks to the cruelty of being a Canes fan, we are technically still in the playoff hunt (step it up, Atlantic).

A win tonight would be...well, not a loss, of which we’ve had five straight, and gives us the potential of being only three points outside of the Wild CaOkay how are we still this close?

The biggest scratch tonight is a painful one that we’ve felt for the past couple days: Jordan Staal is out on bereavement leave after the loss of his daughter, Hannah. If you feel the urge to support the Staals during this time, we’ve attached information on how you can do that in yesterday’s Storm Advisory.

Scott Darling (10-16-6/3.05 GAA/.890 SV) is expected to be back in goal after his 19-for-22 performance against the Red Wings on Saturday. If you don’t remember his last outing against Boston...just, just look at the recap.

The lines in practice are all jumbled from the last game in Detroit, with a couple points of interest:

• Derek Ryan is back up to the second line from the fourth, so maybe disregard any mention of the playoffs in the first and second grafs.
• Lucas Wallmark takes Ryan’s center spot on the fourth line, which probably doesn’t bode well for him getting a significant amount of ice time.
• Sebastian Aho is not at center, despite what Bill Peters said yesterday.
• Greg McKegg is Not McInTheLines. (In fact, he’s McInCharlotte.)

Here’s how things looked at morning skate:

Sebastian Aho - Elias Lindholm - Teuvo Teravainen

Brock McGinn - Derek Ryan - Justin Williams

Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Phil Di Giuseppe

Joakim Nordstrom - Lucas Wallmark - Lee Stempniak

Jaccob Slavin - Justin Faulk

Noah Hanifin - Brett Pesce

Haydn Fleury - Trevor van Riemsdyk

Scott Darling

Cam Ward

The good news is Patrice Bergeron can’t score four goals on us tonight. The bad news is that it’s due to an injury. He’ll be off ice for the next two weeks or more after fracturing his right foot against the Maple Leafs.

Unlike GMRF the Hurricanes, Boston made some moves around the deadline, and they’ll show up in tonight’s lines. Fomer Ranger Rick Nash will likely wing the second line like he did against the Bruins, and the new signee, Olympic captain Brian Gionta, looks to wing the third line.

Expect Tuukka “Not Victor” Rask (24-11-4/2.21 GAA/.921 SV) in net for the Bruins tonight, as they try to pull out some security points in their race to the playoffs.

Brad Mahchand - Riley Nash - David Pastrnak

Jake DeBrusk - David Kreici - Rick Nash

Danton Heinen - David Backes - Brian Gionta

Tim Schaller - Sean Kuraly - Noel Acciari

Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy

Torey Krug - Brandon Carlo

Matt Grzelcyk - Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask

Anton Khudobin