Carolina Hurricanes vs. Chicago Blackhawks: Lineups and Game Discussions

Coming off a 4-3 OT loss to the Florida Panthers, the Carolina Hurricanes will be looking to clean up their defensive breakdowns and play the full 60 minutes as they continue their homestand, hosting the Chicago Blackhawks Friday night at 7 p.m.

The Carolina Hurricanes are entering tonight’s contest with a 10-3-1 record and on a four-game point streak.

Jordan Staal has scored at least a goal in his last four appearances and Andrei Svechnikov has registered an assist in four straight.

Head coach Rod Brind’Amour stated this morning that he would be going with the same lineup from Wednesday, but with a change in net as James Reimer will be getting the start. He’s 7-1-0 on the season with a 0.895 save percentage and 3.1 goals against average.

Here’s how the Canes will lineup:

Brock McGinn - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen
Nino Niederreiter - Vincent Trocheck - Martin Necas
Andrei Svechnikov - Jordan Staal - Warren Foegele
Jordan Martinook - Cedric Paquette - Jesper Fast

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Jake Gardiner - Brett Pesce
Brady Skjei - Jake Bean

James Reimer
Alex Nedeljkovic

Injuries and Scatches: Haydn Fleury (healthy), Petr Mrazek (right thumb), Max McCormick (upper body, IR)

Taxi Squad: Antoine Bibeau, Steven Lorentz, Joakim Ryan

The Blackhawks are coming to Raleigh tied for first in the Central division — albeit with four more games played than the other three playoff positioned teams — and on a three-game winning streak as well as having won six of their last seven.

They enter tonight’s contest with an overall 9-5-4 record.

Patrick Kane is fifth in the league in points so far this season with a 7-16-23 statline and goalie Kevin Lankinen leads all rookie netminders in save percentage (0.931), GAA (2.29), wins (7) and shutouts (1).

The Blackhawks are projected to use 11F/7D tonight. Here’s how they will lineup:

Alex DeBrincat - Pius Suter - Patrick Kane
Brandon Hagel - Dylan Strome - Dominik Kubalik
Philipp Kurashev - Carl Soderberg - Mattias Janmark
David Kampf - Ryan Carpenter

Duncan Keith - Ian Mitchell
Calvin de Haan - Lucas Carlsson
Nikita Zadorov - Nicolas Beaudin
Adam Boqvist

Kevin Lankinen
Malcolm Subban

Injuries and Scratches: Lucas Wallmark (Healthy), Matthew Highmore (Healthy), Connor Murphy (IR), Andrew Shaw (IR), Brent Seabrook (IR), Zack Smith (IR), Jonathan Toews (LTIR), Kirby Dach (LTIR), Alex Nylander (LTIR)

Taxi Squad: Collin Delia, Wyatt Kalynuk, Reese Johnson, Brandon Pirri, Madison Bowey

Friday’s Offials:

Referees: Francois St. Laurent (8), Jake Brenk (26)

Linesmen: Brandon Gawryletz (64), Libor Suchanek (60)

Video Judge: Dave Grosnick