Carolina Hurricanes @ Nashville Predators: Game Four Preview and Lineups

Barely a day and a half after the second-longest game in franchise history ended, the Carolina Hurricanes and Nashville Predators will get back to business in a matinee this afternoon. Matt Duchene’s goal in the second overtime period kept the series on serve, with the home team having won every game so far. The series is guaranteed to return to Raleigh on Tuesday, but the question now: will it do so with the Hurricanes in a position to clinch, or as the first game of a best-of-three?

Game Notes

• So much for that 10 for 10 penalty kill, huh? The Hurricanes allowed their first-power play goal of the series in game three, with Mikael Granlund’s second period tally. The Hurricanes killed off six other penalties in the game. That goal came on a five on three, however, so the Canes have still yet to allow a conventional five-on-four power-play goal in this series.
• In case you somehow missed it, Rod Brind’Amour was not exactly pleased with those penalties. So far, he’s escaped a league fine for speaking out.
• Today’s game will be Jordan Staal’s 100th career playoff game, and his 27th with the Hurricanes. In 99 games, he has 30 goals and 19 assists.
• Five players have made their NHL playoff debuts with the Hurricanes this season, with defenseman Max Lajoie the most recent addition in Friday’s game. Lajoie spent the season with the Chicago Wolves, where he quickly became a stand-out on the blue line, after being acquired from the Ottawa Senators.
• Sebastian Aho leads the Hurricanes with five points in three games. Brett Pesce has four points in that same time span. No Predators players have more than three points (Filip Forsberg and Ryan Ellis).

Projected Lineups

Neither team practiced yesterday, and with the early start today neither team will skate this morning, so we have very little to go on in terms of anticipated lineup changes this morning. Rod Brind’Amour was pleased on Friday with the performance of playoff debutant Max Lajoie, and it seems likely that if Jaccob Slavin is out again Lajoie will once again take his spot in the lineup.

On the Predators’ side, Viktor Arvidsson missed Game 3 with an upper-body injury, and Nick Cousins will likely play again in his place if Arvidsson is unable to to play today. Here’s how we project the lineups to look:

UPDATE: Rod Brind’Amour confirmed that were will be no lineup changes for game four, so Jaccob Slavin will be out again, and Alex Nedeljkovic will get the start in net.

Hurricanes

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

Brady Skjei - Dougie Hamilton
Jake Bean - Brett Pesce
Max Lajoie - Jani Hakanpaa

Alex Nedeljkovic
Petr Mrazek

Injuries and Scratches: Jaccob Slavin (lower body), Cedric Paquette (lower body), Jake Gardiner (healthy), Morgan Geekie (healthy), James Reimer (healthy)

Black Aces: Max McCormick, Drew Shore, Joakim Ryan, Joey Keane, Roland McKeown, Ryan Suzuki, Antoine Bibeau

Predators

Filip Forsberg - Ryan Johansen - Matt Duchene
Eeli Tolvanen - Mikael Granlund - Luke Kunin
Nick Cousins - Erik Haula - Calle Jarnkrok
Yakov Trenin - Colton Sissons - Tanner Jeannot

Roman Josi - Alexandre Carrier
Mattias Ekholm - Ryan Ellis
Ben Harpur - Matt Benning

Juuse Saros
Pekka Rinne

Injuries and Scratches: Viktor Arvidsson (upper body), Rocco Grimaldi (healthy), Erik Gudbranson (healthy)

Black Aces: Tyler Lewington, Brad Richardson, Rem Pitlick, David Farrance, Mathieu Olivier, Philip Tomasino, Jeremy Davies, Michael McCarron, Dante Fabbro, Kasimir Kaskisuo

Today’s Officials

Referees: T.J. Luxmore #21, Gord Dwyer #19
Linesmen: Shandor Alphonso #52, Bryan Pancich #94
Standby: Tom Chmielewski #18