Tale of the TapeTwo nights after going full Roxy (at least for the first two periods) in Columbus, the Cannots (8-1-1 in last ten games) roll into the RBC Center hoping to get more than a single point against the 29th place Hurricanes (1-7-2) than it did against the 30th place BJs. The Hurricanes come into the game with the 25th ranked PP and PK, which won't be helped by the absence of Joni Pitkanen (UBI) and Jeff Skinner (post-concussion syndrome). Mark Mancari got called up from the Chicago Wolves - no word whether he'll play, but given he was called up on an emergency basis, let's hope he can take AnAl's place on the bench as the 12th forward. The other story is that Schneids gets the start and Luongo will sit so he can start on Saturday in the marquee matchup on HNIC against the Leafs. The Wild picked up another single point last night in a SO loss against the Bolland and the 'Hawks and now stand 6 points up on Vancouver; Vancouver could therefore reduce that lead by two with a win tonight.
Daniel / Henrik / Bureaux
Higgins / Kesler / Hansen
MayRay / Hodgson / Weise
Lapierre / Malhotra / Mancari (?)
Hamhuis / BXA
Edler / Salo
Ballard / Rome
Schneider (Luongo)
EDIT: Just heard on 1040 that the word on Kirk Muller's approach lately is to play a more attacking, up-tempo style, which is a little puzzling given the absence of two of their best players. And they have Kiri Tlusty and Patrick Dwyer on their first line - WTF? If they do that, it should play into the strength of AV's team very nicely so hopefully we won't see a 60-minute trap-fest as they did against Columbus.