About the Hurricanes - 11-19-10
A preview of the Hurricanes.
When and where: 7 p.m., Consol Energy Center.
TV: FSN Pittsburgh. FSN Carolina.
Record: 9-9-0, 18 points. The Hurricanes are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference and third place in the Southeast Division.
Leading Scorer: Eric Staal (right), 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists).
Last Game: 7-1 home win against the Senators, Wednesday. Staal had a hat trick and two assists.
Last Game against the Penguins: 3-0 home loss, Oct. 30. Brent Johnson made 33 saves in the shutout for the Penguins.
Hurricanes Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: It's hard to go against Staal right now. He has 13 points in his last five games.
Ex-Penguins on the Hurricanes: Tom Barrasso, assistant coach; Ron Francis, associate head coach/director of player personnel; Jim Rutherford, general manager/president.
Ex-Hurricanes on the Penguins: Craig Adams, RW.
Useless Whalers/Hurricanes Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Former Penguins first-round pick Blaine Stoughton holds the Hurrcanes/Whalers franchise record for game-winning goals in an NHL season. He had nine in 1979-80.
Best Whalers/Hurricanes Video We Could Find: Former Penguins forward Randy Cunneyworth, then of the Whalers, pretty much destroying the life of former Penguins forward Markus Naslund then attmepting to fight Jim Paek on the bench:
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Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (4-6-1, 2.88 GAA, .883 SV%) for the Penguins and Cam Ward (9-7-0, 2.98 GAA, .912 SV%) for the Hurricanes.
Injuries: For the Penguins, center Jordan Staal (foot) and defenseman Alex Grant (wrist) are on injured reserve. For the Hurricanes, they are not reporting any injuries.
Potential lines and defensive pairings:
-The Penguins did not practice with full squad yesterday. Their primary lines and defensive pairing against the Canucks Wednesday were:
Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Evgeni Malkin - Arron Asham
Chris Conner - Mark Letestu - Tyler Kennedy
Mike Rupp - Maxime Talbot - Craig Adams
Kris Letang - Brooks Orpik
Alex Goligoski - Deryk Engelland
Zbynek Michalek - Ben Lovejoy
-The Hurricanes' primary lines against the Senators Wednesday were:
Sergei Samsonov - Eric Staal - Chad LaRose
Jeff Skinner - Tuomo Ruutu - Erik Cole
Jussi Jokinen - Brandon Sutter - Patrick Dwyer
Jiri Tlusty - Jon Matsumoto - Patrick O'Sullivan
After Wednesday's trade with the Flames for Ian White and a demotion of Brett Carson to Charlotte of the AHL, the Hurricanes' defensive pairings are expected to look like this
Tim Gleason - Joe Corvo
Joni Pitkanen - Ian White
Jamie McBain - Jay Harrison
Notes:
-Asham, Malkin and Martin all sat out yesterday's practice for maintenance reasons.
-Michalek is still kind of reeling from his shoulder injury.
-Fleury is starting. Right?
-Malkin has 248 career regular season assists and 398 career regular season points.
-Crosby has 196 career regular season goals.
-New Hurricanes forward Troy Bodie is expected to make his debut with the team tonight.
-Our editors are not allowing us to cover tonight's game in person. Our live blog from the office will begin at approximately 7 p.m. Please tune in.
(Photo: Jeff Gross/Getty Images)