Carolina Hurricanes (20-25-11) at Montreal Canadiens (23-24-9)
Bell Centre, 7:30 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas, TSN-Habs

Tonight's game should be a very emotional night for Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller as he returns to Montreal for the first time as the Carolina bench boss. Muller was well-traveled over his NHL career but he is best known for his time with the Montreal Canadiens as he led the team to a Stanley Cup in 1993 and served as team captain for the 1994-95 season. He may have spent only four seasons in Montreal but his service as a player and captain there are not forgotten. There is no doubt that he was loved in Montreal and that he loved Montreal, as well so this is going to be a very special game for him and the Canadiens fanbase.

That aside, let's not forget that the Canes are coming off back-to-back overtime losses, both of which were heart-breaking. I am sure that Muller hasn't forgotten about those and will look to get the Canes back in the win column tonight. Let's hope the Canes do Muller a solid tonight and help him make this night even more memorable.

Lines & more after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (20-25-10) at Colorado Avalanche (27-25-3)
Pepsi Center, 9 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas, Altitude

The Hurricanes have faced the Western Conference only 10 times this year and have a middling record of 4-4-2 against those teams. Out of who they have faced in the Western Conference, the division they have had the most success against it he Northwest as they are 2-1-0 against them with wins over the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. What this means is....well nothing really in the grand scheme of things. It's only three games and making conclusions based off that is just silly, but figured that the fans could use a confidence boost after that tough OT loss against Anaheim the other night.

If you want a real jolt of confidence for tonight's game, it's worth mentioning that the Canes are coming off one of their better road efforts of the season. They may have ended up taking the loss, but they played a solid game overall and will hopefully carry over that effort into tonight's game against the Avalanche.

The Avalanche are a better team than the Ducks so this will be a more difficult test for Carolina but they are coming off three strong games in a row, so their confidence has to be pretty high right now. There's only two games left to go in the road trip, so accumulating points now will be important. 

Lines & game notes after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (18-25-9) vs. Boston Bruins (32-14-2)
TD Garden, 7 p.m.
TV: NHL-Network (US)

If you told me at the beginning of the year that the only teams that the Hurricanes would be on the verge of sweeping the Boston Bruins then I wouldn't have believed you. Well, they are 3-0 against the Bruins this year and with a win tonight, they can make me look like a fool. Re-visiting the scores of those games is even stranger because the Canes have handed the Bruins one of two of their only losses that have come by more than two goals (4-1 win back in October). Their last win over Boston was also a "clear victory" thanks to an empty net goal by Eric Staal making it a 4-2 game but that was a game which Cam Ward had to steal for Carolina, or at least keep them in it. He made 33 saves on 35 shots and I would expect him to get that kind of workload again with how the Bruins often pump 30+ shots on goal per game.

The Canes could really use a win after looking flat against the Islanders on Thursday, so let's hope for a sweep.

More after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (17-24-8) at New York Islanders (18-21-6)
7 p.m. Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
TV: FS-Carolina, MSG Plus

One thing that has been supposedly killing the Hurricanes this year is their performance in back-to-back games, especially in ones where they have to travel. Doing this is tough for any team because it's tough for players to find their legs when they already played a game less than 24 hours ago and have gotten very little sleep on top of that. Tonight's contest against the Islanders will be the Canes 11th back-to-back of the season and the good news is that they only have two left on the schedule after this because this type of setting hasn't been kind to Carolina this year. Their 3-4-1 record in back-to-backs may not seem terrible, but they have been outshot 193-238 in this situation and some of their worst performances of the year have come on back-to-backs. Remeber those big losses against the Flyers and Preds both happened when the Canes played the night before and so did that loss to the Penguins where they made Justin Peters face over 50 shots. That said, the Canes played well against Washington in a back-to-back last week despite the 2-1 loss and are coming off a pretty strong win last night so that should make people feel better about tonight's game. There's also the return of Chad LaRose, which should help.

Lines & more after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (16-24-7) at Pittsburgh Penguins (23-17-4)
7 p.m. Consol Energy Center
TV: FS-Carolinas, ROOT Sports

Tonight's game marks the final meeting this season between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins and only the second time  that one of the team's will not be playing as part of a back-to-back when they play each other. Although, the back-to-back games didn't seem to hurt Carolina on Sunday as they outshot the Washington Capitals 45-24 in a 2-1 loss, which came a day before they defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2 despite being outshot 33-21 at even strength. In my post where I looked at the team's possession rates this season, I said that the Canes should win more games in the second half of the year becuase while the team's "true talent" appears to be below average in just about every possession metric (think 48-49%), one of the main reasons why got off to such a horrible start is due to the less than stellar play of goaltender Cam Ward. It was the perfect storm where the team was playing poorly and getting horribly unlucky on top of that. We all know that Ward is better than he's been this year and he actually has shown signs of his usual self this past month (quality performances in all six of his starts), so more wins should come along with Ward's improved play. Will it be enough to make a playoff push? Highly unlikely, but the Canes could get themselves out of the bottom of the Southeast with Tampa Bay struggling so badly.

As for our game with the Pens tonight, I am not sure what to expect because Carolina just played two of the league's better possession teams in Boston and Washington. They were convincingly outshot in one game and won but lost the game where they outshot Washington by 20, so what is in store for them tonight when they take on another one of the league's best possession teams? With Ward starting his fifth straight start, hopefully good things.

Lines & more after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (14-23-7) at Tampa Bay Lightning (17-20-4)
Tampa Bay Times Forum, 7:30 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas, Sun Sports

If you can believe it, the Hurricanes have yet another player on the shelf with Jaro Spacek possibly being out for tonight's game after being hit by a puck in Tuesday's game against the Flyers. This means that another lineup change as been made with Derek Joslin being recalled from his conditioning stint in Charlotte to fill in for Spacek if needed. When it rains, it pours. I know that teams keep track of the amount of "man games" they have lost in a year but something I want to see is what the record is for the amount of consecutive lineup changes made in a season. The Hurricanes appear to be aiming for the record. The good news here is that Joslin has played with the team before and will probably be used in a sheltered third pairing role, so his play shouldn't be too much of a concern unless another injury happens. *knock on wood*

One other thing that is hard to believe is that a win against Tampa Bay tonight would put the Canes only one game out of fourth in the division. Although, that isn't too surprising when you look at how much the Bolts have fallen off in every category this year but they haven't been as horrible lately (4-4-2 in their last 10) and did beat us 5-2 on New Year's Eve so this won't be an easy game for Carolina. I am sure the Canes are sick and tired of being at the bottom of the division, so it would be great to see them win this game and start to climb out of the cellar.

Lines & more after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (14-21-7) at Nashville Predators (21-15-4)
Bridgestone Arena, 8 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas

Yet another roster move was made earlier today as winger Drayson Bowman was sent back to Charlotte to make room for returning RW Patrick Dwyer. Do I agree with this move? Absolutely not, because Bowman was doing just about everything right ever since being recalled by Carolina. 52% of the even strength scoring chances went in the Canes favor when Bowman was on the ice and having a presence like that is important when you're a team that's starved for offense like Carolina is right now. That said, the Canes have three natural centers playing on the first line now and with only so many others on the roster, someone had to be sent down and that guy was Bowman. Bowman is also one of the few players who are waiver exempt, so that makes the decision to send him down make more sense. I have a feeling that we'll be seeing him back in Raleigh some time this year, though. Maybe he'll earn himself a spot in camp to start next year if he keeps it up?

We must move on now and it will be great to have Patrick Dwyer back in the lineup as his defensive presence was missed greatly. Finding a spot for him in the lineup is harder than it seems, though because his usual linemate, Brandon Sutter, is now centering our second line and Dwyer isn't the most threatening second line winger. He was playing on the first line with Staal and has played more than 15 minutes in some games so him playing there is a possibility. I'm just skeptical of how successful it will be. Dwyer-Sutter-LaRose is a fantastic third line and a great defensive unit to put out against other team's top lines but I don't know if they are anything more than that at this point. The return of Jeff Skinner will help this matter a lot, but the Canes are going to need to make due with what they have now and hopefully pick up their second win and two nights as they take on the Nashville Predators.

Lines & more after the jump

Buffalo Sabers (18-17-4) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (13-21-7)
RBC Center, 7 p.m.
TV: MSG-Buffalo

I said earlier that you have to take risks to be a successful franchise and head coach Kirk Muller is doing that tonight by putting Tuomo Ruutu and Jussi Jokinen on the first line with Eric Staal. Why is this risky you ask? Because these three are our best offensive players currently in the lineup and if they get shut down, there isn't much behind them and it's going to hurt the team's offense a lot. However, this line has three of Carolina's leaders in scoring chance percentage and present a threat whenever they are on the ice, something the team has lacked all season. Jokinen & Ruutu's line with Jeff Skinner was the closest thing to a big offensive threat we had all season and I guess Muller is tired of these wing experiments with Eric Staal and wants to put him with two proven goal-scoreres instead. Ruutu and Jokinen are the most proven wingers we have right now and have worked with Staal in the past, so this works. 

If you remember Jokinen's 30 goal season, he was attached at the hip to Eric Staal for most of the year so maybe tonight is the night where he finally snaps his goal drought. We just need to hope that this line produces because after them there isn't much. Our second line tonight will probably be our usual third line of Bowman-Sutter-LaRose and while they are a solid unit, none of them are proven top-six commodities so I'm going into tonight with a lot of skepticism.The Sabers defense is banged up right now so that may have influenced Muller to load up the top line.

Lines & more after the jump

New York Islanders (13-17-16) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (13-21-6)
7 p.m. RBC Center
TV: MSG+

It's a battle for the bottom of the Eastern Conference as the Hurricanes take on the New York Islanders. Both of these teams are in the "Fail for Nail" sweepstakes and if there is one team that's shown the dangers of using "tanking for a high draft pick" as a silver lining, it's the Islanders. This team has not made the playoffs in four (soon to be five) years and finished at the bottom of the Atlantic division in all of those year. During that time (and before that) they accumulated high draft picks like Josh Bailey, John Tavares, Calvin De Hann, Kyle Okposo and Jesse Joensuu and despite that, they are still stuck at the bottom of the conference even though they should be improving on paper. The Islanders are the exact reason why I am worried for the Canes if they choose to completely blow up their core and rebuild from scratch again. Sure, it's worked for the Capitals, Blackhawks and Penguins but people need to remember that high draft picks are not always a sure thing when it comes to turning franchises around so there is a ton of risk involved with tanking. A high draft pick would help the Canes a lot but let's not pretend like that will fix all of our problems immediately.

As for the actual game tonight, we'll discuss that after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (13-20-6) at Tampa Bay Lightning (17-16-3)
5:00 p.m., St. Pete Times Forum
TV: FS-Carolinas, Sun Sports

Assuming that realignment gets approved by the NHLPA, this will be the final year that the Canes and Bolts will be divisional "rivals" and will no longer have to play them six times a year. Part of me will miss that because I always look forward to our divisional tilts with the Lightning (although two out of the last three I'd like to forget) and it will feel weird not playing them as often. The realignment is going to have a bigger effect on the Bolts, though as they move to a "conference" that features Boston, Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo, Toronto and....the Florida Panthers. It's basically a way for the NHL to sell tickets in the Florida teams because of all the snowbirds. I'll miss the Bolts as our Southeastern adversaries, though. When you play in the Southeast for so long you eventually get attached to the teams here, which is why the Thrashers moving also bummed me out.

Anyway, back to some real hockey talk now. If you've been reading my recaps, you'll remember that Justin Faulk and Jay Harrison are being used as the team's shutdown pair and, much to my suprise, they have been very successful. They had a rough outing against Evgeni Malkin and James Neal on Tuesday but they effectively neutralized Phil Kessel, Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise in previous games. Brandon Sutter has also played a big role in this as the team's main defensive forward with Patrick Dwyer out of the lineup. I am not banking on this to sustain because neither have blown away their competition this year but if it does, then I won't be complaining. Tonight's going ot be another tough test for them as they have the duty of keeping Steven Stamkos off the score sheet. Challenge accepted? Let's hope so.

Lines, analysis & notes after the jump