Game Preview & Thread: Senators at Hurricanes

It’s Pride Night in Raleigh and Brady Tkachuk is in town

This Hurricanes Holiday Homestand continues tonight as the Canes take on the Ottawa Senators.

Things are already a little different for the team as it grapples with the news that Jack Drury had surgery on his hand after Tuesday’s game, and that he’s going to be out for a while. It’s one thing to shuffle up the lines when one of the wings or defenders are hurt, but when the man who has been your Necas-line center gets hurt it’s going to require some juggling.

We already saw how that was flipping around at the end of the game Tuesday night as Rod Brind’Amour had to deal with the shortage and continually flip things around to try and not wear everyone out. Right now it looks like Tyson Jost will be coming up to fill that spot.

At least for now, the people that were hoping Kotkaniemi would finally get reuinted with Necas and Robinson will get their wish. We’ll know if Brind’Amour is really not happy with KK if Jost ultimately centers that line.

The opponent tonight is an Ottawa Senators team that is milling around at the playoff cut line. They enter the evening a couple points out of a playoff spot, behind Tampa in their own division and still beating a floundering New York Rangers team. They sit at 13-13-2 and also dealing with rumors that the weak start is going to force them to trade off their star Brady Tkachuk to those very Rangers. This is all after seemingly solving their goaltending issue in the offseason by signing former Vezna Trophy Winner Linus Ullmark in the offseason.

Ullmark’s overall stats haven’t matched that performance, but in recent games he’s starting to appear like the player the Senators signed. He’s 4-0-1 in his last five, and all five saw his save percentage above .900. With tonight being the first of a back-to-back and tomorrow being the Penguins, expect to see Ullmark in goal tonight to try and continue his hot streak.

The Sens also bring five double-digit goal scorers to the ice, and perhaps a long memory over the last time the two saw each other, which was in the midst of the Canes’ torrid November. It would remain as Spencer Martin’s best game between the pipes, and alleviated some concerns after news had recently come through that Frederick Andersen would be out for a while. Both teams are in different places now, so there’s every reason to think this game may be different after Carolina’s sluggish 3-2 win Tuesday.

It’s also Pride Night at Lenovo Center as the Canes and Senators continue the Hockey is for Everyone initiative. Expect the team to announce more initiatives around this throughout the day.

Puck drop is for a little after 7 PM in Raleigh. If you won’t be there, here’s how you can catch the action:

• Time: 7:00 PM ET
• Location: Lenovo Center, Raleigh, NC
• TV: FanDuel Sports Network South with Mike Maniscalco, play-by-play; Tripp Tracy, color analyst; Hanna Yates, in-game reporter; Shane Willis, analyst. **Note that this is the only game tonight and it’s on nationally on NHL Network—which also means that if you are an ESPN+ subscriber you won’t see it.
• Radio: 99.9 The Fan
• Line: ML: CAR -205; PL: CAR -1.5 +124