Hurricanes @ Maple Leafs: Game Preview & Thread

Welcome back hockey, and Happy David Ayres Day to those who celebrate!

For all of the junk the NHL rightly deserves, it’s hard to argue that at least someone there knows what they are doing.

Coming off a wildly successful Four Nations Face-Off that saw the largest audience watch an NHL game in decades, the league schedulers decided last summer to celebrate the fifth anniversary of one of the wildest events in the league with a rematch in the same location.

Yes, five years ago tonight the Hurricanes were forced to rely on an EBUG because of injuries, and somehow a 42 year-old man who alternated between driving the ice resurfacing machine at the practice rink and playing the Jorge Alves role for the Maple Leafs and Marleys got a win in an NHL game. It led to some of the best press the Canes could have asked for at a time when they were still getting their footing, and led to a lot of Hurricanes fans becoming familiar with this guy who had one of the all-time rants because THEY LOST TO A ZAMBONI DRIVER!

Seriously if for some reason you’ve never seen that rant, watch it before tonight. Dangle is amazing and I don’t know how he still has vocal cords left.

What’s funny is that if not for that moment, we probably would still be talking about the most recent matchup against the Leafs. Dangle even acknowledged how the odd games always seem to happen between the two clubs in his recap:

“It’s ALWAYS the Carolina games!” Seriously, the Leafs’ top line were either -5 or -6 in a game that they lead 2-0 at the start, then managed to tie 3-3 after the Canes scored three straight. It was a Jordan Staal hat trick game, right before his brother Eric saw his number retried.

Needless to say, you’d be right to expect a wild time tonight even if the majority of both squads haven’t played a lick of hockey for about two weeks.

The vibes in Toronto should be electric as they celebrate the thrilling 3-2 Canada win over the US on Thursday night. It’ll be interesting to hear the reception for Jaccob Slavin and Seth Jarvis, as the hockey-loving culture can do nothing but respect the defensive clinic Slavin put up while Jarvis became the media darling we all expected. It’s also fitting that this is what the NHL chose to bring Hockey Night in Canada for, and it’s quite a compliment to the Canes that they are a team that the league wants to feature regularly on this seminal program.

Just on its face this is a fantastic matchup. Since the two squads last met, the Canes swung the biggest regular season trade in years by landing Mikko Rantanen and sent off Marty Necas and Jack Drury. There have been rumblings—mostly due to Elliotte Friedman —That the Canes might turn around and flip Rantanen because of his perceived slow start. The thing is, though, Mark Lazerus has a fantastic piece in The Athletic today about how he’s fitting in just fine. If you subscribe, I highly recommend the read. Patience is key here.

The Canes are also now healthy in goal with Frederick Andersen rotating again with Pyotr Kochetkov. On top of that it looks like Tyson Jost will be back in the lineup for the first time in two months.

Both squads are second in their respective divisions. The Canes enter Saturday a full 10 points behind Washington for first in the division, but two points ahead of the Devils and 10 points ahead of the wild card cut off line with 26 games left to play. The Leafs, meanwhile, are in a fight for first in a much tighter Atlantic Division, and with the news that Matthew Tkachuk was hurt during the Four Nations and may miss time, they have a real shot to grab the first spot while holding off a Tampa Bay squad that’s just two behind them.

Once Toronto finished their morning skate, here’s what they are projected to start:

Meanwhile in a fitting tribute to the chaos that was the Ayres game, the Canes appear to be going with chaos in net.

So slot Jarvis in the “X” spot and Slavin in for Stillman.

We get the action going tonight. The camera should find several Caniacs who made the trip up to Toronto, but if you aren’t there and need to follow along here’s how you can catch the action:

• Time: 7:10 PM Eastern
• Location: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ON
• Television: Regionally on FanDuel Sports network with Mike Maniscalco doing Play by Play, Tripp Tracy providing color, and Hanna Yates reporting from the ice. Nationally the game is on NHL Network—so if you rely on ESPN + to watch you’ll need to find some other way.
• Radio: Hurricanes Radio Network—99.9 FM in Raleigh, 730 AM in Charlotte, 107.5 FM in New Bern, and 107.5 in Greenville. Adam Gold will handle pre and postgame.
• Line: ML: CAR -125; PL: CAR -1.5 +205