New Jersey Devils at Carolina Hurricanes: Preview and Game Thread

A loud Lenovo Center will be packed to welcome the Carolina Hurricanes back from a rough road trip and Holiday Break tonight. The New Jersey Devils and Canes get right back at it, this time on the Canes’ home ice, after the Devils took round three 4-2 last night.

The Canes come back to Lenovo after a four game road trip that saw them go 1-3, with the lone win coming against the flatlining Rangers. It’s a 5-6-0 funk the Canes are now in, and after a hot start the Canes have sunk into a solid third place in the Metropolitan Divison. They are five points back of the Washington Capitals and eight points back of these Devils—though the Devils have still played three more games than the Canes and the Canes will still have three games in hand after tonight.

The Canes will look to take their 13-4-0 record at Lenovo and recover against New Jersey’s second goalie Jake Allen. Allen currently is 5-5 on the season with a 2.79 GAA and .900 save percentage. He’s lost his last three in a row and has given up 12 goals in those three starts. He also hasn’t been between the pipes since December 19th. The hope is that the Canes are able to play the same game they did Friday but this time against a goalie who won’t make the saves of a Jacob Markstrom

On the other side of the ice, the Canes will probably start Dustin Tokarski in the second night of the back-to-back. So far he’s 1-1 this season, beating Columbus while falling at Nashville this past Monday. His win against Columbus was stellar, and the home crowd should help provide the support they need.

The bigger issue for the Canes is the folks who recently signed big extensions: Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Martin Necas, and Seth Jarvis have mostly gone missing from a goal scoring stand point. Despite Brind’Amour doing more blending than a Smoothie King, these players just haven’t been able to get sparked. There’s still pllenty of time, and the Canes have the luxury of a six point bump over the Pittsburgh Penguins for fourth in the Metro to figure things out.

After tonight, the Canes get their last two day break for two weeks, as the thirteen day span from December 31-January 12 sees the Canes play eight games. While five of the eight will be at home, the two road games will see them battle the two Florida teams battling at the top of the Atlantic, including the rescheduled road opener against Tampa Bay. The real grind of the season has begun, and the sooner the Canes can break out of a funk and go on a run, the better.

So those are the stakes tonight as the red sweater-clad Canes will take on the Devils. The game is going to be sold out, so if you aren’t going to 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.
• Radio: 99.9 The Fan
• Line: ML: CAR -135; PL: CAR -1.5 +190