Rested Canes ready to get back at it
The Carolina Hurricanes will have Eddie Lack in net and a new look to the lines Friday as they face the Dallas Stars.
The Canes last played Sunday, losing 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at PNC Arena. They put in three days of practice — Tuesday was an off-day — and have had time to rest up after spending much of October on the road.
“It feels like it’s been forever since we played,” Canes coach Bill Peters said Friday. “I thought it was a good week. I thought we spent a lot of time in certain areas of our game. Obviously the power play is one area, and a little work in the D-zone.
“The preparation we did is for the month of November, not just for the game. We’re not exactly thrilled with where we’re at with the power-play performance to date. We auditioned a lot of guys with that.
The lines for Friday’s game should have Jordan Staal centering Eric Staal and Elias Lindholm, Victor Rask at center with Nathan Gerbe and Kris Versteeg, Riley Nash with Jeff Skinner and Chris Terry, and Jay McClement at center with Brock McGinn and Andrej Nestrasil. Brad Malone is the extra forward.
“We’ll see what (the Stars) do and adjust accordingly,” Peters said. “They’re a team that scores. Their top line scores and their D corps contributes offensively.”
The Stars (10-3-0) are third in the NHL in scoring (3.54 goals a game) and second on the power play (29.5 percent). They scored three power-play goals Tuesday in a 5-3 win at Boston.
The Canes’ defensive pairs will be Ron Hainsey-Justin Faulk, John-Michael Liles-Brett Pesce and Noah Hanifin-Ryan Murphy. Michal Jordan is the extra.
Lack will be making his fourth appearance of the season. Lack was the winner Oct. 29 as the Canes topped the New York Islanders in overtime but Cam Ward has started the past two games.
Peters said Ward would be the starter Saturday when the Canes finish up the home back-to-back against the Ottawa Senators.
“We’re comfortable with both goalies and knew we were going to play them each one game here on the weekend,” Peters said.
Stars coach Lindy Ruff said his team is “back up and running” after a few days off and ready for a Canes team he said has played good hockey.
“They play pretty sound defensively,” he said. “They haven’t given up the big strikes on the defensive side. They’ve got a young defense that I think we can get in there and try to dominate that if we do the right things.
“I think the structure to their game is real good. They’re playing the way I think they need to play to win hockey games.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Rested Canes ready to get back at it."