Oh those Carolina Hurricanes. With the Jordan Staal trade at the draft and then signing Alexander Semin to that huge one year deal (worth $7M, are you for real?) on top of Skinner and Eric Staal, I thought they'd be good. Apparently I'm wrong because they aren't. They're an average, middle of the pack type of hockey team that hasn't found their flow yet. Either way, they're not as good as I thought. Then again, Semin.
The 'Canes are 16th in offense (goals per game: 2.75) and 22nd in defense (3.25). Their power play is 23rd in the NHL with a 15% success rate, but it's still better than Boston who is 29th with a 5.9% conversion. 5.9%! There's a silver lining here, the Bruins aren't last like the LA Kings, who haven't converted a power play attempt yet. So I mean, woo?
The good news is that the Bruins have a chance to score a power play goal tonight (lol optimism) because Carolina is trash on the penalty kill so far, killing only 77% of the penalties they take. Boston? 100% and perfect just like each one of you reading this.
Carolina also has this guy:
So now to ruin the rest of your day…Adam McQuaid is out of tonight's game sue to personal reasons and…
Wait for it…
Aaron Johnson is playing.
I can already see him huffing and puffing on that 3rd pairing. It's giving me New York Rangers flashbacks.
Part of me is hoping that we see Anton Khudobin tonight in net. I'd like to see what the kid can bring to the table. I know that Julien loves to ride the hot hand and Tuukka has been outstanding so far this season, but with a back-to-back coming up and New Jersey being the better all around team (better offense, much better defense, and a slightly better power play) you would think the more established guy would face the better team.
Then there's the argument that you want the rookie in net at home and not on the road, but I don't know if I can buy that. Between the pipes is between the pipes no matter where you're playing. Plus then I can use this photoshop more and more:
Lines n stuff….
Media
TV: NESN
Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub
Online Feeds: Here
Projected Lines
Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Nathan Horton
Tyler Seguin – Patrice Bergeron – Brad Marchand
Rich Peverley – Chris Kelly – Chris Bourque
Shawn Thornton – Greg Campbell – Dan Paille
Zdeno Chara – Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg – Dougie Hamilton
Andrew Ference – Aaron Johnson
Anton Khudobin
Tuukka Rask
The Enemy
Game Day Video
ZOMG A WILD CORVO APPEARS!
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