The Red Wings battle the Carolina Hurricanes this evening (7:00 PM on FSD/FS Carolinas/97.1 FM). Both teams held optional morning skates today, and all signs point to Cam Ward and Petr Mrazek facing off for a battle in the teams’ respective goal creases.
After the morning skates, CarolinaHurricanes.com’s Michael Smith filed a game-day update:
Just a handful of players were on the ice at PNC Arena this morning for the Hurricanes’ optional skate: Trevor van Riemsdyk, Haydn Fleury, Klas Dahlbeck, Josh Jooris and Phil Di Giuseppe. The Canes are likely to ice the same lineup, meaning the latter three players will again be healthy extras. Scott Darling took shots in net, and Jorge Alves also saw some time in the crease.
Head coach Bill Peters didn’t tip his hand as to who the starting goaltender would be.
“We’re going to make that decision final here in a little bit,” he said, coyly.
The Hurricanes put forth a rather complete 60-minute effort on Thursday night in a 2-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens. They’ll be searching for more of the same tonight, perhaps with a few tweaks that the head coach would like to see.
“We can be better in the second period. We were just talking about it. In the first we didn’t give up much, and I thought we clamped down in the third similar to [the game against] Ottawa,” Peters said. “In the second we turned some pucks over at the O-zone blue line. Similar type of effort needed, but a little bit better execution with the puck.”
Thursday’s win moved the Hurricanes closer to wild card position in the Eastern Conference, though the team remains just on the outside of the cut line due to tiebreaking scenarios. A win tonight would be four in a row and three-for-three to begin this season-long, eight-game homestand.
“It’s always tight. That’s what I see,” Peters said of the standings. “It’s very tight, and it’s going to remain tight. I know the games that are big. Every game is a big game, you know that, but divisional games and the games we haven’t played against Philly and New Jersey, those eight games are huge. We’ll just keep plugging away.”
The Hurricanes also posted a “Keys to Victory” video…
Scenes from morning skate. #DETvsCAR #LGRW pic.twitter.com/FXzmqhZqCk
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 2, 2018