Carolina Hurricanes (30-29-15, 75 pts) at
Columbus Blue Jackets (23-43-7, 53 pts)
Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
Friday, March 23, 2012 – 7:00 PM EDT
The Jackets don’t often get to see the Hurricanes, but ever since the latter won Lord Stanley in 2006, Columbus has not lost to them. Granted, it’s only been four games, but hey… give us something in this season of misery.
Columbus is still battling injuries, and again will be without James Wisniewski, and Derek MacKenzie, to go with Fedor Tyutin and Curtis Sanford on the IR. Derek Dorsett should be good to go despite taking a shot off the hand at yesterday’s practice. The other lineup note is that Rick Nash has been placed with Mark Letestu and Vinny Prospal to form the new-look top line. R.J. Umberger and Derick Brassard drop to line two with Cam Atkinson on the right wing.
For Carolina, they are winners of four straight, and have 30 points in their last 22 games to be technically still alive in the East. It probably won’t happen, given that they’re six points back with eight games to go. Even still, considering where they were early in the season it’s a nice testament to what Kirk Muller has done.
Eric Staal has been hot of late, with four goals in the Canes’ last two games. Sadly for Carolina, he’s been carrying almost all of the load for the Canes; he’s there leading scorer by 24 points.
The Jackets have nine games left to try to get five points to beat out their worst point total in franchise history. Can they get two tonight?