After a grueling stretch, the Canes are staring at a nice mini break
What better way to hunker down and weather out the beginnings of a major winter storm than putting on some Canes hockey and at least knowing you aren’t dealing with negative temperatures outside?
As the frozen precipitation starts to fall around North Carolina, the Carolina Hurricanes will take the ice against the Ottawa Senators tonight before the Hurricanes get a nice four day break.
The Hurricanes will be looking to put a frustrating shootout loss behind them this evening. They came back three separate times from goals by the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday, but went 0-5 on the Power Play and 1-6 in the ensuing shootout to surrender the extra point. Yet, it came with further encouraging signs from the struggling Frederik Andersen who kept the Canes in the game on a night when the Power Play wasn’t producing. It also saw the night where Alexander Nikishin announced himself to the rest of the league.
Between his ridiculous slapshot that can go over 90 MPH and then this punishing fight, the NHL has been put on notice that the Canes have some real muscle on the blue line, which is something they haven’t really been able to claim for a long time.
In the pipes tonight for the Canes should be Brandon Bussi. It’ll be Bussi’s first start since his other-worldly effort on Monday that produced perhaps the save of the season in the NHL. The save was so improbable that every play-by-play person on site called the shot a goal. The national broadcast, Mike Maniscalco, AND the Buffalo Sabres team all called it a score before everyone realized that Bussi had made the save. He’s been a real revelation for the Canes, and one that looks like they may end up with an extension being signed for the waiver wire pickup.
On the other side of the ice is the Ottawa Senators. You may have heard about their off-ice issues between Linus Ullmark and social media rumors that made Ottawa release a statement. Ullmark even had a national interview to address what had been going on. It’s not really worth going over what those rumors are, feel free to look that up for yourself if you want to.
What matters is the on-ice product for the Senators, and that has struggled with everything that has been going on. They currently stand at only 53 points, good for 14th overall in the East ahead of only the Rangers and tied with Columbus. The currently sit seven points back of a wild card spot, and even in a tight Atlantic they are a full four points behind Toronto and the two teams in the wild card spots are from that division. They are just 3-5-2 in their last ten, and have lost all of the momentum they had with making the playoffs last season.
Still, Ottawa is pulling out the stops to try and get the win on this Saturday night as for the third time in the last two weeks the Hurricanes are the opponent while the home team has a pregame ceremony honoring someone.
In between the pips for Ottawa tonight will be the journeyman James Reimer. He was added to the roster not too long after the Ullmark leave was announced, and is currently just 1-1-1 with a .890 save percentage and a 3.02 GAA. There’s little doubt that part of the plan is that if you have a former Canes’s goalie on your staff, you’re going to use them to face Carolina as they at least have a familiarity with the style. Reimer’s last game though was just Thursday where he allowed four goals against Nashville, and was part of the Ottawa Crumble against the Predators. The Senators had a 3-0 lead going into the third and then gave up four plus the empty netter against the suddenly hot Predators.
So there will be A LOT of emotions in Ottawa tonight, and some of them ones that the Canes will be familiar with. One would think they’ll be motivated to go all out with such a long break ahead of them, but sometimes that clashes with the emotions of what’s out on the ice.
If you aren’t going to be in Ottawa tonight, here’s how you can catch the action:
Time: 7 PM
TV: FanDuel Sports Network. Mike Maniscalco will handle play-by-play alongside Tripp Tracy doing color. Hanna Yates and Shane Willis will provide off-ice reports as well as host pregame starting at 6:30 and postgame that will run for about 30 minutes after the conclusion.
Streaming: FanDuel Sports Network App for fans in the Carolinas. Outside of the area, the ESPN app has you covered for tonight as the game will not be on the NHL Network.
Radio: The pregame on 99.9 The Fan starts at 6:30. At 7PM the Hurricanes Radio Network (consisting of 99.9, 730 The Game in Charlotte, ESPN New Bern 107.5/1490, and ESPN Greenville 107.5/1570) picks up the FDSN feed. You can also stream the call on the Hurricanes app.
Odds: Hurricanes -134 Moneyline, Puckline Hurricanes -1.5 at +184/Senators +112 Moneyline, Puckline +1.5 at -230, O/U 6.5 (+106 Over/-130 Under)
Category: General Sports
