Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We get an extra hour to shake off the tryptophan-induced coma.
The Canes look for their first 3 game winning streak since the end of October against the drifting Lightning. This is the rubber game of the 3 game season series, with each team beating the other by shutout, the Canes winning the last game, 4-0 with Kochetkov getting the shutout. The team had yesterday off, so, barring injury or illness, we should see the same lineup as we saw on Wednesday, with the starting goalie being the only question mark. Raanta was pulled on Wednesday for precautionary reasons, so it wouldn’t shock me of we saw Kochetkov tonight. He allowed 2 goals on 15 shots in the last 2 periods.
The Bolts are 5-3-2 in their last 10 and have 23 points in 20 games, 3rd in the Atlantic but 5th on points percentage since they’ve played the most games of any team in the division. They’re coming off an OT loss to Winnipeg. But the big news is the probable season debut of Andrei Vasilevskiy, returning from a microdiscectomy. The Bolts are still scoring; they’re 8th in the league at 3.50 goals per game. But they’re 26th in goals against at 3.60. Kucherov leads with 13 goals, Hedman has 17 assists. In addition to those two, Point and Stamkos are better than a point per game and Hagel isn’t far off that pace. But, reflecting their poor goals against, they only have 4 skaters better than even in plus/minus and 2 of them have played a combined 5 games. Stamkos and Sergachev are both -10 or worse. Their PP is still potent, 2nd in the league at 31.3%. Kucherov has nearly half his points on the PP, Stamkos has more than half of his. They’re 11th on the PK at 84.5%
Black jerseys tonight. Despite the later than usual start, this isn’t a national TV game, it’s on Bally Sports South.
The Canes look for their first 3 game winning streak since the end of October against the drifting Lightning. This is the rubber game of the 3 game season series, with each team beating the other by shutout, the Canes winning the last game, 4-0 with Kochetkov getting the shutout. The team had yesterday off, so, barring injury or illness, we should see the same lineup as we saw on Wednesday, with the starting goalie being the only question mark. Raanta was pulled on Wednesday for precautionary reasons, so it wouldn’t shock me of we saw Kochetkov tonight. He allowed 2 goals on 15 shots in the last 2 periods.
The Bolts are 5-3-2 in their last 10 and have 23 points in 20 games, 3rd in the Atlantic but 5th on points percentage since they’ve played the most games of any team in the division. They’re coming off an OT loss to Winnipeg. But the big news is the probable season debut of Andrei Vasilevskiy, returning from a microdiscectomy. The Bolts are still scoring; they’re 8th in the league at 3.50 goals per game. But they’re 26th in goals against at 3.60. Kucherov leads with 13 goals, Hedman has 17 assists. In addition to those two, Point and Stamkos are better than a point per game and Hagel isn’t far off that pace. But, reflecting their poor goals against, they only have 4 skaters better than even in plus/minus and 2 of them have played a combined 5 games. Stamkos and Sergachev are both -10 or worse. Their PP is still potent, 2nd in the league at 31.3%. Kucherov has nearly half his points on the PP, Stamkos has more than half of his. They’re 11th on the PK at 84.5%
Black jerseys tonight. Despite the later than usual start, this isn’t a national TV game, it’s on Bally Sports South.
