The Carolina Hurricanes will be looking to ride the momentum from their dominant display in Game 1 against the New Jersey Devils. The Canes defeated the Devils 4-1 and outshot the latter 45-24 on the night. The Devils, on the other hand, will look to build on a solid third-period performance and bounce back to tie the series.
Projected Lineups for Carolina Hurricanes vs. New Jersey Devils
The Canes were practicing on Monday, April 21, at the Lenovo Center and will be looking to pick up where they left off in Game 1. They have no major injury concerns, and coach Rod Brind’Amour was spoilt for choice when it came to picking his roster for Game 2.
“It’s a great situation for the team to have the quality guys that we have that we had to sit out,” Brind’Amour said after Sunday’s game. “We know we’re going to need everybody if we keep pushing forward. I guess you could say we made the right decisions; we really couldn’t have gone wrong.
“All the guys that we took out, up front especially, were guys [who we could] definitely could have in. Just because you win a game, I’m not really big into (needing to keep that lineup the same). You obviously don’t want to upset the apple cart, but if there’s a way to get better, we’ll definitely look at it.”
New acquisition Logan Stankoven scored twice for Carolina, sandwiched between Jalen Chatfield’s opening goal and Andrei Svechnikov’s empty-netter in the third period.
For the Devils, coach Sheldon Keefe did not spare any blushes, bluntly calling on his players to do better. The New Jersey team went behind early and never looked like making a comeback. Nico Hischier was the lone goal-scorer late in the second period.
“We were slow in the first period. Slow to make plays, slow to get moving,” Keefe said via NHL.com. “It gave them life and took the wind out of our sails. We gave up way too much.”
In his interview, Keefe also pointed to a lack of execution and urgency, especially in the first period, as key areas that need correcting.
The Devils also had an injury scare, with Brenden Dillon, Cody Glass, and Luke Hughes going off injured on the night. We are still awaiting final confirmation of their stauses.
Hurricanes Projected Lineup
Forwards
Seth Jarvis – Sebastian Aho – Jackson Blake
Andrei Svechnikov – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Taylor Hall
Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Logan Stankoven
William Carrier – Jack Roslovic – Eric Robinson
Defensemen
Jaccob Slavin – Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov – Jalen Chatfield
Shayne Gostisbehere – Sean Walker
Goaltenders
Frederik Andersen
Pyotr Kochetkov
Injuries and Scratches
Tyson Jost, Mark Jankowski, Alexander Nikishin, Riley Stillman, Ruslan Khazheyev, Jesper Fast (neck)
Devils Projected Lineup
Forwards
Stefan Noesen – Nico Hischier – Jesper Bratt
Erik Haula – Dawson Mercer – Timo Meier
Paul Cotter – Cody Glass – Daniel Sprong
Ondrej Palat – Justin Dowling – Nathan Bastian
Defensemen
Luke Hughes – Brett Pesce
Brian Dumoulin – Johnathan Kovacevic
Brenden Dillon – Dougie Hamilton
Goaltenders
Jacob Markström
Jake Allen
Injuries and Scratches
Seamus Casey, Dennis Cholowski, Nico Daws, Nolan Foote, Curtis Lazar, Šimon Nemec, Tomáš Tatar, Jack Hughes (shoulder), Jonas Siegenthaler (LBI)