As expected, Dougie Hamilton will be out but another story to watch for this week will be Martin Necas’ status. According to NHL.com’s Michael Smith, Necas is unlikely to play tonight after leaving practice early on Saturday. Hopefully, it’s just the Hurricanes taking precautions and ideally he’ll be ready to go by the first game of the qualifying round on Saturday. It’ll also mean that whatever lines we see tonight are likely to be different going into the games against New York, after needing to find a spot for Necas into the lineup.
Lastly, it’ll be interesting to see if Petr Mrazek and James Reimer split the game this afternoon. This will be a chance for the team to get their first (and only) real look at each player before the start of the series, so ideally Rod Brind'Amour gets to see as many players as possible before making decisions.
Puck drop is at 4 p.m.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
The Capitals are a good opponent for the Hurricanes to face in their exhibition game:
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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