The Carolina Hurricanes will look to even up their first round series, as they face off against the Boston Bruins in Game 4 tonight.
The big change is obviously Andrei Svechnikov’s absence in the lineup. According to NHL.com’s Michael Smith, Nino Niederreiter is projected to replace Svechnikov on the first line. Like I said in the last article, I’d prefer seeing Martin Necas up on the first line but in the poll I put in the last article, most readers voted that they’d prefer to see Justin Williams on the first line. We can also expect to see Ryan Dzingel on the second line.
Joel Edmundson is likely to be out of the lineup again, while the Hurricanes have yet to name a starting goalie. For the Bruins, David Pastrnak will be out of the lineup once again.
The Hurricanes need a better effort today and it’s not going to be easy without one of their best forwards. Truthfully, they haven’t been the better team for the majority of the series and deserve to be trailing in the series right now. Carolina has been outshot by a pretty huge margin in their three games and need to find a way to generate more offense.
Tonight isn’t a must-win for the Hurricanes, but it’s pretty close. They’re facing adversity and if they can’t come away from Game 4 with a win, their chances won’t be looking good.
Puck drop is at 8 p.m.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
How do you feel about Carolina's chances without Andrei Svechnikov?