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Carolina Hurricanes: Preview, predictions vs. Maple Leafs on Nov. 21

By Omar Abdelgawad

RALEIGH, NC - NOVEMBER 24: Justin Faulk #27 of the Carolina Hurricanes moves the puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs during their game at PNC Arena on November 24, 2017 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC - NOVEMBER 24: Justin Faulk #27 of the Carolina Hurricanes moves the puck against the Toronto Maple Leafs during their game at PNC Arena on November 24, 2017 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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After a back-to-back set of games that weren’t very inspiring, the Carolina Hurricanes look to go into Thanksgiving with a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Can the Canes put together a win streak of 2 for the first time since mid-October?

Last weekend didn’t look good for the Carolina Hurricanes. It started with a sloppy loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, followed by a game where they barely squeaked past a mess of a New Jersey Devils team. There aren’t many positives to draw from that going into Wednesday night’s Thanksgiving eve bout with Toronto. The pressure will be on this team to outlast John Tavares and co. for full a 60 minutes of hockey.

What will be most interesting about this game is that regardless of how it goes, it will be dominated by the William Nylander discussion. The Carolina Hurricanes have been one of the leading negotiators for the unsigned restricted free agent as the Dec 1st deadline gets closer. Toronto is looking for some defensive help to help round out its team, something Carolina has plenty of. How that sort of offer would look like is a discussion for another article; for now, expect it to have an effect on this game one way or another.

A lot of the pressure in this game will be on Carolina. The good news is that the Canes have only allowed a single goal in the last four periods they have played. The bad news is that they only  scored twice during that same period. Both those goals came in the first 30 seconds of a game against a New Jersey team that clearly forgot to drink its coffee and a goaltender that is now sitting on a 16 game losing streak going into last season. Canes fans may want to remember that stat when they complain about this team’s goaltending issues.

Toronto on the other hand have been a goal scoring machine. They have found the back of the net at least five times in four of their last eight games. This doesn’t even include the four they scored against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday. These goals are all coming from players not named Austin Matthews, who has been sidelined with a shoulder injury since October 27th. While the star forward is unlikely to return to Leaf’s lineup, they may not need him as others have easily stepped up to fill the void.

Next. Recap of the weekend’s back-to-back games. dark

The outcome of this game depends on which Carolina Hurricanes team shows up. Will it be the defensive lock down team that stopped the Devils from tying up the game for over 50 minutes? Or will it be the sloppy team that couldn’t control the puck to save its life leaving their goaltender out to dry, as they did against the Blue Jackets? And speaking of goaltenders: will Coach Rod Brind’Amour keep Curtis McElhinney in net against his former team, go back to Scott Darling or even tag in Petr Mrazek?

Prediction: Toronto 4, Carolina 2

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