RALEIGH, NC. – The Carolina Hurricanes could have done it Stefan Noesen (Illness) will be back in the lineup on Saturday when they take on the St. Louis Blues.
Since he has been away from the team since Wednesday, the power forward was injured and did not play in last night's win against Washington. If he can play, Rod Brind'Amour said the team will most likely return to the traditional lineup of 12 forwards and six defensemen.
That would mean a return to 12-6 Tony DeAngelo would be the healthy extra, just a day after he was the seventh man on the blue line. If Noesen can't go, the team would go 11-7 for the second straight season.
Vasily Ponomarevwho made his NHL debut last night and scored several points, is expected to play again.
“I don’t think he’ll change much. He’s a pretty fearless kid.” Rod Brind'Amour said before the game about what he thinks will be expected from the 21-year-old in just his second career game. “I don’t think the moment was too big for him. I don’t expect two points every night, but I think he seems to belong.”
Unfortunately, Jesper Fast And Martin Necas (upper body injuries), is not dressed.
Behind the 18 skaters, Antti Raanta will be between the pipes for the group.
Brind'Amour confirmed on Thursday that he would split his goalkeepers for the back-to-back set and Pyotr Kochetkov clinched victory in Washington last night.
Raanta's last start came last Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens and earned the win after stopping 18 of 21 games. In 32 starts at PNC Arena over the past three seasons, the veteran is 26-3-3 with a 2.34 goals against average and six shutouts.
–
The planned lineup this evening…
Forward
Svechnikov – Aho – Teravainen
Bunting – Drury – Kotkaniemi
Martinook – Staal – Jarvis
Lemieux – Ponomarev – Noesen*
defense
Slavin – burns
Skjei-Pesce
Orlov – Chatfield
DeAngelo*
goalkeeper
Raanta
Kochetkov
Injuries
Frederik Andersen (blood clotting problem)
Jesper Fast (upper body injury)
Martin Necas (upper body injury)
Stefan Noesen (illness)
Healthy scratches
TBD or N/A
–
PP1: Aho, Bunting, Jarvis and Svechnikov with Burns
PP2: Drury, Necas, Noesen and Teravainen with Skjei
(as of January 2nd)