Peters gave up six goals on 30 shots in the Hurricanes loss to the Coyotes last Sunday. With Braden Holtby getting the call last night vs. the Blackhawks, it looks like Peters will be in goal tonight vs. his former team. The Hurricanes are on a four-game winning streak, but Peters could make for a nice spot-start because of the motivation to beat his former teammates.
Stalock stopped 13 of 15 shots, but walked away on the losing end of a 2-1 final on October 25th vs. Buffalo. Antti Niemi has played very well, which limited Stalock to four starts in the Sharks first 14 games. He is 1-2-1 with a 2.22 GAA and .924 SV% in the early part of the season.
Halak allowed two goals on 34 shots in the Islanders 3-2 OT win over the Ducks on Wednesday. He was given the second night of the back-to-back off, so he will be in the cage tonight against a Coyotes team coming off of a win over Anaheim last night. Halak is 4-4-0 with a 3.24 GAA and .898 SV% this year.
Price allowed five goals on 32 shots in a 5-0 loss to the Blackhawks on Tuesday. He has lost three in a row, while allowing 13 goals on (.866 SV%). It has been an ugly stretch of games for Price and it won’t be easy to get back on track with the Wild in town—Minnesota is eighth in the NHL in scoring with 2.92 goals per game.
Pavelec surrendered three goals on 35 shots in a shootout defeat against the Penguins on Thursday. Despite the loss, Pavelec is 2-0-1 with a 1.27 GAA and .959 SV% in three November starts. Tonight he gets the call in Ottawa—he has gone 3-1-1 with a 1.73 GAA and .937 SV% away from the MTS Centre.
Nabokov was pulled after allowing four goals on eight shots in a 7-2 loss to the Wild on October 25th. Yeah, a .500 SV% is enough to get you pulled that is for sure. He will look to rebound tonight against a banged up Blue Jackets team who are starting a rookie goaltender.
Khudobin allowed five goals on 27 shots in a loss to the Oilers on October 24th. Cam Ward has been red-hot as of late and started the last five games, but head coach Bill Peters wanted to get Khudobin a start. He gets the call tonight in Washington, still searching for his first win of the season—he has a 3.24 GAA and .891 SV% so far.
Ballard has missed the last eight games with an illness, but is expected to return tonight and play on the third pairing with Mathew Dumba.
Forsberg allowed three goals on 29 shots in a loss to the Devils in his first NHL start. He will make his second tonight against a high-powered Lightning offence that ranks second in the NHL in scoring with 3.62 goals per game. With 12 games on the NHL schedule tonight, you can find a better spot-start.
Lindback gave up six goals on 28 shots in a 7-5 loss to the Islanders on October 25th. He has allowed nine goals on 60 shots (.850 SV%) in his only two starts of the season. He could be in danger of losing his backup job if he has another bad outing; which is likely with the seventh best offence in town—San Jose is averaging 2.93 goals per game.
Montoya stopped 27 of 28 shots in the Panthers’ 2-1 loss to the Capitals on October 18th. Roberto Luongo started the last six games, but Montoya will be back between the pipes this afternoon. He has an impressive 0.59 GAA and .974 SV% in two starts this season.
Kuemper allowed three goals on 21 shots in the Wild’s 4-1 loss to the Penguins on Tuesday. He was given Thursday night off so he is expected to take on the Canadiens tonight in Montreal. Kuemper has not slowed down much and comes into tonight with a 6-3-0 record, 1.77 GAA and .922 SV%.
This is no surprise after Winnik was stretchered off of the ice on Thursday and missed this morning's game day skate. He won't play tonight, but head coach Randy Carlyle would not rule him out for Sunday.
Kessel left Thursday’s game for a brief period of time but did return to finish the game. He likely just sat out this morning to rest some bumps and bruises, but will suit up tonight vs. the Rangers. He is riding a five-game point streak (3G / 7A) and has seven goals and 11 assists (18 points) in 13 games on the year.
Enroth allowed five goals on 34 shots in the Sabres loss to the Penguins on November 1st. He has one win in eight games with a 3.34 GAA and .908 SV% and has been outplayed by Michal Neuvirth so far this season. In no format should he be started against Pittsburgh after they just torched him last Saturday.
Calvert returned to the Blue Jackets lineup on Tuesday, but must have re-aggravated his upper-body injury on Thursday in Carolina. With Calvert out, look for Dana Tyrell to make his Blue Jackets debut.
The Flyers tried Chris VandeVelde on the top line on Thursday, but will have Simmonds there to start the game tonight. Simmonds is a natural RW who will shift to the left side, but playing with Jakub Voracek and Claude Giroux should provide ample scoring chances for the big winger. Simmonds has cooled off after a hot start, but has six goals and three assists with a plus-10 rating in 13 games this season.
Phillips will miss his second straight game with a lower-body injury that he suffered on Tuesday vs. the Red Wings. Phillips is a big minute-eater for the Senators (23:14 AVG TOI), so with him out of the lineup players like Mark Borowiecki and Jared Cowen need to step up.
Dubinsky has not played this season after undergoing surgery on an abdominal injury on October 8th. He is four weeks into a six week timetable, so expect him to miss another 7-10 days before returning to the Blue Jackets lineup.
Gardiner said he feels fine after participating in the Maple Leafs morning skate. He left Thursday’s game with a bone bruise, but it looks like he will be available tonight. Monitor his status at 6:30 p.m ET when the Leafs hit the ice for warmups.
