The injury bug hit Carolina again earlier this week when it was announced that Tuomo Ruutu would miss three weeks with an "upper-body injury." With the trade deadline approaching and the Hurricanes needing to make a decision on what they want to do with Ruutu in the future, this injury came at the worst time possible. Just to rub salt into the wound, Ruutu has been a key part of the team's first line for the past two months and replacing him with call-ups from the AHL is going to be a tough task.

This did get me thinking about something, though. Which call-ups from Charlotte have seen the most success this year and who is the most likely to land a permanent spot on the Canes? The injury to Ruutu opens up the door for a few players and I would imagine that a few other roster spots will open up after the trade deadline depending on what happens. Carolina has quite a few forward prospects with decent upsides, so using the rest of the season to see if they fit into the team's plans wouldn't be a bad idea.

As of right now, Drayson Bowman and Jerome Samson are the two call-ups who are going to be depended on to replace Ruutu's production and then some. My guess is that both of them will get a look on the first line during the next few weeks as an audition. Both have played in the top-six roles before, so playing with Eric Staal shouldn't be anything too foreign for them. Bowman has seen modest success with the Canes and Samson has only been here for four games this season so the jury is still out on him.

How do Bowman and Samson look outside of their point totals and what other forwards could we expect to see in Raleigh? We'll explore that after the jump.

In my recap of Monday's win over the Montreal Canadiens, I said that the Canes had two of their worst performances on the penalty kill along with one of their best. Overall, they were burned for two powerplay goals in the second period, gave up four scoring chances and nine shots on about six and a half minutes on the PK, which is pretty bad overall. Most of that damage came in the first two periods, though. In the third period, the PK pulled a complete 180 and had two of their strongest penalty kill efforts of the season, one of which led to a shorthanded goal. The PK really stepped up when they were clinging onto a 4-3 lead and that counts for a lot. It was definitely a strange game and the Jekyll/Hyde like performance from the penalty kill just added to that. After the jump, we are going to take a look at what the Canes PK did right and wrong in Monday's game.

Before getting into the details, I just have to say that the Canes 5-3 win over the Canadiens last night was one of the best Carolina games I've seen this year. We have seen the Canes come back from a deficit before but what made this win feel so good was the play of Eric Staal. Carolina was constantly getting into penalty trouble and was down their leading goal-scorer for most of the night but that didn't seem to phase them even when they blew a 2-0 lead in the second period. Staal took over the game in the third period and it all started with his shorthanded goal where he made former Hurricane Tomas Kaberle look like a traffic cone. After that, he played like a man possessed and ended the game with six shots on goal, 11 shot attempts and a two goal/three point night to boot.

On a night where head coach Kirk Muller was returning to the city where he once led the Habs to many victories, it was only fitting to see Staal do the same for Carolina. I know Staal's been having an off-year by his standards but I don't think you can deny that he's been Carolina's best player ever since the calendar turned 2012. While he has played better than his goal total and plus/minus indicate, Staal's performance last night was exactly what fans were hoping to see out of him all season and more. I hope he can continue to have more games like that down the stretch.

Moving onto the more technical details, last night's game was actually pretty odd. A little over 30% of the game wasn't played at even strength and we saw plenty of 4-on-4 and 4-on-3 situations, so there were bound to be a lot of strange occurrences. Five of the eight goals scored last night were on special teams situations as the Habs struck twice on the powerplay and the Canes scored twice with the man advantage and had a shorthanded tally in addition to that. Like I said, strange things happen when a good chunk of the game isn't played at five-on-five and the Canes won last night because their special teams were slightly better than Montreal's. Want proof of that? The Canes were outchanced 14-13 at even strength but had 21-18 advantage overall because of how good they were on the powerplay. Sometimes goalies steal you games and sometimes the powerplay will. This time it was the latter.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (20-25-11) at Montreal Canadiens (23-24-9)
Bell Centre, 7:30 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas, TSN-Habs

Tonight's game should be a very emotional night for Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller as he returns to Montreal for the first time as the Carolina bench boss. Muller was well-traveled over his NHL career but he is best known for his time with the Montreal Canadiens as he led the team to a Stanley Cup in 1993 and served as team captain for the 1994-95 season. He may have spent only four seasons in Montreal but his service as a player and captain there are not forgotten. There is no doubt that he was loved in Montreal and that he loved Montreal, as well so this is going to be a very special game for him and the Canadiens fanbase.

That aside, let's not forget that the Canes are coming off back-to-back overtime losses, both of which were heart-breaking. I am sure that Muller hasn't forgotten about those and will look to get the Canes back in the win column tonight. Let's hope the Canes do Muller a solid tonight and help him make this night even more memorable.

Lines & more after the jump

Whenever you are a team that is out of playoff contention near the trade deadline, most people consider said team to be in "sell mode" and the "logical" thing to do is to trade all of their players with expiring contracts for pieces they can use to rebuild with. Being last place in the Eastern Conference, the Hurricanes are one of these teams in "sell mode" and have a few players with deals that expire at the end of the season but the one everyone is talking about is the physical forward Tuomo Ruutu.

GM Jim Rutherford has already re-signed defenseman Tim Gleason for four more years at a moderately high cost and has said that he wants to re-sign Ruutu, as well. We know where Rutherford stands on this issue but there are a still a few things standing in the way. How much money does Ruutu want and will Rutherford be willing to give him that much? Another factor is how much are other GM's be willing to give up to acquire Ruutu. Most teams are going to want at least two solid scoring lines for a playoff push and Ruutu can help them with that. You have to weigh both sides of the situation with issues like this, so we're going to look at both the positives and negatives that come with either re-signing or trading Ruutu. I think JR has to do one or the other here because the worst thing he can do is let Ruutu walk away for nothing like he did with Erik Cole and Ray Whitney.

When Jim Rutherford traded Philippe Paradis for Jiri Tlusty back in 2009, not that much was made of it. Tlusty was known as one of the many "busts" of the Toronto Maple Leafs during the John Ferguson Jr. Era and it didn't look like he would be more than a fringe-NHL player. Fast forward to 2012 and Tlusty is on-pace for a career high 17 goals and has shown some of his first-round skill at times. What a lot of people are wondering is if Tlusty is finally coming to his own or if this year is a complete fluke. As of right now, things are still unclear.

It is easy to forget that Tlusty is only 23 and isn't near the prime of his career, so this season could be him continuing to progress as a player but he's been given a lot more opportunities to succeed this year than he has in the past. Tlusty's always had offensive talent but he's never been given a chance to show it during his tenure with Carolina. Before this year, he was usually put on the fourth line and used in defensive situations. Now, he is playing a lot more minutes and is currently slotted at left wing on the first line with Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu. It makes you wonder how much of Tlusty's success this year is related to him playing with stronger linemates because that usually helps a lot of players. If you look at Tlusty's most frequent linemates, you'll see that Staal is at the top of the list so Tlusty's breakout season could be a product of playing with the captain. However, we've also seen him make some fantastic individual efforts this year, so it's unfair to say that Staal is the only reason for Tlusty's success.

After the jump, we'll take a closer look at Tlusty's season and see what the reason is for his emergence. He's a RFA at the end of the year so finding out if this year is a complete fluke or not will be important when it comes time to re-sign him.

The hockey gods giveth and they taketh away. I feel that phrase sums up tonight's game well as the Hurricanes suffered their second consecutive overtime loss and this time the game-winner goal came with less than two seconds left in overtime. To make matters worse, Carolina had a 38-28 even strength shot advantage and controlled this game for a good 40-some minutes but a few defensive breakdowns, two soft goals and a lackluster third period led to them taking the loss. The optimists will say look at how the Canes have earned points in both games of their Western Conference road trip but the way they lost both games will leave a bad taste in fans mouth for awhile. Tonight's loss probably hurts more because the Canes let a good start and solid road effort go to waste and the only ones they have to blame are themselves.

However, the Canes do have some positive things to look at despite two heart-breaking losses. This is the second game in a row they have outshot a team at even strength, and on the road nonetheless. The problem was that it wasn't a full 60-minute effort and they made some horrible defensive mistakes, Justin Faulk's turnover to Ryan O'Reilly that caused the game-winning goal being the one that everyone will remember. Faulk screwed up there and he knows it but to put the entire blame on his shoulders is wrong because what doomed the Canes in this game was their effort after the first two periods. That's all there is to it. The good news is that the Canes should win more games if they can continue to outshoot opponents on a regular basis.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Carolina Hurricanes (20-25-10) at Colorado Avalanche (27-25-3)
Pepsi Center, 9 p.m.
TV: FS-Carolinas, Altitude

The Hurricanes have faced the Western Conference only 10 times this year and have a middling record of 4-4-2 against those teams. Out of who they have faced in the Western Conference, the division they have had the most success against it he Northwest as they are 2-1-0 against them with wins over the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. What this means is....well nothing really in the grand scheme of things. It's only three games and making conclusions based off that is just silly, but figured that the fans could use a confidence boost after that tough OT loss against Anaheim the other night.

If you want a real jolt of confidence for tonight's game, it's worth mentioning that the Canes are coming off one of their better road efforts of the season. They may have ended up taking the loss, but they played a solid game overall and will hopefully carry over that effort into tonight's game against the Avalanche.

The Avalanche are a better team than the Ducks so this will be a more difficult test for Carolina but they are coming off three strong games in a row, so their confidence has to be pretty high right now. There's only two games left to go in the road trip, so accumulating points now will be important. 

Lines & game notes after the jump

During the Hurricanes-Ducks telecast on FS-Carolina the other night, the announcers mentioned that Carolina defenseman Justin Faulk should be considered in the Calder Trophy race for the NHL's best rookie. If you watch the Hurricanes every night or follow them at all, you can certainly make a case for Faulk being one of the NHL's top rookies. He plays 20+ minutes a night, contributes on the powerplay, kills penalties and his game looks very impressive by the eye-test. For a kid that is only 19 years old, that is very impressive and it makes you wonder why he hasn't gotten much recognition around the league. Is this enough to take home the Calder, though? Unfortunately, probably not.

While I do think that Faulk's season has been overlooked by the national audience, the fact is that it is tough for defensemen to win the Calder. The only time a defenseman wins the Calder is when there is no real standouts among the forward class. Voters and fans are going to look at points before anything else and with players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Henrique, Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Read and Cody Hodgson on pace for at least 40 points a piece, it will be tough for Faulk to stand out. He's also played fewer games than some of the other rookies so that probably hurts his Calder chances, too.

Rookie of the Year seems like a tough bet for Faulk but a good question is where does he rank among other rookie defensemen? Most coaches give their younger players easier ice-time against relatively weak competition to help them get a jump-start but we know that this hasn't been the case with Faulk. He and his partner Jay Harrison rank third and fourth respectively among Hurricanes defensemen in quality of competition, so we know that Faulk isn't getting soft minutes. What other rookie defensemen are doing this, though? We'll look into it after the jump.

It is always a bummer when a great game is decided on a horrible call and that is what happened tonight in the Canes 3-2 OT loss to the Anaheim Ducks. Both teams played a strong game and the Canes had one of their better road efforts of the year but unfortunately, they ended up walking away with only one point when it very well could have been two.

The call (or non-call I should say) in question occurred about three minutes into overtime when Jussi Jokinen was playing the puck behind the net. He was being chased by Anaheim forward Corey Perry behind the net and, in an attempt to strip the puck, Perry tripped Jokinen (and blatantly I might add) but referee Tim Peel let play continue as he saw no foul here. Perry was able to gain possession of the puck and The Ducks were quickly able to set up the play and Perry fired a one-timer past Ward to win it for Anaheim.

With how quick the game of hockey is and the human eye having it's limitations, bad calls are bound to happen but this was a non-call that directly led to a game-winning goal for Anaheim, so it's going to be awhile before Canes fans forget about this one. It's especially bad if you look at the play in question because the evidence doesn't exactly speak in Peel or Perry's favor. It was an awful call but I think it is best to be level-headed & reasonable in these situations. Humans make mistakes and this one is pretty big on Peel's part but we don't know for sure that Carolina would have won the game in OT or the shootout even if the call didn't happen. We can speculate but we don't know for sure. Either way, I think the best thing to do is to move on because this was truly a great game outside of that horrible call and I'd rather discuss that instead. Be upset. You have every right to be but in the end, you have to remember that it's only a hockey game and the outcome affects you only as much as you let it. As is the case with all sports. Letting this drag on for days, weeks & months isn't going to do much good.

Now that I have said all that I wanted to about Tim Peel and the non-call, let's talk about the other things that happened in the game because there's a lot of positive things for the Canes to build on here.