Tonight's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs had the makings of being one of those old fashioned, high scoring run-and-gun style contests where the winner would be determined by who had the last shot on net. The Hurricanes, who haven't been good defensively this year, were missing two top-four defensemen in Joni Pitkanen and Tim Gleason while the Leafs have injuries all across the board and are currently icing two AHL-ers in their top-four. It ended up being somewhat of a low-scoring affair with the Hurricanes putting together one of their best defensive efforts of the season.

The Canes gave up only 18 shots at even strength and 23 overall, which is pretty amazing when you consider who they were dressing in their defense corps. They managed to do this by employing the same strategy as they had in the New Jersey game, which was forecheck hard, force turnovers and trap the Leafs in their own zone for most of the game. I thought it would be difficult for the Canes to do this with a depleted defense, but they really suffocated the Leafs tonight and did everything they could to keep the puck out of their own zone. A large part of this was due to the excellent play fo the top-line, who forced a lot of turnovers to disrupt Toronto's breakout attempts, and the makeshift #2 defense pairing of Jamie McBain and Joe Corvo. If you told anyone that this particular d-corps gave the Hurricanes their best defensive effort of the season, they would think that you were lying but that's what happened tonight.

Some people say that the first game home after a long road trip is tough because there is a lot of pressure on the home team to perform well in front of their fans. Even if that is true, it didn't look like that affected the Canes tonight as they took home a very impressive win against a hot Toronto team and now have a well-deserved few days off. Let's hope that they don't lose much steam when they hit the road again for Monday's game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Toronto Maple Leafs at Carolina Hurricanes
7 p.m., PNC Arena
TV: FS-Carolinas, Leafs TV

The Hurricanes finally return home after twelve long days on the road and they come into tonight's game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on a high note, winning four of six games on the road trip. Getting those wins were huge, but the Canes did not come out of this trip unscathed as not only did defenseman Joni PItkanen sustain an injury but fellow blue-liner Tim Gleason is also banged up and did not skate with the team today. Neither injuries appear to be anything serious according to reports so that is good news, but they are still likely going to miss tonight's game, adding more strain to a defense corps that wasn't great to begin with.

To fill Gleason's spot in the lineup, the Hurricanes called up Michal Jordan from Charlotte. Jordan has been one of the Checkers best defensemen all season long and stepped into an even bigger role after Justin Faulk and Bobby Sanguinetti were called up to the NHL. He's known more for his puck-moving skills but he has been a tough-minute player in Charlotte and has killed penalties, as well. Seeing how this will be his NHL debut, I'm not sure how many minutes he will be playing but he might end up getting significant playing time with Bobby Sanguinetti playing tonight as well. That is unless Kirk Muller plans on icing Justin Faulk & Jay Harrison for 30 minutes each.

Jordan will be one of four players in Carolina's defense corps tonight who are under 25 years of age and there are two ways you can look at this. If you're a glass half-empty guy, you might be excited about how Jordan looks and the fact that the Canes have a young defense corps with a ton of upside. If you're a glass half-empty person, then you'll probably be worried that Carolina's defense corps tonight will consist of two AHL-ers and five guys who would probably be on most club's third pairings. Let's hope they can keep the puck in the Leafs zone more times than not. The Leafs are also far from 100% right now but they have been rolling the past week or so with six straight wins, so tonight's game being at home might not have as much of an advantage as one would think.

There are a lot of things to like about this year's Hurricanes team. The offense is much better than it was last season, they have more depth and this team is a lot more fun to watch than last year's squad. The defense, however, has had it's share of problems and it's been very evident on the penalty kill. The Hurricanes penalty kill ranks third to last in the NHL, gives up more shots per 60 minutes than any other team in the league and has been partially responsible for at least three of the team's losses this season. There have also been a few games where the Canes PK has surrendered multiple goals, including last Monday's game where the Islanders tagged them for four goals.

Even strength play is often what dictates success in the NHL and while the Hurricanes have been good in that department, giving up a goal more than once every five times they are on the penalty kill can easily put a team in a hole. The Hurricanes are somewhat lucky to be in a good position now despite this terrible penalty kill when you think about it. The worst part of it is that their PK woes haven't been due to bad luck, they've been giving so many shots on the PK that they would still be ranked near the bottom of the league even if Cam Ward/Dan Ellis weren't posting a combined .825 save percentage.

An easy solution to a bad penalty kill is to stay out of the box, but I honestly think that penalties are unavoidable this season because the refs are calling basically anything borderline, so a better solution is to fix the penalty kill. How should the Hurricanes do that, though? They lost their best penalty killing defenseman in Bryan Allen and didn't replace him, so there isn't much they can do there with the current roster as far as the defense corps goes. They do have some fine defensive forwards and they should be able to help out, but it clearly hasn't been that way so far. 

After the jump, we'll take a look at some of the mistakes the Hurricanes penalty killers have been making, who some of the biggest offenders are and what can be done to fix it.

The Hurricanes managed to pull out a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils last night and they did it on the back of one of their weakest offensive performances of the young season. The Devils held Carolina to only nine scoring chances at even strength and 12 overall, which are season lows for the Hurricanes this season. New Jersey is also only the third team this season to outchance the Hurricanes this year, so you could probably classify this as another game the Canes won despite not having their best showing. While that might be true, I think the Canes played a solid game considering the circumstances (last game of a six game road trip and the second night of a back-to-back) and against a very tough opponent in the Devils. 

Still, I think it's worth pointing out that the Canes have not outchanced an opponent at even strength since the Toronto game last Monday and haven't been nearly as good at even strength as they were earlier in the season. It might be due to a combination of them playing in more close games and having their last six on the road. A return to the PNC Arena might help fix this but until then, let's enjoy the fact that they won four out of six games on this road trip. 

Tonight's 4-2 victory over the Devils was easily the Carolina Hurricanes biggest win of this young season. Not only does it clinch a 4-1-1 record on their road trip, but they were also able to get a win over a team that has been at the top of the Eastern Conference for most of the year. As expected, the win did not come easy as they found themselves down 1-0 in the first period again despite outplayed New Jersey in most of that frame. They managed to battle back again and tie the game early in the second period on the back of a powerplay goal by Jussi Jokinen. Patrick Dwyer would then provide the go-ahead goal in the dying minutes of the frame by deflecting a Jay Harrison shot past Brodeur. 

A large reason why the Hurricanes gained this lead was because they were forechecking hard and skating circles around the Devils during the first 40 minutes of the game. They gained a big territorial advantage over New Jersey during that time and it was hard to tell that they were playing the second half of a back-to-back game. Then the third period happened. Carolina began to look tired, were getting pinned into their own end, lost one of their best defensemen in Joni Pitkanen and gave up an early goal to Ryan Carter which tied the game.

Carolina's dominance at even strength had all but faded by then, but they received some help from their special teams units, which have been rather cold as of late. First, they were able to successfully kill off Joe Corvo's penalty early in the period and would then get a huge powerplay goal from Jiri Tlusty to give the Canes a 3-2 lead. From then on, the Canes basically did the best they could to hang onto the lead by limiting the Devils scoring opportunities and they just managed to survive with some help from goaltender Cam Ward.

The Hurricanes definitely left everything all on the ice tonight and even if they just managed to get by, it was great to see them pull out a win all things considered. I'm sure many people would have been happy if they only earned a point in the standings with this being their third game in four days and the final game of a long road trip, but the Canes had their sights set higher and managed to achieve it.

Winning four out of six games in this stretch of the schedule is no easy feat at all, so this could hopefully lead to greater things down the line for this team.

Carolina Hurricanes at New Jersey Devils
7:00 p.m, Prudential Center
TV: FS-Carolinas, MSG+

The Hurricanes have a chance to end this six-game road trip on a high note by winning four out of six games and taking home nine out of a possible 12 points with a win tonight over the New Jersey Devils. At the beginning of the year, I said that the Hurricanes need to make it out of this road trip with a winning record and they managed to clinch that last night with a win over the Islanders. A win over the Devils tonight will make it a much bigger success but it isn't going to come easy because much like the Islanders, the Canes had little to no success against New Jersey last season.

Carolina is also going to come out much stronger than they did last night, too. They might be able to get away with a bad first period and giving up four powerplay goals against the Islanders but that probably won't happen against the Devils, who are arguably the hottest team in the NHL right now. This being the second game of a back-to-back on the road likely means that the Devils will be the fresher team tonight, but hopefully the Canes can build off last night's game and do enough to at least earn a point in the standings.

The good news is that the schedule gets slightly easier after this game and the Hurricanes will be back at the PNC Arena very soon.

Last night's game against the Islanders had all the makings of another loss for the Hurricanes. Carolina got off to a bad start, were dominated on special teams and generally looked slow compared to the Islanders for the first 25 minutes or so. Once again, however, the Canes were able to keep things from getting out of hand thanks to some timely goals and began to take over the game mid-way through the second period which helped them defeat the Islander 6-4. Slow starts have been a problem for this team all season long but this team has shown a lot of resilience at least and they wre able to pull a win out in Long Island on the back of four third period goals.

The Hurricanes ended up outshooting the Islanders and tying them in even strength chances, but the slow starts and terrible penalty kill are a big issue. Their comeback effort ended up working out against the Islanders and Rick DiPietro but something tells me they will have a more difficult time against other teams and better goaltenders. There were definitely a lot of Hurricanes who played well last night, but the team will need to play better for a full 60 minutes if they want to take home a win against New Jersey tonight.

Carolina Hurricanes at New York Islanders
7 p.m., Nassau Coliseum
TV: FS-Carolinas, MSG Plus

Despite the Hurricanes "so-so" 5-4-1 start to the year, they are still in the thick of things in the Southeast Division and are faced with a great opportunity in the latter stages of this road trip. They are still only one point out of first place thanks to a four-game losing streak by the Tampa Bay Lightning and can leap frog them in the standings with a win tonight. I mentioned yesterday that this Carolina team has a better chance of improving after ten games than last year's club based on their play so far and they have a good chance to take advantage of a great opportunity these next couple of games. It won't come easy, though as their next two games are against teams who dominated them last year and tonight's opponent, the New York Islanders, won all four of their games against the Hurricanes a season ago. 

This is obviously a different team and probably capable of beating the Islanders but they are going to need to play better than they have in their last couple of games in order to come away with a win tonight.

The playoff races are beginning to heat up in the CHL and the good news for Hurricanes fans is that many of the team's prospects should be in the post-season this spring, which will give everyone a chance to get a closer look at their performance. One team that has already clinched a playoff spot in Keegan Lowe's Edmonton Oil Kings and Lowe himself has played a pretty big role in that. Not only is he the team captain, but he was also forced to play some bigger minutes during late-December and early-January when the Oil Kings lost a couple of their defensemen to the World Junior Championships. Lowe played some very good hockey during that stretch and he continued to do so this week, adding a goal and three assists to his totals. As a third round pick, Lowe's ceiling isn't projected to be very high but he should be an invite to Carolina's training camp at the start of next season.

After the jump, we'll take a closer look at Lowe's performance and the rest of Carolina's prospect pool. 

Heading into this season, the Hurricanes had the making of being a team that could roll all four lines effectively. Even after they traded for enforcer Kevin Westgarth, they could have probably gotten away with rolling four lines because the forwards before him each have a defined role and aren't liabilities at even strength. You had the top-six handle most of the scoring and take on tough minutes in addition to that while the bottom-six would be relied on to play soft assignments and pitch in with some secondary scoring. On paper, this seems like a good plan but it hasn't exactly worked out so far as the third line has struggled out of the gate. That issue has been covered already, but something that isn't getting talked about is what the fourth line has done, or hasn't done in this case. 

Last season, the Hurricanes fourth liners provided them with a combined 24 goals, which was great but not likely to continue because of how often they were getting hemmed into their own zone. The Hurricanes must have realized this over the off-season because they opted to trade Anthony Stewart and buyout Derek Joslin, making the fourth line a completely new unit heading into this season. Between Kevin Westgarth, Tim Wallace, Andreas Nodl, Tim Brent, Jeremy Welsh, Zach Boychuk, Drayson Bowman and many others, the Hurricanes had plenty of options as to who they can use on their fourth line and what kind of role they want to play.

On opening night, the fourth line was used in more of an offensive role with Drayson Bowman, Tim Brent and Patrick Dwyer. Bowman and Dwyer have been promoted to top-nine roles since then and the fourth line wing spots have been jumbled around for the most part. Even with Welsh in Charlotte and Boychuk waived, the Hurricanes fourth line can still be useful if they were to use Nodl, Brent and Wallace either in a defensive role or soft-minute situations. Nodl and Brent are good enough to play 8-10 minutes a game while Wallace has proven himself as a capable fourth liner with other teams and can establish a physical presence.

This hasn't been the route the Canes have gone the last few games, though as Westgarth has been in the lineup more times than not and Nodl has found himself in the press box for all but two games since being called up. Westgarth obviously has a defined role and he hasn't been bad so far, as the Hurricanes are not leaking shots and chances against whenever he is on the ice. The problem is that Muller is rarely using Westgarth. He has played only a little over 20 minutes in seven games and plays maybe 4-5 shifts per game on top of that. 

Again, I know Westgarth has a role but if Muller isn't going to use him then what is the point of even having him in the lineup? The Hurricanes are essentially forced to play with 11 forwards whenever Westgarth is in the lineup and they are even more strained if another player has to leave the game early like Wallace did on Saturday. Considering that the Hurricanes top forwards are already being forced to play 20+ minutes a night and their third line has produced only two goals, one has to think that they would be better served with someone useful like Nodl in the lineup who the coach actually trusts to play more than four shifts a game.

Carolina's scoring depth hasn't showing up this year, so getting the most out of this forward corps is going to be very important. Dressing Westgarth and playing him for three minutes a game isn't doing that and it's a double whammy when you have guys in the press box and in the minors who can play a more effective role. Westgarth has a place on this team, but if Muller is going to keep using him in an incredibly limited role it's probably better that he sits in the press box.