Hurricanes return home to host Lightning

LIGHTNING (1-1-0) at HURRICANES (0-1-0)

TV: SUN, SPSO

Season series: This is the first of five meetings between the Southeast Division rivals this season. They split the six-game season series last season, with the Lightning winning once in overtime.

Big story: The Hurricanes are looking for their first win of the season in their first home game of the season while the Lightning are trying to erase the effects of their first loss.

Team Scope:

Lightning: Impatience on the offensive end led to defensive breakdowns for the Lightning in their 4-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Monday.

The Lighting gave up four straight goals to fall behind 4-0 early in the third period. When they finally started to work for their chances they started to bury them, too. Martin St. Louis, Benoit Pouliot and Steven Stamkos all scored within a span of less than six minutes to make it 4-3 with 12 minutes to play.

The problem is the Lightning were in deep of a hole already and the Islanders were able to close the door.

"You obviously have to rely on your goaltender, but you don't want to rely on him too much, like we did [Monday]," Lightning coach Guy Boucher said. "Last game, we played terrific defense and [Monday] that wasn't the case. We did good in the first and pretty good in the third, but in the second we opened it up and it cost us. We can't leave him [goalie Anders Lindback] alone like that. Too many breakaways and 2-on-1s, definitely."

Hurricanes: A 5-1 loss to Florida on Saturday led to some changes in Carolina's line combinations and power play units in practice Monday, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

Carolina coach Kirk Muller told the newspaper that the changes shouldn't indicate that the team is panicking in any way, but is instead simply just trying to tweak things to get the right chemistry.

"We had a week of training camp, with no games, so it's tough to get a real feel for where guys are going to fit," Eric Staal told the News & Observer. "It might tweak continually now for the next couple of games. Once we get comfortable and everybody gets in the right game shape for Kirk's system, it's going to help us. We'll make adjustments as we go. I'm sure other teams are doing the same thing."

Cam Ward is expected to start in goal against the Lightning.

Who's hot: St. Louis has a five points (three goals and two assists) over Tampa Bay's first two games. Stamkos has a goal and three assists.

Injury report: There's nothing new to report for the Lightning. Mattias Ohlund (knee) and Matt Taormina (upper body) remain on injured reserve. Carolina forward Zac Dalpe was sick and missed practice Monday. The team will determine his availability at the morning skate. Tuomo Ruutu could be out until April recovering from hip surgery.