Hurricanes at Red Wings preview

HURRICANES (20-17-8) at RED WINGS (18-19-7)
7 p.m. ET; FS-D, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Hurricanes are 1-4-0 in their past five games and have allowed four goals or more four times. Carolina is 2-5-1 in its past eight games after going 7-1-0 in its previous eight.
The Red Wings are 1-3-0 in their past four games following a four-game winning streak. Goaltender Jimmy Howard is expected to start; he is 0-2-0 with eight goals allowed in his past two starts after going 4-0-0 with six goals allowed in his previous four starts.

Players to watch

Hurricanes center Jordan Staal has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past six games, but will be missing injured Sebastian Aho (concussion, lower body) from his regular line. Aho leads Carolina in scoring with 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists).
Red Wings forward Andreas Athanasiou has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past six games.

They said it

"Coming off the break and playing against a team that's on a regular schedule is really a concern. The first 10 minutes are key, just to get your legs back under you and to play physical -- we haven't done that in five days, and we're not used to it." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters
"We know we need to make up ground, and you can't do that in this league by going 8-7. We need to go on a run of at least five games fairly soon, and we can't follow that up with a losing streak as we've done before." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill

Hurricanes projected lineup

Elias Lindholm -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Victor Rask -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Derek Ryan -- Lee Stempniak
Joakim Nordstrom -- Marcus Kruger -- Josh Jooris
Jaccob Slavin -- Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Haydn Fleury -- Klas Dahlbeck
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched:Lucas Wallmark, Phillip Di Giuseppe
Injured:Brett Pesce (upper body), Sebastian Aho (concussion, lower body)

Red Wings projected lineup

Andreas Athanasiou -- Dylan Larkin -- Tyler Bertuzzi
Anthony Mantha -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Gustav Nyquist
Tomas Tatar -- Frans Nielsen -- Martin Frk
David Booth --
Dominic Turgeon
-- Luke Witkowski
Danny DeKeyser -- Mike Green
Jonathan Ericsson -- Trevor Daley
Niklas Kronwall -- Xavier Ouellet
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: Nick Jensen
Injured:Luke Glendening (hand), Darren Helm (leg) Justin Abdelkader (lower body)

Status report

Aho is out indefinitely. He left a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Sunday after a hit to the head from Flames defenseman Mark Giordano early in the third period. There is no timeline on Aho's recovery, Peters said. … Abdelkader could return before the All-Star break, but Helm and Glendening are expected to be sidelined for a longer period.

Stat pack

Teravainen has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past seven games. … Zetterberg has 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) in his past 15 games.