Hurricanes at Flyers preview

HURRICANES (35-34-11) at FLYERS (40-26-14)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Flyers can reach the postseason with a win and a loss of any kind by the Florida Panthers against the Boston Bruins. They also can get in with one point against the Hurricanes and a regulation loss by the Panthers to the Bruins.
Elliott will play for the first time since Feb. 10; he had core muscle surgery Feb. 13.
The Hurricanes have lost two straight games (0-2-0). They have been eliminated from playoff contention.

Players to watch

Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his past 13 games.
Flyers forward Claude Giroux has 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) during an eight-game point streak.

They said it

"We're a team that if we don't play the right way and play hard we don't have much of a chance. I expect guys to go out and play hard and give themselves the best chance to get the two points." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters
"It's not about the Carolina Hurricanes. It's about our game. We play our game, we know we'll come back and we'll be successful at the end. For us, we've got to find a way to play at our best and at a high level, and if we do that we'll be fine." -- Flyers forward Claude Giroux

Hurricanes projected lineup

Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Elias Lindholm -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Valentin Zykov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Joakim Nordstrom -- Derek Ryan -- Lee Stempniak
Jaccob Slavin -- Klas Dahlbeck
Noah Hanifin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Haydn Fleury --
Roland McKeown
Scott Darling
Cam Ward
Scratched:None
Injured:Justin Faulk (upper body), Victor Rask (shoulder), Brett Pesce (shoulder)

Flyers projected lineup

Claude Giroux -- Sean Couturier -- Michael Raffl
Oskar Lindblom -- Nolan Patrick -- Jakub Voracek
Travis Konecny -- Valtteri Filppula -- Wayne Simmonds
Scott Laughton -- Jori Lehtera -- Matt Read
Ivan Provorov -- Shayne Gostisbehere
Travis Sanheim -- Andrew MacDonald
Brandon Manning -- Radko Gudas
Brian Elliott
Petr Mrazek
Scratched:Dale Weise, Taylor Leier, Jordan Weal, Johnny Oduya, Robert Hagg
Injured:Michal Neuvirth (lower body)

Status report

The Hurricanes did not hold a morning skate. Coach Bill Peters said Darling would start Thursday after Ward played the first three games of the season against the Flyers. … With Elliott returning, the Flyers sent goaltender Alex Lyon to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. Raffl was shifted to the first line, with Konecny moved to the third line.

Stat pack

Ryan has seven points (two goals, five assists) during a five-game point streak. … Patrick has four points (three goals, one assist) in his past two games. Gostisbehere has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in his past 11 games.