Hurricanes at Penguins preview

HURRICANES (21-18-8) at PENGUINS (25-21-3)
7 p.m. ET; ATTSN-PT, FS-SE, NHL.TV

DeSmith allowed three goals on 65 shots in his first two NHL starts, a 3-1 win at the Los Angeles Kings on Jan. 18 and a 2-1 loss at the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. Penguins coach Mike Sullivan confirmed DeSmith would start after he was the first goalie off the ice following the morning skate, ahead of Matt Murray and
Tristan Jarry.
Murray traveled home to Ontario on Jan. 17 following the death of his father, James Murray, before returning to practice Monday.
Pittsburgh is 5-2-0 in its past seven games despite losing two of three on its California road trip last week.
DeSmith will face Cam Ward, who made 21 saves in a 4-0 win at Pittsburgh on Jan. 4. The Hurricanes are 2-5-0 since Ward's shutout and 3-6-1 in their past 10 games after going 7-1-0 in their previous eight.

Players to watch

Hurricanes center Jordan Staal has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past eight games.
Penguins center Sidney Crosby has 15 points (three goals, 12 assists) during a seven-game point streak.

They said it

"I think we've played well [against the Penguins]. I think they're an easy team for teams around the League to get up for." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters
"The last couple of games that Casey has started, he's been very, very good. So we feel as though, at this point, we're just going to ride him a little bit." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan

Hurricanes projected lineup

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

Penguins projected lineup

Dominik Simon
-- Sidney Crosby -- Conor Sheary
Carl Hagelin -- Evgeni Malkin -- Patric Hornqvist
Jake Guentzel -- Riley Sheahan -- Phil Kessel
Tom Kuhnhackl --
Jean-Sebastien Dea
-- Bryan Rust
Brian Dumoulin -- Kris Letang
Olli Maatta -- Justin Schultz
Matt Hunwick -- Jamie Oleksiak
Casey DeSmith
Tristan Jarry
Scratched: Ian Cole, Matt Murray, Ryan Reaves
Injured: Carter Rowney (upper body), Chad Ruhwedel (upper body)

Status report

Pesce was activated from injured reserve and is likely to return after missing five games with an upper-body injury. … Rust will be a game-time decision with an upper-body injury that has sidelined him for Pittsburgh's past eight games.

Stat pack

Nordstrom will play his 200th game with the Hurricanes. … Malkin (four goals, three assists), Kessel (three goals, four assists) and Crosby (two goals, five assists) each has seven points during Pittsburgh's three-game home winning streak.