Hurricanes at Lightning preview

HURRICANES (19-14-8) at LIGHTNING (30-9-3)
7:30 p.m. ET, SUN, FS-CR, NHL.TV

Girardi took a puck to the back of the helmet on a shot by Detroit Red Wings forward Martin Frk in a 5-2 win Sunday.
Chris Kunitz will play on the top line with Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov for the Lightning, who have the best record in the NHL and went 3-1-1 on a five-game road trip. They have won eight of their past nine games at home (8-1-0) and are 13-3-1 in their past 17 games.
Cam Ward likely will start for Carolina, which was defeated by the Boston Bruins 7-1 on Saturday and is 1-2-1 in their past four games after going 7-1-0 in their previous eight. The Hurricanes are playing the third game of a four-game road trip.

Players to watch

Sebastian Aho has 10 points (six goals, four assists) in his past seven games.
Yanni Gourde has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past five games.

They said it

"The important thing is to make [the Lightning] play in their own zone a little bit. We have to be heavy in the offensive zone when it's required and also have to be dynamic and hang on to pucks and spend some time down there."-- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters
"Part of this game is finding what works, what can work and what might not work. Things were potentially getting a little stale and before it reached that point, we wanted to open things up for a few guys."-- Lightning coach Jon Cooper on shuffling his lines

Hurricanes projected lineup

Sebastian Aho -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Victor Rask -- Justin Williams
Jeff Skinner -- Derek Ryan -- Elias Lindholm
Joakim Nordstrom -- Marcus Kruger -- Josh Jooris
Jaccob Slavin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Klas Dahlbeck -- Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin -- Brett Pesce
Cam Ward
Scott Darling
Scratched: Lee Stempniak, Phillip Di Giuseppe, Haydn Fleury
Injured: none

Lightning projected lineup

Chris Kunitz -- Steven Stamkos -- Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point - Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn - Vladislav Namestnikov -- Yanni Gourde
JT Brown - Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman -- Anton Stralman
Mikhail Sergachev -- Dan Girardi
Braydon Coburn -- Andrej Sustr
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Jake Dotchin, Slater Koekkoek, Cory Conacher
Injured:Peter Budaj (lower body)

Status report

Girardi participated in the morning skate. ...Kunitz replaces Namestnikov, who drops to center on the third line. ... Peters said Aho will play and that Stempniak likely will play in one of the back-to-back games against the Washington Capitals on Thursday or Friday.

Stat pack

Johnson has 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in his past 16 games. ... Ward is 7-1-1 with 18 goals allowed in his past nine starts. ... Kucherov is tied for the NHL lead with 27 goals and leads with 59 points. Vasilevskiy leads the League with 26 wins