Blackhawks at Hurricanes preview

BLACKHAWKS (6-8-3) at HURRICANES (7-7-3)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, FS-CR, NHL.TV

Ward, who won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy with the Hurricanes in 2006, is Carolina's all-time leader in games played (668), wins (318) and shutouts (27). He signed as a free agent with Chicago on July 1 after playing 13 seasons with Carolina.
Jeremy Colliton, who is 0-2-0 as Blackhawks coach, will put Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews together on the top line with Nick Schmaltz. He is also mixing up Chicago's defense pairs.
Scott Darling, who played his first three NHL seasons with the Blackhawks, will start for the Hurricanes, who are 1-4-2 in their past seven games.
The Hurricanes defeated the Blackhawks 4-3 at United Center on Thursday.

Players to watch

Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in his past 10 games.
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has assists in 14 of 17 games this season.

They said it

"I had [this game] circled on the calendar that I was hopeful I'd be able to get to play. Who knows how many more times and opportunities I'll be able to come back in this building and I think when you come back you think off all the great memories." - Blackhawks goalie Cam Ward, who played 13 seasons for the Hurricanes
"He's going to say the right things for sure, but this has been been his home for a long time. To come back in and be on the other side of it is really weird. I wish him the best. I hope he has a great game tonight but we win. That would be the perfect story. " -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on Ward

Blackhawks projected lineup

Nick Schmaltz -- Jonathan Toews -- Patrick Kane
Alexandre Fortin -- Artem Anisimov -- John Hayden
Alex DeBrincat -- David Kampf -- Dominik Kahun
Chris Kunitz -- Luke Johnson -- Andreas Martinsen
Duncan Keith -- Brent Seabrook
Erik Gustafsson -- Henri Jokiharju
Brandon Davidson -- Jan Rutta
Cam Ward
Corey Crawford
Scratched: Brandon Manning
Injured: Brandon Saad (arm), Marcus Kruger (left leg), Connor Murphy (back)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Micheal Ferland -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Jordan Martinook -- Lucas Wallmark -- Andrei Svechnikov
Warren Foegele -- Clark Bishop -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Calvin de Haan -- Justin Faulk
Haydn Fleury -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Scott Darling
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Valentin Zykov
Injured:Victor Rask (hand), Petr Mrazek (lower body), Brett Pesce (knee)

Status report

Saad, who was injured in practice Friday, will miss his second straight game. ... Pesce will miss the game after he was injured in Carolina's 4-3 shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday.

Stat pack

The Blackhawks have been outscored 30-12 during the losing streak. Chicago is 5-1-3 when scoring first … The Hurricanes lead the NHL with 169 takeaways. Aho and Williams are each without a goal in the past 12 games.