Stars at Hurricanes preview

STARS (36-20-6) at HURRICANES (35-22-4)
7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, FS-SW, NHL.TV

Trocheck, acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers on Monday, will center the Hurricanes' third line between forwards Nino Niederreiter and Martin Necas. Skjei, acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Monday, will play on the first defense pair with Jaccob Slavin.
Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Sunday, will make his second NHL start for Carolina, which lost goalies Petr Mrazek (concussion protocol) and James Reimer (lower body) to injuries in a 6-3 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, when emergency backup goalie David Ayres made eight saves on 10 shots to preserve the victory.
Center Sebastian Aho, who has 18 points (11 goals, seven assists) in a 12-game point streak, will try to extend it for the Hurricanes, who are 8-4-1 in their past 13 games and trail the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets by two points for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
The Stars, 6-1-1 in their past eight games, can move into second place in the Central Division with a victory; they trail the Colorado Avalanche by one point. Goalie Anton Khudobin will start.

Players to watch

Stars forward Jamie Benn has 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 18 games against Carolina.
Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in a 10-game point streak.

They said it

"We would like to see over the last 20 games a consistency. Again, there's two teams out there. You can have the best plan in the world, and you're just a little bit off, and that's all it takes." -- Stars coach Rick Bowness
"It's a little overwhelming. … At the end of the day, they have to trust their instincts and go play in the first few games." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on the Carolina debuts of center Vincent Trocheck and defenseman Brady Skjei

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Corey Perry
Roope Hintz -- Jason Dickinson -- Denis Gurianov
Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Alexander Radulov
Esa Lindell -- Andrej Sekera
Miro Heiskanen -- Roman Polak
Jamie Oleksiak -- John Klingberg
Anton Khudobin
Ben Bishop
Scratched: Taylor Fedun
Injured: Justin Dowling (lower body), Stephen Johns (upper body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Warren Foegele -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Nino Niederreiter -- Vincent Trocheck -- Martin Necas
Ryan Dzingel -- Jordan Martinook -- Brock McGinn
Jaccob Slavin -- Brady Skjei
Jake Gardiner -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Haydn Fleury -- Joel Edmundson
Alex Nedeljkovic
Anton Forsberg
Scratched: None
Injured: Dougie Hamilton (broken fibula), Petr Mrazek (concussion protocol), James Reimer (lower body), Brett Pesce (upper body)

Status report

Johns is day-to-day and his injury is not concussion-related, Bowness said. ... Pesce is weighing the possibility of surgery, Brind'Amour said. ... Mrazek, symptom free in the concussion protocol, could return next week, general manager Don Waddell said.

Stat pack

Khudobin is 5-1-1 with a 1.83 goals-against average and .932 save percentage in seven starts against Carolina in his NHL career. … Aho can become the first player in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history with a 13-game point streak since Blaine Stoughton did it with the Whalers in 1981-82.