Carolina Hurricanes host the Toronto Maple Leafs
Carolina Hurricanes will be hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first game of Monday and the 728th game of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series. This will be the second of the four scheduled meetings to take place between the two sides during
the course of the season.
The two Eastern Conference giants were up against each other in the first match on the 28th of December 2010 which saw the Carolina Hurricanes edge out ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in the end. Captain Eric Staal scored two goals and helped
his team to notch up a victory in the end after they were trailing.
The All Star weekend is just around the corner and with that coming both teams have two away games after this match. Both teams are consistently coming up with decent performances and are on route to finish in the play-off position in the Eastern Conference.
The Toronto Maples Leafs have a very good chance to cement their position if they win this match as their next opposition, New York Islanders are definitely one of the weak teams this season.
Toronto Maples Leafs had a dreadful start to the season which saw them coming across losses regularly. This continued till the end of last year after which they team managed pile up four consecutive win during the first two weeks of January.
However, now again they are starting to face a regulation time win slump. The last five games have seen them win 4 games out of which three have been in overtime. The Toronto Maples leafs have a chance to come up with another streak as they have Islanders
and Tampa Bay Lightning as their upcoming oppositions. This past Saturday, Toronto was up against the Washington Capitals. They lost the match 4-1 but given the amount of chances they got, they could have easily won the match.
"We missed empty nets, we had some great scoring opportunities in the first two periods," Coach Ron Wilson said. "We could have and probably should have had the lead."
Toronto Maple Leafs have played 47 games so far in the season out which they have won 19 games in regulation time, 5 games in overtime and scored 43 points. On the other hand, Carolina Hurricanes have played 48 games so far out which they have won 23 games
in regulation time, 6 games in overtime and have scored 52 points.
Things haven’t been smooth for Carolina Hurricanes as well. The Hurricanes have been able to come up with a lot of ups and downs piling up winning streaks and then ending with two or three consecutive losses. However, they have been much better during the
New Year. Currently out of the six games they have played so far, they have won 5 games in regulation time and one in overtime.
Carolina Hurricanes look in strong position with their star players in Captain Eric Staal, rookie Jeff Skinner and winger Tuomo Ruutu have all scored points in the last three games consecutively. For Toronto Maple Leafs, Mikhail Grabovski has been on a role
adding goals to his tally scoring three goals in his last four matches. The match is expected to be a very tight with the Carolina Hurricanes with the upper hand.
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