Hurricanes Game 82: Lines, Notes, Goalies, and How to Watch vs. Islanders

James Guillory-Imagn Images The final one. After six gruelling months of a condensed schedule due to the Olympics, a schedule which would see three games in four days (with travel), the regular season comes to a close. With that last game, the Carolina Hurricanes will face the New York Islanders in UBS Arena.

The game is scheduled for 7:00 PM EDT. In the Hurricanes’ last game, they clinched the top spot in the Eastern Conference as they acquired a point in the shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. With the Flyers’ win, they clinched their own spot in the playoffs – third in the Metropolitan Division – and are the only matchup set in stone for the postseason, as they will play the Pittsburgh Penguins, who clinched second place in the division.

However, an hour before the last game began, it was announced that two players had been recalled from the Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves: the goaltender long-believed to miss the entire season, and the Wolves’ top scorer. After manning the crease for just three periods through two games in the AHL, Pyotr Kochetkov’s conditioning stint ended. Meanwhile, the two-way forward and playmaker, Felix Unger Sorum, may get his NHL debut in the upcoming game.

As for the Islanders, they have had a rough go of it. The day after the Hurricanes last game with them, they fired Patrick Roy from his role as head coach, bringing in the former Dallas Stars head coach, Peter Deboer, to fill the shoes behind the bench. If that wasn’t enough of a blow, their playoff dreams slipped away in just 55 seconds in their last game, as the Montreal Canadiens became their nightmare in the second period.