JR CANES PREPARE FOR SHOWDOWN WITH LEAFS

Carolina

The Hurricanes have spent the better part of the past two days working on getting something to happen offensively with their big two lines. Franchise center Jeff Carter has now been matched up with offensive phenom Igor Mirnov and Junior Lessard in hopes to spark the new Russian.

Brandon Reid will be out there with another speedy Russian Sergei Mozyakin and power forward Ryan Getzlaf.

The hope is that the offense is spread around and somehow the Caens big O will get back on track.

"There is no excuse for our lack of offensive punch the past couple of games," said defenseman Shea Weber. "We buzz all game long and sooner or later some of this has to start going in for us."

The Canes are currently in the middle of the pack but with a couple games in hand, they could easily end up 1st in the conference. Time will tell but the Canes have their star netminder Jeff Glass and hope the youngster is up for the task.

Up Front, Nigel Dawes, due to lack of offensive output the past few games, has been demoted to the 4th line. Look for Dawes to start adding some extra spark to get himself back up on one of the big lines.