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Around the rink - Thursday, February 3

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7:00 p.m.

Carolina @ Toronto

Is revenge on the minds of the Toronto Maple Leafs players? Perhaps. Carolina’s Tim Gleason caught the ire of Clarke MacArthur for his manhandling of Nikolai Kulemin in a fight during their last game. One guy that won’t be condoning retribution will be Leafs coach Ron Wilson who thought Gleason did nothing wrong. Carolina is trying to catch Atlanta in the race for the eighth spot in the East and trading losses with the Thrashers won’t get it done. Carolina’s going to have to treat games like this as must-win affairs. Toronto, meanwhile, looks to improve on their shootout win over Florida on Tuesday.

Dallas @ Boston

Dallas heads to Boston in a bit of a funk. They’ve lost three of their last four games and are looking terrible in goal in those losses having given up 18 goals in those three games. Will they get a reprieve from the offensive onslaught against the Bruins? You can never be too sure but after Nathan Horton snapped his goalless streak against Carolina, the Bruins offensive worries of late could be on the mend. Dallas might want to get back to winning though as the Sharks have caught fire in the Pacific and are now tied with Anaheim five points behind in second place.

New Jersey @ NY Rangers

Vinny Prospal makes his return to the Rangers lineup and he’ll get to play on a line with Derek Stepan and Marian Gaborik. Not a bad way to welcome a guy back. The Rangers got off to a rough start after the All-Star break with a shootout loss to the Penguins. The rough and tumble Pens are a good way to warm up for the more difficult to play against Devils. After dropping two in a row, the Rangers would like to turn things around against the NHL’s worst team. New Jersey, though, are winners of five of their last six games and are coming off a 2-1 win over Ottawa on Tuesday.

Nashville @ Philadelphia

The Flyers get a bit of a break in that they don’t have to face Pekka Rinne tonight. Instead, they’ll have to deal with 6'5" Swedish rookie Anders Lindback. Don’t expect things to be any easier for the Flyers in facing Lindback though. The lanky rookie is more than capable as Rinne’s backup. The Flyers are hoping to have a bit better luck than they did against Tampa Bay on Tuesday where they were shutout 4-0. The Flyers are also hoping to keep putting a little distance between themselves and the Penguins who just keep finding ways to win behind them.

Calgary @ Atlanta

Two teams headed in opposite directions. The Flames are hot and winners of five in a row and just one point behind Minnesota for second place in the Northwest Division. Everyone there is playing for second behind Vancouver but just the fact that Calgary has launched themselves into the playoff race after being so bad for most of the season is stunning.

Atlanta, meanwhile, hangs on to a playoff spot by a thread after playing woefully poor lately. They’ve lost eight of their last ten games going 2-5-3 in that time and holding a slim lead over Carolina for the last spot in the East playoff race. In that time, the Thrashers offense and goaltending has disappeared scoring just 18 goals in their last ten games and allowing 41. Panic hasn’t set in there yet, but frustrations are high and GM Rick Dudley is looking to shake things up with a deal.

9:00 p.m.

Minnesota @ Colorado

Another case of teams going in opposite directions. The Wild are playing solid lately and have gotten themselves heavily into the mix for the playoffs. After how poorly the team started this season some wondered if coach Todd Richards would end up losing his job over it. Instead, patience is paying off for the Wild and goalie Niklas Backstrom is rounding into the form Wild fans are more accustomed to from him. Colorado has gone mediocre of late going 5-4-1 in their last ten games. It’s decent but not as good as they’d like to be and considering they were able to keep pace with Vancouver for a short time, things certainly aren’t as good as they once were. The main issue is goaltending as both Peter Budaj and Craig Anderson have been fighting bouts on inconsistency all season long. The Wild give the Avalanche fits all the time so keep an eye out to see if the frustration continues once again in Denver.