After last night’s 3rd period comeback win against the Rangers, the Wings are 5-1-0 in their last 6 games. It hasn’t completely erased the seven game skid that they started their season on, but it’s moved them back into the bracket of competing for a wild card spot. It’s still early in the season, but at the time of this writing, the Wings are only four points out of the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

In the second half of their second back-to-back of the season (and the first of two in November), the Wings will visit the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, North Carolia. The last time these two teams met was in Detroit, and the Wings were undone by penalties as they surrendered two power play goals that surged the Canes to a 3-1 victory. Now, though the Wings tendency to take penalties hasn’t changed, the team has found their offense and will be looking to dole out more curly fries to the fans by extending their winning streak to three games.

Since the team only played last night and there won’t be a practice today, we won’t see if there are any changes to the lines until game time, but I’m not anticipating any. The team played a decent 2nd and 3rd period last night, succumbing their two goals against on the same four minute penalty kill.

They had two players return from injury in Andreas Athanasiou and Frans Nielsen, who combined for three points, further proving how crucial they are to this team’s forward corps.

Jacob De La Rose left last night’s game with an upper-body injury and won’t play tonight, so Wade Megan is likely to slot into that fourth line center spot to play with Michael Rasmussen and Martin Frk. It’s a rough combo particularly for Rasmussen, but he gets good time on the power play and has looked pretty good the last few games.

My only comment on the D-lines is that they need to move Cholowski away from Kronwall. I want to see him back on the top line with Green. That was way more fun.

Aho and Teravainen are a scary one-two punch on that top line. They have 18 and 12 points respectively, leading the team’s offensive charge. Jordan Staal is a competent second line center who is producing a 0.5 points-per-game this year centering team captain Justin Williams.

The second overall pick Andrei Svechnikov is always one to watch. He’s got four goals and six points through the first 16 games of his NHL career. I can’t help but wonder what he could do on that first line with Aho and Teravainen, but I suppose there is a logic to spreading out your depth. Plus, Svechnikov is still very young and far from his prime years. Those are still to come.

On the back end, Slavin and Faulk lead Canes defensemen offensively with seven points each. Tonight is another chance for Wings fans to get a look at Justin Faulk, the 26-year-old right-handed defenseman who has been the target of trade speculation for a year now. The Canes have a really good D-corps and could use a little more depth in their top-6. These two teams could very well be good trade partners.

Jonathan Bernier vs. Scott Darling

After leading the team to their last two wins by turning away 40 and 31 shots respectively, Jimmy Howard has earned his day of rest. Jonathan Bernier will start for Detroit tonight. Bernier has had a rough go this season, posting a sub-.900 save percentage and a 4.21 goals against average. He’s only got one win in the four games that he’s started.

Scott Darling will get his fourth start of the season after starting it on the IR. He’s been only slightly better than Bernier, posting a .904 save percentage and 3.21 goals against average. The thing that’s always held the Canes back has been their inconsistent goaltending and Darling is much better than he is currently playing. The Canes brought him in to be their starting goalie and he has to prove that he’s up to the job.

Puck drop is at 7:00 P.M. EST and you’ll be able to catch the game on Fox Sports Detroit with Ken Daniels and the crew. If you’re tuning in from Carolina, the game will be broadcast on FS-CR.

As always, follow the game along with us on Twitter where we’ll have gif reactions and terrible takes.