Tonight is going to be unnecessarily late for fans. Even though the Carolina Hurricanes are in the Central Time Zone, they are the second of a doubleheader featured on TNT. That means even though the listed start time is 9:30, it’s probably going to be closer to 10. Why? Because national TV demands it. You’ve already been warned.

The Canes are in the Central Time Zone and facing the Minnesota Wild, a familiar opponent as the Wild were just in Raleigh two weeks ago. The game was notable for a couple of reasons—the back and forth that the two teams had where seven goals were scored in the first 21 minutes, and the cheap shot that knocked out Jalen Chatfield. Chatfield hasn’t played since, though we’ll get to an update on that in a bit. Tyler Pitlick, who laid the hit on Chatfield, was sent down to Iowa not too long after the hit but didn’t face any supplemental discipline. Pitlick is back with the Wild now, but he was a healthy extra in their 3-2 OT win over the Golden Knights Sunday. He did skate on the fourth line in practice yesterday, so we’ll see if he stays in as the Wild deal with injuries of their own.

The Wild have righted the ship since their rought start, going 6-2-2 in their last ten, and they haven’t lost in regulation since that game in Carolina on November 6th. Their wins include the aforementioned Golden Knights, the Sharks, the Ducks, and the Flames. What many thought might be an easier game as part of the trip when the two teams first matched up is now looking like a matchup of two top teams that was worthy of the national TV attention they’ll get from TNT.

Minnesota has done this despite not being a prolific scoring team. this month they’ve only scored more than two goals four times, and two of those times required overtime to get to the third goal. They are 24th in the league in goals forced, and there’s no reason to think that the stifling play of the Hurricanes will change that up. It should give whomever is between the pipes a little bit of help. It will be interesting to see if coach Rod Brind’Amour goes against the goalie grain and rewards Pyotr Kochetkov with another start or if he continues the rotation and tries to give Frederik Andersen another shot at the Wild. Andersen has not looked the sharpest the last few games, and Kochetkov has shown that when he gets in a rhythm he can build multiple good games. He was really sharp on Monday night against a bit of a depleted Bruins team. We should have a better idea after morning skate in St. Paul.

It’s a sign of just how rough a start it was for Minnesota that in their last seven they’ve only given up more than 2 goals once—again to the Hurricanes—and they are still 22nd in the league in goals allowed. The Canes faced Filip Gustavsson two weeks ago but tonight they’ll see their other goalie in Jesper Wallstedt. He hasn’t allowed a goal since their November 7th matchup against the Islanders. That goal was given up at 18:51 of the second period, meaning he currently has a 141:09 shutout streak. It would be nice for that to change.

On the injury front for the Canes things are finally starting to inch their way back to normal. While we still don’t have word on when Jaccob Slavin will be back, we do know that the aforementioned Jalen Chatfield is with the Canes and practiced with the team yesterday. Brind’Amour said it’ll be up to Jalen whether he plays today, which—Jalen is a hockey player so we probably know how this is going to go. That means that the Canes will only be without one regular on the defense, and Brind’Amour can start rolling the pairings out back like he wanted to at the beginning of the season. It also means up front, the only real injury is Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and with Jankowski’s success on Monday night, he’s not under any pressure to be rushed back.

If you’re Minnesota, you probably would rather Chatfield play the game because of just how well the defense played on Monday. The defenseman that would be sent back would be Joel Nystrom, and he had a—pretty good night.

Yes, Mike Reilly had the least impact of all six defensemen, and he still was better than six forwards—including the entire Stankoven line. Thus, the Canes trying to reintegrate Chatfield and the potential there for them/him to try and get even with Pitlick might be better than this defense that just rolled mercilessly on Monday.

Again, this is a late one. If you aren’t going to be in St. Paul to catch the game, here’s how you can watch:

Time: 9:30 PM—though let’s be honest it’ll probably be closer to 10 because Edmonton/Washington will precede this game.

TV: TNT and TruTV. As of this writing it’s not clear who is calling the game, once that’s available this will be updated.

Streaming: HBOMax is—for now—the streaming home of TNT Sports

Radio: The pregame on 99.9 The Fan starts at 9 PM. At 9:30 PM the Hurricanes Radio Nework (consisting of 99.9, 730 The Game in Charlotte, ESPN New Bern 107.5/1490, and ESPN Greenville 107.5/1570) picks up the action. Adam Gold will be the host, Mike Maniscalco will handle play-by-play and Tripp Tracy will be providing color as only he can.

Odds: Hurricanes -162 Moneyline, Puckline -1.5 (+152)/Wild +134 Moneyline, Puckline +1.5 (-188), O/U 6.5 (+112/-140)