Thursday, December 18, 2008

Vokoun Tonight @ Carolina -- 7:00 PM (FSN)

Tomas Vokoun will get the start tonight in Carolina after Craig Anderson started to ease off of his tremendous pace. Vokoun started on Friday night against the Calgary Flames, stopping 35 of 37 shots and then after Cammalleri missed his shootout attempt, Vokoun stopped the remaining two Calgary shooters to ensure a fifth-straight Florida road victory.

Prior to that, Tomas only had one other appearance in the month of December and it came on the sixth against Boston. Patrice Bergeron collided with Craig Anderson and already down 3-0, DeBoer simply replaced Anderson to make sure that Andy hadn't suffered any injury that playing would aggravate.

Tonight, the Panthers will see Nathan Horton, David Booth, Richard Zednik and Stephen Weiss return to the lineup. Rostislav Olesz, however, appears to be a definite 'no' and his injury seems more serious than it was initially believed, while Jassen Cullimore may be scratched as he's sick. If he doesn't play, Noah Welch would take his spot.

On the other side, the 'Canes will be seeing the return of defenseman Frantisek Kaberle tonight. Kaberle, 35, has already missed significant time on two separate occasions this season, playing in only seven games -- the last on December 4th. He has three points on the year, two of which came against the Panthers in the first game of the season. Carolina will be without Anton Babchuk and Niclas Wallin and Wade Brookbank may be a healthy scratch for the fifth consecutive game.

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