The set-up:The 21-8-4 Nashville Predators saw their three-game win streak and seven-game point run come to a screeching halt on Tuesday, falling 6-4 at home to Winnipeg,. It marked just their third regulation loss at home this season. The Predators conclude an abbreviated two-game homestand against the Carolina Hurricanes, tonight. The 14-12-7 Panthers are coming off an 'ugly' effort in losing 8-1 Tuesday afternoon at Toronto. Carolina permitted four goals in the first and third periods in the drubbing. "Guys will look in the mirror," Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters said. "Hopefully guys have to shave, and if they have to shave, hopefully they use the mirror. When they look in the mirror, that should get them refocused."

Carolina: Jeff Skinner scored his team-leading 12th goal midway into the first period before it all went south for the Hurricanes, who own the league's 27th-ranked offense (2.7 goals per game), 29th-ranked power play (14.2 percent) and 29th-ranked penalty kill (75.6 percent). Outside of that, the Hurricanes are "hitting on all cylinders" offensively.Goalie Scott Darling took the entire thrashing, dropping his record to 8-10-6 with a 2.87 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage.However, he made 32 saves in the last meeting with Nashville, a 4-3 shootout win by Carolina on Nov. 26 in Raleigh, to improve his career mark to 3-1-0 against the club.

Nashville: From the 5:01 mark of the second period on Dec. 13 to the 8:05 mark of the first period Tuesday night (a total of 163 minutes, five seconds of ice time) , the Nashville Predators didn't allow a goal.After finally allowing a goal to Winnipeg in Tuesday's game,the Preds allowed five more. Two of those occurred in the final 1:26 of the game, including an ugly go-ahead marker by Brandon Tanev from a bad angle that skipped through goalie Pekka Rinne's pads.Clearly, the tiebreaking tally Tuesday night was not one of his better moments, but Rinne (18-5-3, 2.36, .927) has enjoyed one of his best seasons in goal.

The pick: Scott Darling (see stats above) is in his first season as a No. 1 goalie after backing up Corey Crawford the last three seasons in Chicago and has struggled enough that veteran Cam Ward (6-2-1, 3.06 GAA, .906 SP) has looked like a better alternative at times. Carolina's offense has done little this season (Hurricanes are 0-for-14 on the power play over the last five contests) and Rinne should be more than up to te task after a sub-par effort vs. the Jets.as he's 18-5-3 on the season (again, 2.36 GAA & .927 SP). The Preds are 11-3-2 at home, averaging 3.75 GPG. Make Nashville an 8* play.