Cullen's improvement opens doors

Matt Cullen has spent weeks dealing with a sore left foot after taking a shot in the skate on March 20. He just now might be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Cullen played his best game of the series in Game 5, which allowed Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice to swap Cullen and Eric Staal at center on Carolina’s top two lines, which created matchup problems for the Devils that night and bore fruit in Game 6 when the Ray Whitney-Staal-Chad LaRose line scored three of Carolina’s four goals and contributed on the other.

Just as Sergei Samsonov’s return helped balance out Carolina’s lines, making the Canes a four-line team instead of a three-line team, as they were in Game 5, Cullen’s continuing improvement as he heals is opening up more options for Maurice.

“We’re getting closer to the six weeks (since the injury),” Maurice said. “Now, it’s no longer the injury, it’s all the other parts of his body that rested as well. He’s still playing through some pain, but it’s manageable. It’s not something that … we backed him off in the last five minutes only. He will be ready.”

Six weeks is usually the healing window on a broken bone, so Cullen’s injury may have been worse than the Canes were letting on — they were hoping he would play in the last game of the regular season, but held him out of the lineup — but in any case it appears to be behind him.

Cullen hasn’t spoken with the media during this series, presumably because he doesn’t want to discuss his condition, nor has he skated in any practice or pregame skate, but he’s really starting to make his presence felt on the ice — and that could be the difference in Game 7.