Hurricanes at Capitals
The Carolina Hurricanes go after their third straight shutout and a season series victory when they visit the NHL-best Washington Capitals on Monday night for a Metropolitan Division showdown. Carolina, which won two of the first three against the Capitals this season after knocking them out in the first round of the playoffs last spring, blanked Arizona (3-0) on Friday and Los Angeles (2-0) just 24 hours later to finish its homestand 5-2-0.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said it was nice to get a couple games where his goalies (Petr Mrazek and James Reimer) were outstanding and told reporters of Saturday’s victory: “We survived. The first period was fine. We had jump. We just took the foot off the gas a little. … But it was a great way to finish (the homestand) off.” Carolina will have to be sharper in front of its goalie Monday against Washington, which will be determined after scoring just three times while losing its last two contests and primed to play against a burgeoning rival. The Capitals gave up two goals in the first 6:48 of the second period, including a short-handed tally, to fall behind by three and could not recover in a 5-1 loss to New Jersey at home Saturday. “I just think we’re going through a time in the season right now where we’re not executing and we’re not out-working the opponent. If you’re not going to do those things, then you’re not going to have success in this league," Washington coach Todd Reirden said.
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Carolinas, NBCS Washington
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (27-16-2): Mrazek (17-10-2, .905 save percentage), who beat Washington in the playoffs last season, made 32 saves to defeat Arizona and James Reimer (10-6-0, .917) turned aside 41 shots in Saturday’s victory. Left wing Teuvo Teravainen had a goal and an assist Saturday to snap a three-game point drought and leads the balanced offense with 43 points while right wing Andrei Svechnikov is next with 42. Nino Niederreiter snapped an eight-game goal drought by scoring the winner Saturday, giving him six on the season after finishing with 23 between Minnesota and Carolina in 2018-19.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (30-11-5): Veteran center Nicklas Backstrom had an assist Saturday to extend his point streak to eight games (one goal, seven assists) while Jakub Vrana scored for the fifth time in five games this month to reach 20 on the season. John Carlson leads the team along with all defensemen in the league with 55 points and captain Alex Ovechkin boasts a club-best 26 goals - one in three games versus Carolina in 2019-20. Rookie Ilya Samonsov (12-2-1, .921 SP) is expected to get the start as No. 1 goalie Braden Holtby struggles a bit with an .832 SP in his last six appearances.
OVERTIME
1. The league announced Saturday that Washington RW T.J. Oshie (18 goals, 33 points) was one of four players added to the All-Star Game, in a vote by the fans.
2. Carolina C Sebastian Aho, who leads the team with 23 goals, has four assists and a plus-2 rating in five games this month.
3. Capitals RW Richard Panik (five goals) left Saturday’s game after getting high-sticked, but reportedly practiced on Sunday with a face shield.