With six games remaining it’s the surge to the playoffs for the Washington Capitals. First up is a home-and-home set with the Carolina Hurricanes in what could be a first round playoff preview.
If the regular season ended today, the Washington Capitals journey to defending their Cup would begin against the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round. That’s exactly who they’ll play tonight which will kick off the first game of a home-and-home set between the teams 48 hours apart. So a nice playoff preview on a Tuesday night and then Thursday they’ll conclude this series in Raleigh.
The Capitals got a big 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in a Sunday matinee in the District that saw Tom Wilson, Travis Boyd, and Jakub Vrana scored and Braden Holtby stopped 35-of-36 shots. The win kept the Capitals (44-24-8, 96 points) on top of the Metropolitan Division with a one-point lead over the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Hurricanes are coming off of a 2-1 overtime win on home ice over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday. After Paul Byron put the visitors up early, the Hurricanes rallied with a tying goal int he third period from Trevor van Riemsdyk and won the game in overtime thanks to Andrei Svechnikov. The victory kept them three points ahead of Montreal for the top spot in the Eastern Conference wild card.
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The Capitals take on the Hurricanes for the first time since Dec. 27, 2018 in a contest that saw Washington prevail on their home ice 3-1. The teams also met in Raleigh on Friday Dec. 14 in a Capitals 6-5 shootout win. In that contest, Alex Ovechkin recorded a hat trick for the second consecutive game.
The Capitals can clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight if they win tonight against the Hurricanes and both the Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets lose in regulation.
PROJECTED LINEUP
This was the lineup from Capitals morning skate on Tuesday:
Forwards
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson
Hagelin-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Vrana-Eller-Connolly
Burakovsky-Dowd-Boyd
Defense
Djoos-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Orpik-Jensen
Carl Hagelin moves up to the second line while Jakub Vrana drops to the third line. Holtby will get the start in goal. The Capitals also made a roster move. With Michal Kempny out for some time, the team brought down Tyler Lewington over the weekend but sent him back to Hershey. Then they brought up Jonas Siegenthaler for some backup help on the defense.
Puck drop is at 7 p.m. and you can catch the game both locally on NBC Sports Washington and nationally on the NBC Sports Network.