Capitals: Top 3 key players to watch against Hurricanes

The Washington Capitals look to end a two-game losing streak on Monday night and no better opponent than the Carolina Hurricanes.

A team that gave the Washington Capitals headaches last spring and a part of this season until the team finally defeated them earlier this month, the Carolina Hurricanes come to Capital One Arena for the first time since Washington’s home opener where they escaped with an overtime win.

On Jan. 3 at PNC Arena, the Capitals came away with a 4-3 win. Richard Panik, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Lars Eller, and Jakub Vrana provided the scoring for the Capitals while Ilya Samsonov made 38 saves on 41 shots for a .927 save percentage.

Since that game, the Capitals rallied to defeat the San Jose Sharks then crushed the Ottawa Senators before suffering a two-game losing streak that began last Wednesday in Philadelphia against the Flyers and continued Saturday night in a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

The Hurricanes are coming off a 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night to finish off a seven game homestand that saw the Canes win five of them. If the Caps want a win they need to look to the following three players to step up tonight.

Jakub Vrana

Something rare happened on Saturday night. Nope I’m not talking about a Capitals loss or even Jakub Vrana scoring another goal. It was the type of goal Vrana scored that was different. For the first time this season and in over a year, Vrana scored on the power play.

After Miles Wood was called for high sticking Richard Panik at 6:17 in the second period, the top unit went on the attack. After some commotion in front of the net, Vrana was there to rebound the puck in the net backhanded style.

It was Vrana’s 20th goal of the season and his fifth goal in his last five games. It was also Vrana’s first power play goal since Jan. 8, 2019 when the Caps beat the Philadelphia Flyers.

Vrana joins Alex Ovechkin as the only other Capital to join the 20-goal club. It took Vrana 46 games to reach 20 goals compared to 70 games last season. 19 of Vrana’s 20 goals have come on even strength, ranking him tied with David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins for third in the league in even strength goals.

Vrana is the only player to have 42 even strength goals over the last two seasons while scoring just two power play goals.

Tom Wilson

Taking the ice for his 500th game tonight is Tom Wilson so naturally we had to include him on this list. It’s hard to believe we’ve seen #43 on the ice for that long but time flies.

Per the game notes, Wilson is the 28th player in Capitals franchise history to play in his 500th NHL game and the third player from the 2012 NHL Draft class to reach the mark. The other players from that class that did it were Alex Galchenyuk and Morgan Rielly.

Wilson is 25 years and 290 days old and will become the third youngest player and the youngest forward in franchise history to play in 500 games. Defensemen Scott Stevens and Kevin Hatcher were the other two.

Wilson enters tonight’s game with points in six of his last 10 games with a gaol and seven assists as well as 30 points on the season. He’s on pace to finish with 24 goals and 54 points which would surpass career highs that he set last season.

Wilson has recorded 22 goals and 26 assists over his last 82 games, a stretch that begins almost one year ago on Jan. 15, 2019. He is also on pace for 122 penalty minutes which would be a career-low.

Wilson is one of those reliable players that has a two-way game. If you prepare for his physicality, you aren’t ready for his offense. More importantly, his durability ensures that Washington has one of the best top sixes in the league and makes sure nobody messes with the Capitals top stars.