The Washington Capitals will take on the Carolina Hurricanes for their third straight Metropolitan Division matchup and second game of a five-game homestand. This is the second of four meetings between these two clubs, with the Capitals taking the first battle 2-1 in a shootout back on Dec. 17 in Raleigh.
Here are the projected lines.
Alex Ovechkin – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Tom Wilson
Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Anthony Mantha
Max Pacioretty – Dylan Strome – Hendrix Lapierre
Beck Malenstyn – Nic Dowd – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin – Ethan Bear
Joel Edmundson – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Darcy Kuemper
Hunter Shepard
Projected Scratches: Nick Jensen, Alex Alexeyev, Matthew Phillips, T.J. Oshie (upper), Sonny Milano (upper), Charlie Lindgren (upper), Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
The big storyline in Wednesday’s loss was the inability to maintain momentum. Once John Carlson completed the two-goal comeback, to tie the game at three, the Devils immediately responded thanks to Michael McLeod’s goal with 15.8 seconds left in the middle frame.
“Every time you give up a goal late in a period, that always sucks. But I felt like it was still a good second period,” Evgeny Kuznetsov, who had two points in the game, said. “Where we got the push and we’re moving and moving the puck and I feel like there’s a lot of good clips and a lot of bad clips in there.”
Max Pacioretty made his Capitals debut against the Devils and skated 11:47 worth of ice time and was a minus-1. Wednesday marked his first game action since Jan. 19, 2023, when he tore his Achilles’ Tendon for the second time.
“There’s a lot of emotions. I obviously haven’t played five games in two years almost, so yeah, a lot of emotions,” Pacioretty said after the game. “But at the end of the day it probably couldn’t get any worse than it did tonight for me, so got to just get better from it.”
Pacioretty said that he felt a step behind all game, but that was expected considering that he had not played a game in almost a year.
“It’s not easy at his age to step back into National Hockey League games especially against this team that I would argue is one of the fastest in the league,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said. “I mean, it’s going to be a work in progress. I never expected him to just step back into the lineup and be an impact player. Do you hope for that? Maybe in the back of your mind, but it’s going to be a process for him getting back and getting up to speed and getting comfortable back playing games.”
The Capitals’ power play scored twice back on Wednesday and now has three goals in two games. The man-advantage went 2-for-4 against the Devils and now ranks 27th in the NHL at 13.7%. While the Caps did score on the power play, their big guns up front struggled when they were on the ice. Both power-play goals came from Washington’s second unit. Carbery mentioned that the first unit is struggling because of puck recoveries and zone entries.
“I just find that their entries are very, very disconnected and sloppy and they’re just not sure where we’re going and that’s partly on us to figure out a combination of how that looks,” Carbery said. “The second unit is much more direct, much more we’re gonna go, we’re not really worried about how we enter. We just know we’re gonna go earn the puck back and that is sometimes the best recipe.”
Scouting Carolina
The Hurricanes (21-13-4) are coming off a dominating 6-1 win against the New York Rangers and are one of the hottest teams in the league. Carolina has won four straight coming into D.C., and is 6-1-3 in its last 10 games.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes are a team that throws a lot of pucks on net, ranking fourth in the NHL with 33.3 shots per game.
Sebastian Aho continues to lead the charge for the Hurricanes, leading the team with 43 points (15 goals, 28 assists) in 35 games. Seth Jarvis is on pace to have a breakout season, ranking second on the team with 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in 37 games.
Friday’s matchup will also be the first time that Dmitry Orlov returns to Capital One Arena as a member of the visiting team. Orlov spent 11 seasons in Washington and was traded at last year’s trade deadline to the Boston Bruins. The 32-year-old was selected 55th overall by the Capitals in the 2009 NHL draft and won the Stanley Cup with the Caps in 2018.
Player To Watch
The Capitals did not face Andrei Svechnikov back in December due to an injury, but he has been excellent since he returned to the lineup, racking up six goals in his last five games. Svechnikov had two goals against the Rangers.
Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. at Capital One Arena. The game can be streamed on Monumental Sports Network.
By Jacob Cheris
