Who’s ready for some hockey? The wait will end Tuesday evening as the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes have been off for nearly a week since winning their first round matchups with relative ease.
The question facing both clubs is will they be more rested or rusty? Here are five things to focus on regarding the second round showdown:
How they got here
They finished first and second in the Metropolitan Division, with the Capitals owning a 12-point advantage in the standings at the end of the regular season. They also took each of their first round series in five games, losing Game 3 on the road while advancing, thanks to a Game 5 win at home.
The Hurricanes ranked ninth in the NHL in scoring (Caps were second), 10th in goals allowed (Caps were eighth), 25th on the power play (Caps were 13th) and first on the penalty kill (Caps were fifth). Carolina was the only team in the playoffs not to allow a power-play goal in the first round.
Regular season series
The two teams split their regular season series, with the Hurricanes owning a 14-10 goals advantage. Each team won twice on home ice, while Washington needed a shootout to prevail in D.C. on April 10. Carolina clinched a playoff berth in their 5-1 thrashing of the Capitals on April 2, blowing the game open with three first period goals.
Things got rather salty late, with 122 penalty minutes handed out in the third period as multiple fights and postwhistle activity turned the clock back to the 1970s. Alex Ovechkin led the Caps against the Hurricanes with two goals and an assist in three games played in the regular season, while Seth Jarvis paced Carolina with three goals and two assists in four games.
Players to watch
Carolina’s Andre Svechnikov (20 goals with 28 assists in the regular season) scored five goals in the team’s first round series while posting the best +/- of the forwards (+3). Center Sebastian Aho tallied a team-high eight points (three goals and five assists) in the series with New Jersey while leading the team with 45 assists and 74 points during the regular season. Seth Jarvis led the Hurricanes with 32 goals in the regular season and has lit the lamp twice in the playoffs, including the series-winner against the Devils in double-overtime of Game 5.
For the Caps, Alex Ovechkin led the team with four goals in their first round series while Connor McMichael and Brandon Duhaime both found the net twice. Jakob Chychrun posted a pair of goals while leading the team on the +/- front (+7). And whatever questions there might have been regarding Logan Thompson’s fitness coming back from injury disappeared after he stopped 92% of shots faced against the Canadiens.
Keys to the game
“Special teams, goaltending, secondary scoring — those are the three things that I look at when teams are evenly matched, when it’s an even series. When margins are very, very thin,” Coach Spencer Carbery told reporters after practice last week.
“Carolina is an extremely difficult opponent, we know them as good as any team that we’ve played against of the other 31 teams. And we do feel like we’ve got another gear to get to, and we can get to that level. And we’re going to need it against a team we’re really familiar with,” he added.
History
These two teams have met in the playoffs once before in 2019. Does that ring a bell for anybody?
Washington was the defending Stanley Cup champion and won the Metropolitan Division under first-year coach Todd Rierden. They also swept the regular season series with the Wild Card Hurricanes.
But just as the Caps looked as if they were cruising after taking a 2-0 series lead, postseason hockey happened. Carolina outscored the Caps 7-1 while taking games three and four in Raleigh, and even though Washington won Game 5, the underdogs forced Game 7.
The defending champs (minus an injured T.J. Oshie), would waste a 3-1 second period lead and fall in double-overtime 4-3, ending their reign. Carolina would advance to the Eastern Conference Finals that year, while the Caps would go six more years before winning a series. The Hurricanes also won a Second Round series in 2023.
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