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Carolina Hurricanes: Three Keys to Lowercasing the Caps

By Christopher Highe

RALEIGH, NC - DECEMBER 28: Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a goal and skates back to the bench to celebrate with teammates during an NHL game agains the Washington Capitals on December 28, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC - DECEMBER 28: Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a goal and skates back to the bench to celebrate with teammates during an NHL game agains the Washington Capitals on December 28, 2019 at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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RALEIGH, NC – DECEMBER 28: Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a goal and skates back to the bench to celebrate with teammates during an NHL game against the Washington Capitals on December 28, 2019, at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC – DECEMBER 28: Warren Foegele #13 of the Carolina Hurricanes scores a goal and skates back to the bench to celebrate with teammates during an NHL game against the Washington Capitals on December 28, 2019, at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Gregg Forwerck/NHLI via Getty Images) /

The Carolina Hurricanes Look to Extend Their Win Streak to Five Against Capitals.

Since April of 2019, the rivalry between the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes has been gaining traction. The last time that Carolina lost a game against Washington was the 6-0 shutout on April 20th, 2019. Since then, the Capitals have been unable to gain any traction against the Bunch of Jerks.

In their last four outings together, Carolina has out-scored the Capitals eighteen to eleven, and look to gain another critical two points within the tight Metropolitan Division tonight. Nine points separate Carolina and Washington (4th and 1st respectively), while only three points bridge the Hurricanes from second-place in the Division (New York Islanders, 25-10-3, 53pts).

The Hurricanes enter this contest 6-3-1 in their last ten games while dropping the divisional game against the New York Rangers the day before their last appearance versus Washington. The Capitals have faired for the worse, despite being the Division leaders, going 5-5-0 in their previous ten games, and dropping their last two of 2019.

Both teams will be coming into this contest hungry for a victory to kick-off 2020, and Washington has an impressive 16-5-1 away record, compared to Carolina’s 12-6-0 home record. Two points in this contest can potentially propel the Hurricanes into third in the Metro Division, as opposed to fourth (and first Wild Card).

Players to watch in the upcoming matchup include Teuvo Teravainen, who has four goals, nine assists against the Capitals in sixteen games, and Sebastian Aho, who has put up eight goals and nine assists in fourteen games. If James Reimer gets the nod in net, he is 5-4-2 against Washington with a 2.37 goals-against average and .930 save percentage.

Now that our head-to-head preparations are complete let’s get to those three keys!

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