Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Carolina Hurricanes (10-12-5, 25 points) and Washington Capitals (14-11-2, 30 points) go head-to-head live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. for the second of five meetings this season. The game can be live streamed here. Carolina fans can hear all of the bone-crunching action on 99.9 The Fan while Washington fans can do the same on 1500 WFED.
Carolina enters play having lost six of their past eight games and has fallen from third place in the Metropolitan Division to sixth place while Washington is on a two-game winning streak after dropping four in a row. The Hurricanes beat the Capitals 3-2 in Washington on Oct. 10.
The Capitals are coming off of a 3-2 win in overtime over the New York Islanders Saturday night. The Caps have been forced to win many games after the third period this season.
"We have to get used to those type of games," captain Alex Ovechkin said per NHL.com. "They're not going to be 6-2, 6-3 or 4-2. They're going to be tight games because everybody is trying to play [defense]. The big factor is [penalty kill] and power play."
Ovechkin leads the team with 29 points off of 21 goals and eight assists and has 10 tallies and 15 points in his last 13 games, while Nicklas Backstrom has found the twine six times and added 19 assists for 25 points and Mikhail Grabovski has lit the lamp eight times and added 14 assists for 22 points.
The Hurricanes are coming off of a 3-2 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday and start a stretch where they play seven of nine games on the road.
"Playing on the road, sometimes that's even better to further emphasize the simple game, the straight up-and-down kind of game that has led to our success," defenseman Jay Harrison told the team website. "That's kind of the prime environment for us to get on a roll and turn the corner, so to speak."
Captain Eric Staal has 10 points in his last nine games and leads Carolina with six goals and 13 assists for 19 points while Andrej Sekera has found the back of the net five times and added eight helpers for 13 points and Nathan Gerbe (6-5-11), Jeff Skinner (4-7-11) and Justin Faulk (1-10-11) each have 11 points.
Cam Ward is 4-5-4 in the crease for Carolina this season with a 2.90 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage while Braden Holtby is 12-8-1 with a 2.64 GAA and a .925 save percentage for Washington.
The Hurricanes look to snap out of their recent funk while the Capitals hope to extend their winning streak to three games when these teams hit the ice at Verizon Center tonight in Washington, D.C.
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