Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Carolina Hurricanes (1-1-1) and the Washington Capitals (1-2-0) take the ice for their first meeting as Metropolitan Division rivals live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The game can be live streamed here. Carolina fans can hear all the bone-crunching action on the radio at 99.9 FM The Fan while Capitals fans can do the same on WJFK-FM 106.7
These two teams are used to being rivals from the Southeast Division, but with that division dissolving, they will pick up their rivalry tonight in the newly realigned Metropolitan Division. Each team is coming off of a loss in their last game and has had a power outage in scoring, as the Hurricanes have just two goals in their last three games while the Capitals have struggled to score without the man-advantage.
Carolina has several blanks for their big guns on the score sheet through three games this season. Eric Staal's linemates of Jiri Tlusty and former Caps player Alexander Semin have combined for zero points on the top line while Staal has just one goal thus far after all three combined for 54 goals for Carolina last year.
It gets worse for the Hurricanes as Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner--who are relied on for secondary scoring--have no goals thus far this season, though Skinner has three helpers. Staal (10) and Skinner (13) combined for 23 goals for Carolina last season.
The Capitals power play, which impressed last season, picked up right where it left off as the team has scored six power play goals through three games this season. Alexander Ovechkin has led the charge with a league-leading three extra-strength tallies thus far. Ovechkin is coming off of a shortened 2013 campaign that saw him win the Hart Trophy after leading the league with 32 goals while also picking up 24 assists for 56 points.
While the Caps have flourished on the power play, they've crashed and burned at full strength as the team has only netted three goals during five-on-five play.
Ovechkin and Mikhail Grabovski have paced the Capitals by combining for 11 points through three games with Ovechkin notching four goals and two assists for six points while Grabovski has put in three pucks and added two helpers for five points. Meanwhile, Radek Dvorak and Nathan Gerbe have paved the way for the Hurricanes with two goals each.
Washington has had some problems in net as Braden Holtby has allowed 10 goals through three games while stopping just 56 of 66 shots. Cam Ward has stood in the crease for two of the Hurricanes' first three games and has allowed eight goals while stopping 67 of 75 shots.
The Hurricanes and Capitals will both look to find their scoring touch when the lights come on over Verizon Center tonight.
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