Caps Clash with Canes
Ahead of their outdoor meeting in Raleigh this Saturday night, Caps and Canes tangle in District on Tuesday
It's been quite a while since the Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes have gotten together. The two Metropolitan Division rivals last met on Halloween night in Raleigh, but the Caps and the Canes will be renewing acquaintance on two occasions this week. The Caps host Carolina at Capital One Arena on Valentine's Day, and the two teams will tangle again on Saturday night under the stars and the lights in Raleigh at the 2023 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series game. Saturday's outdoor game takes place at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.
Tuesday's tilt against Carolina continues a home-heavy stretch for the Caps, as Saturday's Stadium Series game is one of only two remaining road games for Washington this month. The Caps also visit Buffalo on Feb. 26. That home-heavy stretch started on Sunday with a 4-1 setback at the hands of the San Jose Sharks in the back half of a set of weekend back-to-back games; the Caps nipped the Bruins in Boston by a 2-1 count on Saturday afternoon.
Washington occupies the first of two Eastern Conferenced wild card playoff spots coming into Tuesday's game, but objects in the Caps' rear-view mirror drew closer to them during the team's 10-day layoff for the NHL All-Star weekend and Washington's bye week at the beginning of the month. Pittsburgh sits a point behind the Caps in the second wild card spot, and the ninth-place New York Islanders are a point behind the Penguins, with Florida and Buffalo both just beneath the Islanders. Florida is in action on Monday night in Minnesota while the rest of the teams on Eastern Conference playoff bubble are idle.
Including Tuesday's game, the Caps have just eight games remaining between now and the March 3 trade deadline, and it's been tough to get a good read on the team over the last several weeks because of the ongoing revolving door of personnel. The Caps have accrued 320 man-games lost to injury thus far this season, the second highest total in the League. Now in his third season behind the Washington bench, Caps coach Peter Laviolette has not had a full complement of players available to him since late in the 2020-21 season, a stretch of more than 137 regular season games.
The Caps took Monday off following their busy weekend of two games in less than 24 hours, so there is no recent update on the status of injured forwards Nic Dowd and Tom Wilson, both of whom have been sidelined with lower body injuries, Dowd since Jan. 16 and Wilson since Jan. 24. Both skated on their own late last week, and hopefully Tuesday's morning skate will bring updated news on their respective recoveries. Winger Anthony Mantha missed Sunday's game against San Jose because of illness, and he will hopefully be back on the ice on Tuesday morning.
Defenseman John Carlson has been out with an upper body injury since Dec. 23, and he is still awaiting his next medical evaluation later this month. Even if that evaluation goes swimmingly, there is no chance of Carlson returning ahead of the trade deadline, and it's difficult to envision a return before the conclusion of the regular season on April 13.
Following an uneven start to the season, the Caps caught fire in December, and an 11-2-2 record in the final month of 2022 put them in a good spot in the standings. But the loss of Carlson and some other injury woes along the way have had them sputtering since; they're 7-8-1 since the flip of the calendar Until Saturday's win over the Bruins, the Caps had not been able to string together consecutive victories since late December, and they were unable to roll those two wins into a third straight win on Sunday vs. San Jose, falling to 1-5-1 in the second half of back-to-back games this season.
The Caps have scored two or fewer goals in nine of their last 14 games, and they've only won three of their last nine (3-4-2) home games, scoring two or fewer goals in each of their last six games at Capital One Arena.
"I think in general," begins Caps winger Conor Sheary, "we need to get more action at the net, more people to the net, more pucks to the net, and create second-chance opportunities. Coming off an emotional win [Saturday in Boston], we still only scored two goals, but we played hard defensively and didn't give up a whole lot.
"[Sunday against San Jose], we seemed to be forcing east-west a little bit too much, and creating turnovers that led to them getting in our zone. So obviously limiting turnovers [will be beneficial], but I think just more at the net will help us."
Carolina sits atop the Metropolitan Division standings with 76 points, and only Boston (83) is above the Hurricanes in the standings among the League's entire Original 32. But in their own first game back from All-Star/bye week, the Canes laid an egg on home ice on Saturday against the New York Rangers, falling 6-2 to the Blueshirts. The Canes led 2-1 midway through that game, but yielded the last five goals unanswered, four of them in the third period and four of them off the stick of New York's Artemi Panarin.
But heading into that 10-day break, the Hurricanes recorded seven straight victories and won nine of 10.
When the two teams tangled in Raleigh on Halloween night, a shorthanded Caps team pushed the Canes to overtime and then a shootout, where Carolina claimed a 3-2 victory. Saturday's game in Raleigh is the finale of the season's series between the two teams; Carolina and Pittsburgh are the two Metro Division teams that the Caps face only three times this season.
