Sunday Best – A night after finishing a three-game homestand sweep and extending their home winning streak to six straight, the Caps take a quick trip south to face the Carolina Hurricanes for the first time this season late Sunday afternoon. In closing out the homestand with a 7-2 victory over Columbus on Saturday, the Caps pounced on a Blue Jackets team that played at home 22 hours earlier and traveled to DC after.
Tonight in Carolina, the shoe is on the other foot for the Caps; they’re playing for the second time in as many nights while the Hurricanes are well rested; they’ve been idle since Thursday’s 8-2 stomping of the Boston Bruins here in Raleigh. The Caps do have the benefit of three more hours of rest and recovery than the Jackets had on Saturday.
“We know this team very well,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery of the Hurricanes. “And we actually played them on two back-to-backs last year, if you remember. So it gives the guys who were here last year a strong remembrance of what went on in those games, and especially the start in this building, with the fan base and how they play, and everything that goes into that.
“So the first 10 minutes will be really important, especially coming off the back-to-back and them being rested. And then we’ve just got to work our way through their pressure; we know how they play, and we know the aggressiveness of their structure all over the ice. We have to work our way through that and handle it, and if we can, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win a hockey game.”
Both Washington and Carolina have been strong first period teams to this juncture of the season; the Caps have outscored foes by a combined 16-6 in the first frame while Carolina owns an 11-4 edge in first-period scoring.
Aside from the typical goaltender rotation, Washington is making one lineup change tonight. Sonny Milano gets back into the lineup for the first time since opening night (Oct. 12), stepping in for Jakub Vrana. The Caps have won eight of nine games since dropping the opener, and Milano – who has three career goals on five shots in two games against Canes’ goalie Pyotr Kochetkov – has been a healthy extra in each of those nine games.
Milano has six goals in a dozen career games against the Canes – his highest career total against any single opponent – and he netted a career-high 15 goals in just 49 games for Washington last season.
“Sonny sat for a while here, so the thought process behind that is that we’ve got to keep him involved and give him an opportunity to play a game here,” says Carbery. “We’ve been on a pretty good run so we’ve kept [Vrana] in the lineup – and deservedly so; he has played strong – but [playing] last night and the back-to-back, we thought it was a good opportunity to get Sonny in the lineup.”
Under Pressure – Carolina is typically at or near the top of the NHL in efficiency on both special teams, and the early going of 2024-25 is no exception. Like virtually every NHL team, the Canes have undergone some offseason changes in personnel, but they’ve kept it clicking on both the power play (they rank fifth in the League at 29 percent) and the penalty kill (seventh, 85.7%).
“I feel like their power play has taken a step this year with [defenseman Shayne] Gostisbehere coming here,” says Carbery. “And now when I watch, he's a very undercover, very good power play quarterback, one of the [best] in the league. He goes a little bit under the radar, because he's played in some different spots, but I think he's given their first unit power play a huge boost. And so that's why you see them hovering around top five. I think that's an added weapon that has sort of jolted their power play, so that we're going to need to be aware of.”
Gostisbehere has four goals and nine points in nine games this season, with three of the goals and five of the points coming on the power play. Martin Necas (two goals, six assists) is Carolina’s leading scorer with the extra man.
“And then their penalty kill – as we all know – is right at the top of the league every single year, based on their pressure, the length of their [defensemen], and the things that they do to deny entries; you just have to be ready for their pressure,” Carbery adds.
“That is the key to playing against the Carolina Hurricanes. They're going to come at you, wave after wave after wave, whether it's on the penalty kill, or at 5-on-5. And you have to be ready for that. And if you are, you can find your way through that pressure. And if you're not ready for it – if it catches you off guard – you're in for a long night.”
Two Can Play – Both Connor McMichael (first round, 25th overall) and Aliaksei Protas (third round, 91st overall) came to the Capitals’ organization via the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver. Both have displayed good hockey sense and excellent coachability since then, and both have absolutely blossomed in the first 10 games of the 2024-25 campaign.
McMichael leads the team with seven goals, and he is third on the club in scoring with a dozen points. Protas has four goals – he had a beautiful shorthanded goal overturned because video review showed he was offside on the play – and his 11 points ranks fourth among Capitals.
It’s a small sample size, to be sure, but given the way both are approaching the game in the offensive zone these days, the size of the sample may not be worrisome. Following a preseason game in Boston almost six weeks ago, Carbery was asked what McMichael (18 goals last season) and Protas (six) needed to do to finish more of the bevy of scoring chances they’ve been able to create.
“That’s going to be the challenge for them,” said Carbery after that Sept. 24 game in Beantown. “They both look much better – just even a year older, and summer training – and they both are really serious about their craft. They want to get better, they want to produce more and be more impactful players – not only in the League, but on our team – and help our team win games.
“Even seeing them through [training] camp, they’ve been two of our better players that have stood out. I liked their games last year, and it looks like they’re ready to take another step this year.”
Both McMichael and Protas scored in all three games on Washington’s just completed homestand. McMichael has picked up at least a point in eight of the Caps’ 10 games this season; Protas has done so in seven of 10. The Caps were blanked in Tampa Bay a week ago last night, so they have a game in which no one collected points.
Now that they’ve broken through, what’s Carbery seeing that led to the offensive transformation for both players?
“Honestly, if you do the spot chart on where they’re scoring from, that’s the key,” says the Caps’ bench boss. “They are constantly attacking the net and around the net. So, instead of having to rely on beating an NHL goalie from the slot or off the rush with a shot – which is extremely difficult to do – they’re scoring in and around the net, and they’re constantly attacking the net. They’re not settling for a wrist shot from the circle; they’re getting a lot of high danger chances.
“And that’s where you can really go from 10 goals to 22, or from 20 goals to 31. When you’re scoring from some perimeter spots, on a 2-on-1 – like [Dylan Strome] does a really good job of that. He’ll beat a goalie on a 2-on-1; he’ll just shoot it past him – he’s an elite scorer. But then, if you can add 10 or 12 goals that come from in or around the net – a tip, back door tap-in – and that’s what I feel like those guys are doing a way better job of, attacking the net, and getting around that scoring area.”
In The Nets – Charlie Lindgren is back between the pipes tonight for the Capitals making his sixth start of the season as Washington continues its pattern of alternating starting goaltenders each game. On Thursday night at Capital One Arena, Lindgren improved to 3-2-0 on the season with a 6-3 victory over Montreal.
Lifetime against the Hurricanes, Lindgren is 3-1-0 in four appearances – three starts – with a 2.64 GAA and a .912 save pct.
For Carolina, Kochetkov gets the net on Sunday. In the early games of the season, Carolina alternated veteran Freddie Andersen and Kochetkov in the net, but Andersen suffered a lower body injury while going the distance in an Oct. 26 win over the Kraken in Seattle. Sunday’s game against the Caps marks Kochetkov third consecutive start.
On the season, Kochetkov is 4-1-0 in his five starts, with a 2.61 GAA and an .891 save pct. Lifetime against Washington, he is 2-0-2 in four appearances – all starts – with a 2.65 GAA and an .861 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Capitals and Hurricanes to look when they take the ice in Raleigh on Sunday:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 16-Raddysh
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
38-Sandin, 52-McIlrath
Goaltenders
79-Lindgren
48-Thompson
Extras
2-Iorio
13-Vrana
23-Sgarbossa
Out/Injured
3-Roy (lower body)
6-Chychrun (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
CAROLINA
Forwards
37-Svechnikov, 20-Aho, 96-Roslovic
50-Robinson, 82-Kotkaniemi, 88-Necas
48-Martinook, 11-Staal, 24-Jarvis
28-Carrier, 18-Drury, 53-Blake
Defensemen
74-Slavin, 8-Burns
4-Gostisbehere, 26-Walker
7-Orlov, 5-Chatfield
Goaltenders
52-Kochetkov
41-Martin
Extras
None
Out/Injured
31-Andersen (lower body)
61-Stillman (lower body)
71-Fast (upper body)
