The Carolina Hurricanes have found a groove no matter what the circumstances during the past week.
They’ll take a five-game winning streak into Tuesday night’s game against the Washington Capitals in Raleigh, N.C.
“We just wanted to find our game,” Carolina winger William Carrier said. “It took a little bit of time, a couple of games, but I think we finally got it. We roll four lines, and everyone plays hard. It’s a long season, so there are a lot of games coming up, and we need four lines to play.”
It will be the second visit of the season for the Capitals, who won 5-2 in their season opener in Raleigh.
Since then, the Hurricanes have outscored their opponents by a combined 25-11.
“It’s not complicating it,” Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said. “We got a lot of pucks to the net. Everyone knows that. We shoot in quantities, and it breaks down defenses in the sense that it gets scrambly after there’s a rebound and whatnot. We have some skill, too, to make some really good plays.”
Washington is coming off a 5-3 home loss to the Seattle Kraken on Sunday.
“We’re just making too many mistakes — a lot of mistakes — with the puck, poor decisions,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “We’ve just got to get to work on being a smarter team.”
The only defeat for Carolina (5-1-1) came to the Capitals, so this is a chance to make amends for an outcome against a Metropolitan Division rival.
“In this league, to be successful you need to be consistent with the way you play and I think we’ve done that for the most part,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve had a lot of hockey here in a short amount of time, and we have a couple of guys out that are big parts. Other guys are just stepping up.”
Sunday night’s 4-1 victory at Philadelphia came with Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal sitting out with a lower-body injury.
“It kind of came up the last minute,” Brind’Amour said. “Hopefully, it’s nothing serious and won’t keep him out too long.”
This will be the final regular-season visit to Raleigh for Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin, who since the stop on Oct. 2 has announced that this will be his final season in the NHL.
Ovechkin scored his first goal of the season Sunday. After not playing in any preseason games as he battled an ailment, it has taken time for the 41-year-old to feel more comfortable on the ice.
“You’re going to find your touches and you’re going to find your game rhythm, and I think the last two games we have a nice chance to score, and we did,” Ovechkin said.
Goalie Logan Thompson has played in four of the Capitals’ first five games. He suffered his first defeat Sunday. He stopped 31 of 33 shots against the Hurricanes earlier this month.
Carolina forward Mark Jankowski has four goals for the best seven-game start of his career. He has scored in four consecutive games.
It’s likely to be Brandon Bussi’s turn in goal for the Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
