The second game of Carolina’s homestead is a key early-season Metropolitan Division matchup.
The Carolina Hurricanes will look to stay hot on Sunday afternoon as they welcome the Washington Capitals to Raleigh for a 5:00 PM puck drop.
The Capitals overhauled their roster in the off-season, making key additions like Andrew Mangiapane and Pierre-Luc Dubois up front, Matt Roy and Jakob Chychrun on the back end, and Logan Thompson in goal.
The results have been stellar so far for Washington, as the Caps bring the Eastern Conference’s best record (8-2-0) to Raleigh.
After a slow start to last season, Alexander Ovechkin has 6 goals and 13 points in 10 games as he continues to narrow the gap between his goal total and Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record. Ovi doesn’t lead the Caps in points, though, that would be Dylan Strome, as the 2015 top-five pick is finally putting it together in the nation’s capital. He’s got 16 points and a plus-11 rating so far.
Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas are also over a point-per-game pace, and John Carlson has eight points and a plus-12 mark as he is also turning back the clock with some excellent play.
The Hurricanes, of course, have also benefitted from some outstanding early season play from top players. Martin Necas has been scorching hot with 12 points in his last 5 games played. Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, and Shayne Gostisbehere are all also either at or above a point-per-game rate.
With Frederik Andersen still sidelined, look for Pyotr Kochetkov to have the net for Carolina today. The Hurricanes will of course look to get Spencer Martin a look at some point, possibly next week in one of the home contests against Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.
Here’s how to check out tonight’s action:
- Time: 5:00 PM ET
- Location: Lenovo Center, Raleigh, NC
- TV: FanDuel Sports Network South with Mike Maniscalco, play-by-play; Tripp Tracy, color analyst; Hanna Yates, in-game reporter; Shane Willis, analyst.
- Radio: 99.9 The Fan
- Line: ML: CAR -230; PL: CAR -1.5 +114