Caps Host Canes in Friday Metro Match

December 20 vs. Carolina Hurricanes at Capital One Arena

Time: 19:00

TV: MNMT

Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Kasketter Radio 24/7

Carolina Hurricanes (20-10-1)

Washington Capitals (21-8-2)

After losing in a row for just the second time this season, the Caps host the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night in a meeting between two of the top three teams in the Metropolitan Division standings. The clash between the Caps and the Canes kicks off a busy weekend for Washington leading up to next week’s holiday; it hosts the Kings on Sunday and visits Boston on Monday.

After dropping both halves of a back-to-back set of road contests early in the week, the Caps took Wednesday off before reconvening at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex for a Thursday practice ahead of their busy weekend.

Just over a month after suffering a broken fibula in the third period of a Nov. 18 game between the Capitals and the Utah Hockey Club in Salt Lake City, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin appears to be on the verge of a return to the lineup. Although he was again wearing a powder blue non-contact sweater, he again participated in practice with his teammates as he works his way back into form after the longest continuous absence of his 20-year NHL career.

Ovechkin was expected to miss 4-6 weeks at the time of the injury, and his timeline has now been reduced to a day-to-day basis, although he will not play in Friday’s game against Carolina.

“(Ovechkin) practiced in a limited way with the group,” Caps coach Spencer Carbery said. “He doesn’t play tomorrow and then we’ll see how the next 48 hours go and then we’ll see if there’s a potential for him to play in one of these (last two games before the break), LA or Boston .

“He comes very close.”

Ovechkin has missed 13 games now and the Caps have more than held their own without him. The Caps are now 8-4-1 in his absence; they lost the first two and the last two games without him, all four in regulation, and three of the four by the margin of a single goal.

Against the Stars on Monday, the Caps failed to build on a 1-0 lead in the first period in a 3-1 loss in Dallas. Against the Blackhawks a night later in Chicago, they failed to protect a 2-0 lead in the third in a game the Hawks deserved to win more than the Caps did. Over 30 games, they’ve shown who they are — with and without Ovechkin — and they’ve shown a lot of resilience as well as the ability to find ways to win no matter what type of game unfolds on any given night.

In what he admitted was a “long-winded” response, Carbery issued an impassioned and insightful assessment of his team after Thursday’s training session.

“Yeah, I’m sure about our group,” he began. “It’s a long season and we’ve played well and we’ve put ourselves in good spots. Losing (Monday) I thought we played a really good game in Dallas and you don’t get the result. I thought we were non-existent in Chicago; you don’t get the result.

“But to draw conclusions about who we are as a team from the Chicago game, I think would be — can I use this word? — idiotic. We just haven’t shown that over the course of the season.

“The one thing that I will say that our team is learning to do – and I thought about this (Wednesday) and individual players as well – is that I think and I’m very confident that our locker room believes we are a top team in the National Hockey League. We are capable of playing with the best teams in the league and we believe we can do something special.

“So now, for a lot of our group, this is a little bit of uncharted territory. It’s new for some guys. It’s not like we’ve been (as) the Florida Panthers or the Toronto Maple Leafs; I just use the two as one example of (teams) that have knocked on the door or are Stanley Cup champions – Toronto has knocked on. Yeah, they haven’t had (playoff success), but you know who they are, right?

“We’re kind of learning that we can be a top team in this league and we can do it consistently. So you’ve got to learn to play with that through an 82-game schedule. We’ve shown that through (31), and now we have anything, (51) more to go. You have to stay consistent with it. You will have an ebb and flow, but then you have to get out of it, you have to continue to develop yours game you need to get ready to play hard games you have to get ready to play really good opponents on the road and all this stuff that we’re trying to learn to do right now.

“This is great before the holiday break; (opposite) three really good hockey teams that are mature and have been quality teams for quite a few years now. And so – here’s the other part – is that we’ve had individual players who have had phenomenal starts to the year; career starts, you can call them. Dylan Strome, Rasmus Sandin, Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas; go down the list. (Jacob) Chychrun.

“So now they’re learning — and on the fly — ‘Okay, I’m going to do this for 82 (games).’ To be considered an elite, elite player like Dylan Strome in the National Hockey League — to be a 100-point guy, and I’m just using points as an example, I don’t care about the points — you’ve got to do it for 82. And then have he done it for (31) and now he has (51) more to go and to make it through the grind and be able to have a few off games and then bring it back up and be really (effective again ).It will be ours challenge, for our individual players and our team in general, as we move forward into the break and past the break, continue to be consistent with that, and – when you have a target on your back and you’re sitting at the top of the standings or top of the division and you’re going to get everyone’s best – we learn to play within that.

– The teams defend us much harder now, I note. At the beginning of the year, we got way more odd man rushes, breakaways, 2-on-1s. In the Dallas game, we had zero odd man rushes. So we have to find a way – Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael – to create offense in an environment against a tough team that defends well; you won’t get a 2-on-1 tonight. How are you going to create offensively and get two points tonight? It’s like our next step as a team and as players.

The Caps kick off the holiday break after this busy weekend with three games in four nights, capped off by a set of back-to-back games, and they jump back into action after the break with another set of back-to-back games. backs, and with three games in four nights. Washington returns to action with road games on back-to-back nights – Dec. 28 at Toronto and Dec. 29 at Detroit – before closing out the 2024 portion of the 2024-2025 campaign with a New Year’s Eve matinee game at home against Boston.

As they begin a four-game stretch on the road — including three of them in four nights between now and the NHL’s holiday break — the Canes hit town on the heels of a successful four-game homestand, winning three of four (3- 1-0). Most recently, Carolina whitewashed the New York Islanders 4-0 on Tuesday night in the home finale.

After Friday’s game in the District, the Canes face the Rangers in New York on Sunday afternoon and the Predators in Nashville on Monday night, Carolina will come out of the holiday break with a home-and-home set of back-to-backs against New Jersey, starting Dec. 27 in Newark .