A team that gave the Washington Capitals headaches last spring and a part of this season until the team finally defeated them earlier this month, the Carolina Hurricanes come to Capital One Arena for the first time since Washington’s home opener where they escaped with an overtime win.
On Jan. 3 at PNC Arena, the Capitals came away with a 4-3 win. Richard Panik, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Lars Eller, and Jakub Vrana provided the scoring for the Capitals while Ilya Samsonov made 38 saves on 41 shots for a .927 save percentage.
Since that game, the Capitals rallied to defeat the San Jose Sharks then crushed the Ottawa Senators before suffering a two-game losing streak that began last Wednesday in Philadelphia against the Flyers and continued Saturday night in a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.