Hurricanes And Hand Grenades – After days of anticipation, the Caps and the Carolina Hurricanes finally break the seal on their best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series tonight in the District. Despite occupying the same division for 25 of the NHL seasons from 1998-99 to now, this spring marks just the second ever playoff meeting between the Caps and the Canes.
It's been a week since Carolina ousted New Jersey from the playoffs in a five-game first-round set, and six nights [since] the Caps did the same to Montreal.
“Finally the day has arrived,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “It feels like it’s been well over a week since we last played, so it’s nice to wake up and it’s the day we get to play playoff hockey again.”
Much has been written and said about Carolina’s style of play both recently and over the years; every opponent knows exactly what to expect from Carolina and everyone knows what they’re in for going up against the Canes.
“I think they play really fast,” says Caps center Dylan Strome. “They get lots of shots, they’re good at using momentum in their rink. I think it’s going to be a challenge; we had some good games against them this year, but the playoffs is obviously a different animal. We’ll see what Tuesday brings.”
The challenge for the Caps in this series is to keep momentum from a team that essentially manufactures momentum with its style of play, and that won’t be an easy task.
“Their recipe for success is essentially to stress your team and make you play on your half [of the ice],” says Carbery of the Canes. “And what ends up happening and why I think it snowballs, and the challenge for our group during the series – and more short term, in individual games – is they gather momentum, and so they’ve stressed you and stressed you, shot a few pucks at your net, recovered them. Let’s call it 30 seconds.
“And then you get that puck out, and it’s the exact same thing. So stopping that – I’ll call it bleeding – and not letting that one shift turn into two, and then three, and then four, and then five. And you feel like you’ve been suffocated for five straight shifts, because you haven’t been able to get on their half, and they’re just constantly shooting pucks at your net.
“And that will be something I’ll look for; they’re going to have those shifts. They’re a great hockey team, and there’s a reason why they are where they are today and why they’ve had so much success in the playoffs in the last however many years. They’re a good team, and they’re going to get those shifts; you’re not going to eliminate all of them.
“But can you prevent it from getting to four or five or six shifts of momentum that stretches for 10 minutes? Can you keep it at two shifts? Can you keep it at one shift? And that’s going to be our challenge, is when they do have us on the ropes, can we limit the damage and make sure that doesn’t snowball to half a period or even a full period for that matter? And they have the ability to do that to you.”
While the Caps do need to be mindful of Carolina’s style, its pace and its aggressiveness, they can’t be so distracted with the Canes that they lose sight and lose hold of what makes them a formidable team themselves.
“I think we’re well aware of what they do and what their tendencies are, and how they like to play the game,” says Caps forward Anthony Beauvillier, whose five points (one goal, four assists) are tied for second among Caps in playoff scoring. “But I think the most important thing is what we do and what we’re going to do to have success, just understanding what we’ve done to have success, and now what we’re going to have to do to have success. I think it’s all about us.”
School’s Out – Ryan Leonard’s NHL career began just over a month ago when he signed his NHL deal on March 31 and debuted in Boston against the Bruins a night later. He has lived an eventful five weeks since then, playing the last nine regular season games and all five playoff games with Washington, all while acquitting himself well on the ice and with his teammates.
Leonard averaged 10:32 per game in ice time in the first round of the playoffs against Montreal, but he still ranked fourth among all Caps – and second only to Brandon Duhaime among Washington forwards – in hits taken in the first round, with 14. The Habs were definitely targeting him a bit in that first round, but he held up well, picking up an assist, drawing a couple of penalties, delivering seven hits of his own, and helping his line drove play in the offensive zone.
“I thought I was playing pretty good,” he says of his first-round performance. “[In Game 5] I thought I was playing the best, in the first period, getting chances and moving my feet. I’m just trying to create energy for this team and trying to get momentum going.”
Coming from Boston College where he was a Hobey Baker finalist in his sophomore season with the Eagles, Leonard never got to experience a playoff series and facing the same opponent for several consecutive games.
“It’s a lot different from college for sure,” he says. “I’ve never played a team that many times consecutively; I think the most was just three, with Boston University last year. But it’s unique and it’s cool. Obviously, both teams know exactly what the other team is going to bring, it’s just about what your game can do to elevate that and win the hockey game.”
With Montreal’s Ivan Demidov and Minnesota’s Zeev Buium out of the playoffs after the first round, Leonard is now the youngest player remaining in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs; he turned 20 in January.
Since moving to DC in early April, Leonard has been staying with Caps center P-L Dubois, who is paying it forward as so many NHL players do. When Dubois debuted as a teenager with Columbus in 2017-18, then-Jackets defenseman David Savard and his family took Dubois in.
Savard just announced his retirement after 14 seasons in the NHL; his final game was last Wednesday’s Game 5.
“He’s been awesome,” says Leonard of Dubois. “He is so smart; you hear it from everyone. His hockey brain and his hockey sense is incredible, and just how smart he is and how he approaches situations. Sometimes, we’ll be talking about stuff, and I’ll be like, ‘Wow, that never came into my head, and now that he makes that point, it’s like, wow.’ He is so smart and he has helped me a lot with continuing to play how I’ve been playing and not worrying about anything.”
Carbery and the Caps coaching staff have also helped Leonard through the early days and weeks of his NHL career and his first taste of playoff hockey.
“And Carbs has been amazing too; I’ve been doing video with him a couple times a week and just helping me get ready for the next game,” says Leonard. “Everyone has been super motivating and just helping me become the best player I can be.”
Leonard is already pretty good, too. Playing with veterans Lars Eller and Andrew Mangiapane, he has adjusted well to the higher level despite seeing his ice time cut virtually in half from his days with the Golden Eagles. The Mangiapane-Eller-Leonard trio is one of 41 forward lines that has skated at least 30 minutes together at 5-on-5 in these playoffs, and that unit ranks 16th of 41 – and second among Washington’s four forward lines which meet the criteria – with a 56.7 percent expected goals rate.
“I think he has been really good,” says Eller of Leonard. “I think he plays a really mature game. You can see the speed and the skill, but I think sometimes when young guys come up or they aren’t as experienced, they’re not making the right decision at the right times. I think he’s making a lot of good decisions all over the ice, with and without the puck. And it helps us as a line. We haven’t been rewarded yet, but we’re doing a lot of good stuff.
“It’s been great playing with those guys,” says Leonard. “Obviously, we haven’t shown up on the stat sheet as much as we wanted to, but you don’t have to score to have a big impact on the game. If we can just get the puck in the [offensive] zone and let the next line roll up and set up shop down there and just help the team benefit from that, I think we’ve done a pretty good job with what we’ve been given.”
In The Nets – Tonight’s Game 1 goaltending matchup pits the two top remaining goalies in terms of first-round goals saved above expected. New Jersey’s Jacob Markstrom led all first-round netminders at 5.7 goals saved above expected, but the Hurricanes bounced the Devils out of the first round in a five-game set.
That leaves Washington’s Logan Thompson at 5.6 and Carolina’s Frederik Andersen at 4.8 as the top two in that category as the second round gets underway. Both Thompson (in Game 3) and Andersen (in game 4) departed with mid-game injuries in the first round, and while Thompson returned the following game and started all five of Washington’s first-round games, Andersen did not return in the Jersey series, yielding to Pyotr Kochetkov for the remainder of the series.
Thompson allowed only four goals against – three at even strength – in his three home games in the first round and he was 18-4-5 here during the regular season, with a shutout, a 2.65 GAA and a .903 save pct.
Days ago, the 35-year-old Andersen signed a one-year contract extension with the Canes, a deal that carries a base salary of $2.75 million and which can rise to $3.5 million with the attainment of certain performances bonuses.
Over an eight-season span beginning in 2014-15 when he was in his sophomore NHL season with Anaheim, Andersen played in 50 or more games in six of those seasons. But in each of the last three seasons, injuries have limited Andersen to fewer than 35 appearances.
Back in 2017, the Caps went up against Andersen in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs when he was backstopping the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Caps won that series in six games, with five of the contests requiring overtime. Andersen went 2-4 with a 2.68 GAA and a .915 save pct. in those half dozen games eight springs ago.
All Lined Up – Here’s how the Capitals and the Hurricanes might look for Tuesday night’s second-round series opener between the two teams:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 72-Beauvillier
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
88-Mangiapane, 20-Eller, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 21-Protas
Defensemen
6-Chychrun, 74-Carlson
3-Roy, 38-Sandin
27-Alexeyev, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
16-Raddysh
25-Bear
52-McIlrath
53-Frank
78-Gibson
Out/Injured
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
42-Fehervary (lower body)
77-Oshie (back)
CAROLINA
Forwards
37-Svechnikov, 20-Aho, 53-Blake
71-Hall, 82-Kotkaniemi, 22-Stankoven
48-Martinook, 11-Staal, 24-Jarvis
50-Robinson, 77-Jankowski, 28-Carrier
Defensemen
74-Slavin, 8-Burns
7-Orlov, 5-Chatfield
4-Gostisbehere, 26-Walker
Goaltenders
31-Andersen
52-Kochetkov
Extras
21-Nikishin
27-Jost
41-Martin
42-Smith
54-Jaaska
56-Morrow
61-Stillman
80-Khazheyev
96-Roslovic
Out/Injured
71-Fast (upper body)
