Svechnikov Hopes to Play in Game 6

WASHINGTON - Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov sported a yellow, non-contact jersey and a full-face cage at the team's morning skate on Saturday.
He's not quite ready to rejoin the lineup, but he's got his hopes set on a Game 6 return in Raleigh.
"I feel pretty good," he said.

"He's come along really well," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said.
Svechnikov remains in the concussion protocol after being injured in a fight with Alexander Ovechkin in Game 3.
Now, about that fight. A lot was said and speculated afterward, and Svechnikov got to tell his side of the story on Saturday.

"It was back and forth all series and then we just fight," he said. "It sometimes happens in hockey."
Who asked who?
"[Ovechkin] did ask me first for a fight," Svechnikov said. "I'm not a superhero asking first for a fight."
Svechnikov agreed to drop the gloves.
"I just want to stand up for myself," he said.
Ovechkin caught Svechnikov with a right shot square in the chin, and the dazed Canes' rookie had to be helped off the ice. The two countrymen had a brief conversation after the game.
"He called me right after the game. I talked with him a little bit," Svechnikov said. "I said sometimes that happens. You never know."
Svechnikov, who scored two goals for the Hurricanes in a Game 1 loss in Washington, has been sidelined since Monday. By all accounts, though, he's feeling good, the situation perhaps looking much worse than it turned out to be, thankfully.
His on- and off-ice work has been ramping up, and though he won't play in Saturday's Game 5, a return on Monday in front of the home crowd in Game 6 isn't out of the question.