Recap: Canes Stumble Against Caps

RALEIGH, N.C. - The Carolina Hurricanes came out of the gate slow and could not recover on Friday, falling to the Washington Capitals by a score of 5-2.

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Opening a weekend back-to-back set against Metropolitan Division foes, the Canes had hoped that the positives from their nail-biting, neck-and-neck affair against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday would snowball into a better result this evening. Instead, a trio of goals in the first 15 minutes by Washington, including two from Alex Tuch, quickly put them behind the eight ball.

Falling behind by four during the middle stanza, a Sebastian Aho power-play goal temporarily stopped the bleeding for Carolina, but the first strike of the season for Rod Brind'Amour's squad was countered on the very next shift.

Logan Stankoven redirected a K'Andre Miller point shot to close the deficit in the third period, but that was as close as the hosts would get to a comeback bid.

Brandon Bussi suffered his first regulation loss of the season in net for the Canes, allowing five goals on 27 shots.

Stats & Standouts

• Setting up Sebastian Aho's second-period strike, Andrei Svechnikov recorded his 253rd career assist and tied Andrew Cassels (97-253—350 in 438 GP) for eighth place on the franchise’s all-time list.
• That same goal was Aho's 712th career point, moving him past Mikko Koivu to rank seventh in points among Finnish players in NHL history.
• Carolina continued its record sellout streak, welcoming a full house (18,905) to Lenovo Center for the 170th consecutive regular season or postseason game.

They Said It...

Rod Brind'Amour on takeaways from Friday's loss...

"There's not a lot of positives [to take] out of that game. The start was not good. You get behind the eight ball with kind of a freebie, and you can't give good teams three goals. I thought we gave two of those up tonight. You can't do that."

Jordan Staal offering his assessment of the battle...

"We got outplayed and outmatched in our home building. We've got to step up, to a man. From myself all the way down, we've just got to be a little better."

Logan Stankoven on where the team's game is right now...

"We know this is far from our best, and it is still early, so we're going to have to keep on building here. It's not going to start with one guy; I think everyone has to start pulling in the same direction. We just seem a little lethargic these past couple of games. And I think we can try and clean a couple of things up and just get back to the way we play."

Sean Walker on turning the page quickly to tomorrow's contest in Philadelphia...

"That's part of it being in the NHL with back-to-backs. So just got to forget about it and get back to our game. We'll watch some videos, some little details that we can do better. We're going to have a hungry team tomorrow, and we're going to have to come with our best."

What's Next?

The Canes will fly to Philadelphia post-game. They'll take on the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday to complete the back-to-back set.

Next Game: Saturday, October 3 at Philadelphia | 7:00 p.m. ET | Hurricanes Hockey Network | How To Watch

Next Home Game: Thursday, Oct. 8 vs. Vancouver | 7:00 p.m. ET | Hurricanes Hockey Network | How To Watch