Hurricanes at Capitals preview

HURRICANES (42-26-7) at CAPITALS (44-24-8)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NBCSWA, NHL.TV

The defending Cup champions will secure a playoff berth if they defeat the Hurricanes in any fashion and the Montreal Canadiens (against the Florida Panthers) and Columbus Blue Jackets (against the New York Islanders) each lose in regulation on Tuesday.
The Capitals, 10-3-1 in their past 14 games, can maintain their Metropolitan Division lead; they are one point ahead of the Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins. Washington has a game in hand on Pittsburgh.
The Hurricanes, 11-3-1 in their past 15 games, trail the Islanders and Penguins by four points for second place in the Metropolitan and hold the first wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of the Canadiens.

Players to watch

Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek is 8-1-0 with a 1.65 goals-against average, .945 save percentage and two shutouts in his past nine starts.
Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, who leads the NHL with 48 goals but has two in his past nine games, is two shy of becoming the third player in NHL history with at least eight 50-goal seasons, behind Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy (nine each).

They said it

"We can't get ahead of ourselves. We know how quick things change and we also know how quick things can go in the positive [direction], too if you take care of business and that's what we're trying to do." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
"The last couple of years they've focused on trying to play a faster speed game and I think they've just taken it to a new level this year with their ability to execute and a year of maturity for some of their young players." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden on the Hurricanes

Hurricanes projected lineup

Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Justin Williams
Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Teuvo Teravainen
Micheal Ferland -- Lucas Wallmark -- Jordan Martinook
Brock McGinn -- Greg McKegg -- Saku Maenalanen
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce -- Justin Faulk
Calvin de Haan -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Warren Foegele
Injured: None

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Carl Hagelin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana -- Lars Eller -- Brett Connolly
Andre Burakovsky -- Nic Dowd -- Travis Boyd
Christian Djoos -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik -- Nick Jensen
Braden Holtby
Pheonix Copley
Scratched: Dmitrij Jaskin, Chandler Stephenson, Jonas Siegenthaler
Injured: Michal Kempny (lower body)

Status report

The Capitals recalled Siegenthaler, a defenseman, from Hershey of the American Hockey League on Monday and reassigned defenseman Tyler Lewington to Hershey.

Stat pack

Staal has five points (two goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak. … Ovechkin remains one goal from tying Brendan Shanahan (656) for 13th in NHL history, and one power-play goal from passing Phil Esposito (246) and tying Luc Robitaille (247) for fourth place all-time. … Ovechkin (33 years, 190 days) can become third-oldest player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season, behind Johnny Bucyk (35 years, 308 days) with the Boston Bruins in 1970-71 and Jaromir Jagr (34 years, 37 days) with the New York Rangers in 2005-06.