Capitals at Hurricanes preview

CAPITALS (27-7-5) at HURRICANES (22-14-2)
7 p.m. ET: ESPN+, FS-CR, NBCSWA, NHL.TV

The Hurricanes, who lost four straight games from Nov. 2-9, have lost three straight after going 6-0-1 in their previous seven games. They lost 5-3 at the New York Rangers on Friday and open a season-long seven-game homestand.
Washington defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 2-1 in overtime on Friday and is 5-2-0 in its past seven games and 11-3-0 in its past 14.
The Capitals are a league-best 16-4-1 on the road this season.

Players to watch

Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past four games.
Hurricanes forward Lucas Wallmark has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak.

They said it

"We haven't seen them in a while. We know how they play. They always play hard against us. They're very hard to play against. They're a lot like (Columbus) where they've got a lot of guys that buzz and they forecheck hard. They can skate well and when you make turnovers, they can make plays." -- Capitals forward T.J. Oshie on the Hurricanes
"That's the great thing about hockey. You get to come right back the next night against the best team in the League. Hopefully we're going to be able to step up to the plate." -- Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin -- Lars Eller -- Richard Panik
Brendan Leipsic -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway
Jonas Siegenthaler -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Nick Jensen
Christian Djoos -- Radko Gudas
Braden Holtby
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched:Travis Boyd
Injured: Michal Kempny (illness)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Warren Foegele
Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Ryan Dzingel -- Erik Haula -- Martin Necas
Brock McGinn -- Lucas Wallmark -- Jordan Martinook
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Joel Edmundson -- Brett Pesce
Jake Gardiner -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Petr Mrazek
James Reimer
Scratched:Haydn Fleury
Injured:None

Status report

Neither team held a morning skate. …. Kempny could return after not playing against the Blue Jackets.

Stat pack

Aho has 13 points (nine goals, four assists) in his past nine games. ... Teravainen has seven assists in a six-game point streak. … The Capitals are 5-0-1 in the second half of back-to-backs. ... Ovechkin needs one power-play goal to pass Teemu Selanne (255) for sole possession of third place on the NHL all-time list.