Hurricanes are up first on three-game swing
The Capitals begin their first extended road trip of the season on Wednesday, a stretch of three games in four nights that will take them from Carolina to Minnesota to Calgary.
Washington leaves town with a 5-3 record and is in second place in the Southeast Division with 10 points. Injuries remain an issue — defenseman Tom Poti did not fly with the team to Raleigh on Tuesday — but no one is willing to use that as an excuse. Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said forwards Boyd Gordon (undisclosed) and Marcus Johansson (hip) will travel with the team. Forward Matt Bradley (lower-body injury) practiced for the second day in a row on Tuesday and is set to start on the fourth line. He has been on injured reserve and has not played in a game since Oct. 11.
For the third time this season the Caps face an opponent in its home opener. They lost the first two in Atlanta and Boston. If it seems late for the Hurricanes to be at RBC Center for the first time it’s because they began the season with two games in Helsinki, Finland. After six days off, Carolina played a game at Ottawa and then got its annual West Coast road trip out of the way with games in Vancouver, San Jose, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Yet one of the league’s youngest teams ran that gauntlet — all four of those opponents made the playoffs in 2009-10 — with a 4-3 record.
“We’ve played some pretty good hockey here in the last little bit, played some tough teams, played some playoff teams,” said Carolina center Eric Staal, who leads the Hurricanes with three goals and three assists. “We’re above .500 and we’re in the mix. That’s a good thing.”
RBC Center has never been an easy place for Washington to play. The two teams split six meetings last season and each took eight points from the season series thanks to four games going to overtime or a shootout. The rest of the Southeast Division — Atlanta, Florida and Tampa Bay — managed just five points combined against Washington.
“Carolina had a week off and played in Ottawa, then they got their California trip out of the way and played really good,” Boudreau said. “They’re a good team. They give us fits. So I couldn’t care if they went to China for a month.”
