RALEIGH — The Hurricanes enter Friday’s game in Washington on a four-game winning streak and in sole possession of second place in the Metropolitan Division.
While Carolina is 6-1-3 in their last 10, scoring 38 goals and allowing just 25, Washington is 4-4-2 (with just one regulation win) and has just 20 goals and given up 28.
1. It was announced Thursday that center Sebastian Aho will be Carolina’s representative at the All-Star Game from Feb. 1-3 in Toronto. It’s Aho’s third time being named to the All-Star Game, and he won the Accuracy Shooting completion in 2022.
Sebastian Aho's flawless four-for-four performance wins him the 2022 Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting competition!
All it took was a dazzling 10.937 seconds. 🥇 pic.twitter.com/DM1wvnuvvI
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) February 5, 2022
Aho’s been the NHL’s hottest player, earning NHL’s First Star for the week ending Dec. 31, and he’s on a five-game point streak during which he has three goals and 10 assists.
“Some of it is puck luck,” Aho said Monday. “That’s how the game works: It goes 100 mph, and I’ve been fortunate to have hot players around me.”
The Hurricanes are already pushing Seth Jarvis — second on the team with 27 points — to be their second All-Star in a fan vote that will add 12 more players to the 32 (one for each team) that have already been named.
Y’all know the drill.
RT RT RT#NHLAllStarVote Seth Jarvis pic.twitter.com/p6TyqGsh9Y
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 5, 2024
This year’s format will divert from recent All-Star Weekends. Rosters for the 3-on-3 tournament on Thursday, Feb. 3 will no longer be determined by divisions, with 11-player teams drafted to compete in a single-elimination tournament.
The Skills Competition, which will be on Friday, Feb. 2, also gets an upgrade, with 12 All-Stars competing in a three-round competition comprised of eight events. The NHL has not yet released how the 12 players will be selected.
2. With the exception of Frederik Andersen, the Hurricanes recently returned to full health. It didn’t last long.
Jesper Fast was knocked out of last Saturday’s game in Toronto due to a high hit from Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor, and the Carolina right wing missed Tuesday’s road win over the Rangers and didn’t travel for the Capitals game.
Also in question are fellow wingers Stefan Noesen and Martin Necas.
Noesen did not practice Thursday because he wasn’t feeling well, according to Brind’Amour. The coach was hopeful Noesen will be well enough to play Friday.
Necas left practice early following a collision in the corner during a drill. After being looked over on the ice by the team’s training staff, Necas went to the bench and then walked to the locker room. He was seen with his right shoulder iced.
Brind’Amour said Necas “was feeling better in (the locker room). So that one, we’ll see how that goes. Hopeful on that.”
With just 13 forwards on the roster and Fast already out, the Hurricanes could be short if either Noesen or Necas cannot play against the Capitals. Carolina could go 11-7, reinserting defenseman Tony DeAngelo into the lineup for the first time since Dec. 17, if the team is down a second forward. The Hurricanes could also recall a forward, with the likely candidate being center Vasily Ponomarev.
Ponomarev has 20 points in 20 games since joining the Wolves after two games with AHL Tucson. He was expected to compete with Jack Drury to be the team’s fourth line center in training camp but suffered an injury. He’s yet to make his NHL debut.
3. Speaking of injuries, the Hurricanes will play against former teammate Max Pacioretty on Friday. Pacioretty was traded to Carolina before last season but suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the summer. He returned only to suffer the same injury after playing five games.
Pacioretty signed with the Capitals in the offseason and made his season debut Wednesday, finishing with no shots on goal, a penalty and a minus-1 in 11:47 of ice time. The veteran winger was kept off the scoresheet in his first game with Carolina — coincidentally, that was one year ago Friday — but had two goals in his second.
In all, Pacioretty had three goals in 68:15 of ice time over five games with the Hurricanes. He has insinuated the recovery from his surgery was rushed, which led to him having the second procedure done by a surgeon in Finland.
“Obviously, I had to do something different than the first time,” Pacioretty told The Associated Press. “We’re handling this entirely differently from the surgery to the rehab to the treatment to the progressions. … It’s just an entirely different program.”
If Pacioretty can return to form — he’s a six-time 30-goal scorer but hasn’t hit that total since 2019-20 — he could help the Capitals’ 30th-ranked offense. He probably wouldn’t mind sticking it to his former team as well.
4. Brind’Amour wouldn’t say which of Pyotr Kochetkov or Antti Raanta would start Friday in Washington, though logic says Kochetkov will get the nod.
First off, a game against a divisional opponent has more value than one against St. Louis, who will play in Raleigh on Saturday. Furthermore, Kochetkov is 16-8-5 with a .915 save percentage, 2.33 goals-against average and four shutouts in 29 career road games, including stopping 20 of 21 shots in a 2-1 shootout loss in Washington on Dec. 17.
If Kochetkov plays against the Capitals, Raanta will get the nod against the Blues.
“We’ve talked a lot about it,” Brind’Amour said of Raanta’s struggles. “He’s a great guy in the locker room and everyone loves him. When he’s on he’s a great goalie, and he’s looked good since he’s come back. So hopefully all that stuff that happened the start of the year is behind him and we get the Rants that we know, that (plays) the way he can play.”
I spoke briefly to Raanta on Friday and the smile that is usually on the goaltender’s face has returned. Playing again at home is also probably the best choice for Raanta — he’s still 5-1-1 at PNC Arena this season despite an .845 save percentage. His regular season record at home with the Hurricanes is still an otherworldly 26-5-3.
5. Alex Ovechkin has 47 regular season goals in 87 career games against the Hurricanes, tied for the most he has against any team (Flyers, 72 games).
He’s scored in five of his last seven games against Carolina, though he was kept off the scoresheet in the teams’ only meeting this season.
But the NHL’s second-leading goal scorer of all time — he’s 64 goals away from Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 — is on pace for just 18 goals, having scored just eight goals this season. Ovechkin had a career-long 14-game goal drought end Dec. 21 and has four points — including two goals — in his last four games, but he’s scored just twice with one assist at 5-on-5 this season, raising questions about whether he has enough gas in the tank to chase down Gretzky.
The 38-year-old has been on the ice for 31 goals against at 5-on-5, tied for the seventh most in the league among forwards (Necas is No. 1 with 35), and the 34.04% goals-for percentage when he’s on the ice is worst in the league.
Ovechkin is, simply put, a liability. But he’s still dangerous, especially on the power play. If Carolina can keep the game at 5-on-5, Ovechkin should be a nonfactor — or even a net positive for the Hurricanes.
