Hurricanes visit surging Capitals with first place on the line

In a crucial division rivalry, the Carolina Hurricanes travel to face the red-hot Washington Capitals on Thursday.

The Hurricanes are 4-2-0 in their last six games and sit a point behind the Capitals in the standings. A victory Thursday would move Carolina ahead of Washington for first place in both the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference.

"It's a good test for us," Washington coach Spencer Carbery said of facing the Hurricanes. "We know how good they've been, all the things they do at a really high level, how they make it difficult on you, and it should be a good test for us at home."

Washington has risen to first place during its best stretch of hockey all season. The Capitals are on an eight-game (7-0-1) point streak and are 10-1-1 in their last 12 games. They could also have John Carlson return to the lineup against Carolina. The defenseman has missed the last three games with an upper-body injury, but Carbery said he was a possibility to play Thursday.

Poor special-teams play has been the weak link for the Capitals this season, but the penalty-kill unit is starting to round into form. Washington is 14-for-15 on kills over its last four games, including a critical four-minute kill during the third period of Sunday's 2-0 shutout of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

"Sometimes you go through ebbs and flows with your special teams ... and you kind of hit a bit of a reset button," Carbery said after Sunday's game. "You start to break down and make sure that the communication is clear, the reads are clear, everybody understands very concretely where they need to be and what they need to do."

The Hurricanes are also coming off a victory over Columbus, as Carolina scored four unanswered goals in Tuesday's 4-1 win over the Jackets. Ten different Hurricanes contributed at least one point in the comeback effort.

"We got behind, but we just kept playing," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Everyone contributed tonight. ... You can go down the list; everybody made some sort of play. That's how you draw it up."

Seth Jarvis scored his team-leading 17th goal Tuesday, while Shayne Gostisbehere tallied his team-leading 19th assist. Gostisbehere has four points (all assists) during a four-game points streak.

Sebastian Aho leads the Hurricanes with 26 points (nine goals, 17 assists). Tom Wilson leads the Capitals with 32 points (17 goals, 15 assists).

A lower-body injury has sidelined Jaccob Slavin since the Hurricanes' second game of the season, but the defenseman has been taking part in limited practice and may be nearing a return.

Hurricanes forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi (lower-body injury) is questionable for Thursday after missing Tuesday's game.

Pyotr Kochetkov is expected to start on Thursday as the Hurricanes will likely rely on their first-choice goalie for such an important division game. Kochetkov has performed well when healthy but has only appeared in six games due to two separate lower-body injuries.

If Carolina wants to ride the hot hand, rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi has been a standout amid Kochetkov's injuries and Frederik Andersen's struggles. Bussi stopped 23 of 24 Blue Jackets shots Tuesday, improving to 9-1-0 with a 2.09 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage in his first 10 NHL starts.

Coming off his 39-save shutout of the Blue Jackets, Logan Thompson will likely start again in Washington's net. Thompson has been brilliant this season, posting a 13-6-2 record with a 1.96 GAA and .925 save percentage.

In the two teams' first meeting this season, the Capitals earned a 4-1 win on Nov. 11 in Raleigh, N.C.

--Field Level Media