Carolina Hurricanes vs. Washington Capitals: Lineups and Game Discussion

The Carolina Hurricanes return home tonight for another engagement with the Metropolitan Division leading Washington Capitals. On most days, that would be the headline. But not today, after Justin Williams notified fans everywhere via Twitter that win or lose, tonight will be the last Storm Surge of the season for the Canes in what has been a magical season thus far.

For Carolina, they will need to keep adding wins as their lead over the Columbus Blue Jackets at the playoff cut line has shrunk to three points. Warren Foegele will draw back into the lineup in place of Saku Maenalanen. In net, the Canes will turn to Curtis McElhinney, on the day where he was named the Canes’ Masterton Trophy nominee by members of the Carolina chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. See the proposed lineup below:

Nino Niederreiter - Sebastian Aho - Justin Williams
Andrei Svechnikov - Jordan Staal - Teuvo Teravainen
Micheal Ferland - Lucas Wallmark - Jordan Martinook
Warren Foegele - Greg McKegg - Brock McGinn

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce - Justin Faulk
Calvin de Haan - Trevor van Riemsdyk

Curtis McElhinney
Petr Mrazek

Scratches: Saku Maenalanen (healthy)

The Washington Capitals will be looking to extend their Metro Division lead, but will do so without the player who scored their first goal on Tuesday. T.J. Oshie is expected to miss tonight’s game due to illness, prompting Andre Burakovsky’s entry into the lineup after sitting out Tuesday’s game. The Caps carry a three point cushion for the top spot in the division and seek to extend it as the season rapidly draws to a close.

The Caps are expected to return with Braden Holtby in net again on Thursday after his 27 save victory on Tuesday. Alex Ovechkin will be on the prowl looking for another milestone, as he is one goal away from his eighth 50-goal season and will be seeking to hit that mark in Raleigh. The Caps have not released a lineup, but below is the expected setup from Todd Rierden:

Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - Tom Wilson
Carl Hagelin - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Brett Connolly
Jakub Vrana - Lars Eller - Dmitrij Jaskin
Andre Burakovsky - Nic Dowd - Travis Boyd

Christian Djoos - John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov - Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik - Nick Jensen

Braden Holtby
Pheonix Copley

Scratches: T.J. Oshie (illness), Tyler Lewington (healthy)