Despite being in the same division for over two decades, the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals have only met in the postseason once.
It’s not hard to see why. Once the Capitals got Alexander Ovechkin, it took them until his third season to make the postseason. On the other hand, the Hurricanes won the cup in 2006, Ovechkin’s first postseason, then proceeded to miss the next two playoffs. They went to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009, then missed the postseason for nine consecutive seasons.
During those nine seasons, the Capitals went to the postseason all but one year, capping the 2017-18 season with a Stanley Cup victory, their first in franchise history. In the 2019 postseason, the Hurricanes and Capitals met up in the postseason for the first time in history.
Overall, it was a great series. Game 1 was won by the Capitals by a score of 4-2, followed by a 4-3 overtime winner thanks to Brooks Orpik to put the Capitals up 2-0 in the series. For Games 3 and 4, the series shifted to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Canes picked up back-to-back wins, winning 5-0 and 2-1.
The pivotal Game 5 was played in Washington, where the Capitals took it 6-0 to put the Hurricanes on the brink. With a 5-2 win in Carolina, the Hurricanes forced a do-or-die Game 7 for all the marbles.
In Game 7, the Capitals scored twice in the first period thanks to André Burakovsky and Tom Wilson. Midway through the second, Sebastian Aho cut the lead in half before Evgeny Kuznetsov made it a 3-1 Capitals lead. Teuvo Teräväinen scored before the end of the second, and Jordan Staal scored early in the third to tie the game at three.
Since the best-of-seven was introduced, there have been 196 Game 7s up to the current day. When the Capitals and Hurricanes played Game 7 on April 24th, it was the 171st Game 7 and to this point, there had only been 11 Game 7s that went into double overtime (or further). Midway through that period, Brock McGinn scored the game-winner to send the Hurricanes to the second round.
This postseason is the first time since their Stanley Cup victory that the Capitals have made it out of the first round. As for the Hurricanes, they’ve made the second round every year since, and made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019 and 2023, being swept in both seasons. They haven’t won a game in the Conference Finals since they won the Stanley Cup in 2006.
It’ll be an interesting series to watch, considering Apr. 2nd’s game saw the two teams combine for 142 penalty minutes. Hopefully, this series is just as heated as that game was.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
