If you’ve been around these parts for a while, you probably do not need to read the next few paragraphs, but each time it’s worth giving a short refresher course.
A few years ago, the Hurricanes had a marketing campaign based around the slogan “Experience Canes Hockey”. It was a cousin of the original “You’ll Know When You Go” campaign as the team first moved, trying to encourage fans to give the Hurricanes a shot. Yes, they hadn’t made the playoffs in a few years, but prosperity was just around the corner with newly promoted GM Ron Francis and, in season 2 of the campaign, new coach Bill Peters, and you have to be really sure. come in on the ground floor to be there when the time is right.
Hey, look:
And what happened then? More of the same is what has happened, over and over again for the next five seasons. Experienced Canes hockey became a punchline rather than a tagline, and since then it has become an ironic way of referring to players like the two earlier this week, where the team does a lot of things right, but every mistake they make ends up in the back of their own net, and they cannot get out of their own way.
Canes hockey is experienced
– Andrew Schnittker (@ aschnitt53) March 18, 2022
So, yes, I hope all the experience of Canes Hockey is behind us and we can enjoy a game tonight.
Who will be in the lineup is still an open question, and one we did not answer until much closer to playing time. Jordan Martinook is almost certainly out after suffering what appeared to be a lower body injury last night, so the logical conclusion is that the hurricane would just put Seth Jarvis back in line-up and move on.
Anyway, it seems likely that Tony DeAngelo will be back this evening, which is a bit complicated. Brendan Smith was strong last night in his return from injury, and Ethan Bear has shot in two of his last four games, including last night, so your two obvious candidates for TDA have done nothing really to get a seat earn in the press box. Maybe Ian Cole will get one night off?
So the hurricanes are going 11/7 tonight? (Would not mind, but who knows?) With a back to back, we do not know until much closer to playing time. Here’s our best, with Smith being the most likely candidate to take a seat, I suppose, based on how last night’s game ended:
Andrei Svechnikov – Vincent Trocheck – Teuvo Teravainen
Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Sebastian Aho – Martin Necas
Nino Niederreiter – Jordan Staal – Jesper Fast
Steven Lorentz – Derek Stepan – Seth Jarvis
Jacob Slavin – Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei – Brett Pesce
Ian Cole – Ethan Bear
Antti Raanta
Frederik Andersen
Injuries and scratches: Jordan Martinook (lower body), Brendan Smith (healthy)
Like the Hurricanes, the Capitals come into tonight’s game after playing last night. Unlike the hurricanes, the Capitals actually took care of the business, beating the Blue Jackets 7-2 in the district.
But the win came at a cost, which is an injury to TJ Oshie in the third period, which probably seems to keep him out tonight. Needless to say, that would be a big loss for the streaking Capitals, who are on a 6-0-1 heater, starting two weeks ago with a win over Carolina in this whole building. The Caps are 18-5-5 this season with Oshie in the lineup, but they are only 16-13-5 without him.
Vitek Vanecek, who shut down the Hurricanes on March 3, played last night, so it seems likely that Ilya Samsonov will get the call for Peter Laviolette’s crew behind this lineup:
Alex Ovechkin – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Conor Sheary
Anthony Mantha – Nicklas Backstrom – Tom Wilson
Daniel Sprong – Connor McMichael – Garnet Hathaway
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby – Nic Dowd – Mike Vecchione
Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov – Nick Jensen
Trevor van Riemsdyk – Justin Schultz
Ilya Samsonov
Vitek Vanecek
Injuries and scratches: TJ Oshie (lower body), Michal Kempny (healthy), Matt Irwin (healthy), Carl Hagelin (IR eye), Joe Snively (IR wrist), Lars Eller (Covid protocol)
Tonight officials
Referee: Beau Halkidis # 48, Ian Walsh # 29
Linesmen: Bryan Pancich # 94, Caleb Apperson # 77
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