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Capitals vs Hurricanes NHL Betting Lines & Expert Prediction.

Capitals vs Hurricanes NHL Betting Lines & Expert Prediction

Written by on March 28, 2019

NHL Betting News

It’s a potential first-round playoff preview in the Eastern Conference on Thursday night when Washington visits Carolina – the Capitals are in a dogfight for the Metropolitan title, while the Hurricanes are likely going to be a wild-card team. Bet on this game now at in our online sportsbook.

How to Bet Capitals vs Hurricanes NHL Betting Lines & Game Info

Season Series

Last meeting of the season with the Capitals leading 3-0 after Tuesday’s 4-1 home victory. Washington’s lone visit to Carolina so far was a 6-5 shootout win on Dec. 14. Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick – his second game in a row with one at the time – and Jakub Vrana scored in the sixth round of the tiebreaker.

The Caps got three goals in a 5:42 span of the second to tie it at 4, a burst capped when Travis Boyd redirected in John Carlson’s shot with 1:41 left in the period. It was the Capitals’ largest deficit overcome in a victory this season. Justin Williams scored the tying goal with 6:12 remaining, and Sebastian Aho had two goals and two assists for Carolina. Braden Holtby was in net for Washington and Scott Darling for Carolina.

Why Bet on Washington?

The Caps won the Tuesday matchup with the Canes 4-1 behind a goal and assist from Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin’s league lead in goals shrunk to four after John Tavares buried four goals in Monday’s game against the Panthers. Ovi answered back Tuesday with No. 49 from between the faceoff circles. Ovechkin has equaled his total from a season ago, and he needs just one more goal to post his eighth 50-goal campaign. It was also his 656th NHL goal, tying Brendan Shanahan for 13th place on the all-time list.

Evgeny Kuznetsov posted three assists with a plus-2 rating on Tuesday. Kuznetsov opened the month of March with just two power-play assists and a minus-1 rating in his first six games, but he has picked up three goals and eight points across the past seven outings. John Carlson registered a goal, an assist and a plus-1 rating in the win. Carlson also added a blocked shot and a hit over 21:48 of ice time. He has registered three goals and 10 points with a plus-6 rating over his past 11 contests. Carlson is the fifth defenseman in franchise history to record 400 points (Calle Johansson: 474 points; Scott Stevens: 429; Kevin Hatcher: 426; Sergei Gonchar: 416).

Backstrom scored a goal, his 19th goal and 70th point in 76 games. This is the sixth consecutive season that he’s recorded at least 70 points. Braden Holtby allowed just one goal on 28 shots. Holtby has won back-to-back games after an 0-2-1 stretch from March 16-22. Holtby is one shutout shy of passing Olie Kolzig (35) for first place on the franchise shutout list.

Tom Wilson has 22 goals this season, which is tied for the second most on the Capitals this year. Wilson has 39 points this season (22g, 17a), which has surpassed his previous career high of 35 (14g, 21a) set last season. He has scored 18 of his 22 goals at even strength and two shorthanded. Averaging 14:19 at even strength this season, Wilson’s 1.25 goals per 60 minutes of play are the fourth highest rate among Capitals with at least 200 minutes of even strength ice time.

Team Stats

Offense
  • Goals: 3.43
  • Shots: 30.49
  • PP/PK Percentage: 20.89

Defense

  • Goals: 3.05
  • Shots: 31.66
  • PP/PK Percentage: 20.95

Why Bet on Carolina?

The lone goal in Tuesday’s loss came from Dougie Hamilton, his 15th of the season. Hamilton is now just two goals short of his previous career high of 17 goals set last season in Calgary. He also chipped in with a blocked shot and two hits over 19:10 of ice time while adding four shots on net. Hamilton has registered at least one shot on goal in 241 consecutive games, longest active streak in the NHL.

Petr Mrazek allowed three goals on 27 shots. The Hurricanes went with Mrazek in the front end of the home-and-home with less-than-stellar results, so it’s likely Curtis McElhinney gets the nod on Thursday. Last time out, McElhinney stopped 29 of 30 shots in Sunday’s 2-1 overtime win over the Montreal Canadiens. The long-time backup eclipsed his career high in minutes played and the 35-year-old goaltender owns an impressive 19-9-2 record with a 2.53 goals-against-average and a .913 save percentage.

Capitals vs Hurricanes is going to be a close one.

Justin Williams has recorded 38 points (15g, 23a) in 50 career games against Washington, which is tied for the most points he has against any opponent in his 1,237-game NHL career. Williams played two seasons for the Capitals from 2015-17, registering 100 points (46g, 54a) in 162 regular season games and 16 points (6g, 10a) in 25 postseason games.

Sebastian Aho has posted 16 points (8g, 8a) in his career against Washington and has tallied at least a point in nine of his 12 games played in the series. Teuvo Teravainen has tallied 13 points (4g, 8a) in 12 career games against the Capitals.

The Hurricanes are 22-12-4 at home and 20-15-3 on the road, earning at least 20 home wins and 20 road wins in the same season for the second time in franchise history (2005-06).

Team Stats

Offense
  • Goals: 2.97
  • Shots: 34.67
  • PP/PK Percentage: 16.46

Defense

  • Goals: 2.76
  • Shots: 28.55
  • PP/PK Percentage: 18.14

Capitals vs Hurricanes NHL Betting Trends

  • Road team is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings
  • Over is 6-0 in the last 6 meetings in Carolina
  • Washington is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games
  • Washington is 11-4 SU in its last 15 games
  • The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Washington’s last 5 games
  • Carolina is 3-6 ATS in its last 9 games when playing Washington
  • Carolina is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games when playing Washington
  • The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Carolina’s last 6 games when playing Washington

Expert Final Prediction for Capitals vs Hurricanes

Washington Capitals 2 – Carolina Hurricanes 3

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