The Carolina Hurricanes will be facing the Washington Capitals in the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a rematch of the 2019 series and another chance for two teams with not a lot of love once again battle it out.

The Hurricanes made it to the second round by defeating the New Jersey Devils in five games, while the Capitals took down the Montreal Canadiens in five games as well.

Washington, who finished top in the East and second in the league, presents a big challenge for Carolina, who will be starting the series on the road.

Not only are the Caps a deep team, with four good lines, six solid defensemen and one of the league's top goaltenders this season in Logan Thompson, but they're also one of the most physically imposing teams as well.

"I don't see any weaknesses really and really, they did it all year," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "Good goaltending, it starts with that and their defense is strong and you have scorers. They kind of have everything covered and they're very, very balanced and they come at you with every line."

Washington has an average lineup size of 6-foot-2 and 203-pounds, both in the top-3 in the league, and they have a couple of guys that really aren't afraid to throw their weight around and stir the pot.

"I've watched enough of them too to know that there's a reason they're a good team and one of the best this year," Brind'Amour said. "They don't give you games. You have to earn them. So I don't envision that they're going to be taking extra penalties. That's just not how you win. Yes, it's going to be a physical series, we understand that. It's playoffs so we expect that. But I don't expect a lot of unnecessary penalties."

But the Hurricanes are no pushovers either, with an average size of 6-foot-1 and 199-pounds, including quite a few bigger boys of their own.

"Washington is a physical team, but we're not just going to be sitting here," said Andrei Svechnikov. "We're going to be physical as well. Obviously they have some big boys, but we just need to put the pressure on them and keep hitting their defense and everyone else."

In terms of scoring, Sebastian Aho currently leads the team in playoff points with eight and Andrei Svechnikov leads the team in goals with five.

Dylan Strome is the Capitals leading scorer with nine points and Alex Ovechkin leads the team in goals with four.

In goal, Frederik Andersen will be the Canes' starter while Thompson will be the Caps'.

Andersen went 3-1-0 in the first round and currently leads all netminders in save percentage (0.936) and Thompson, who went 4-1-0, is second (0.923).

On special teams, Carolina had a perfect penalty kill (15-for-15) and converted on 31.6% of their power plays (6-for-19).

Washington on the other hand had a tougher time, killing just 66.7% of their penalties (10-for-15) and only scoring at a 23.1% success rate (3-for-13) on the man advantage against Montreal.

History

This will be the second time the two former Southeast Division rivals have met in the postseason, the first being way back in 2019.

The Capitals were the defending Stanley Cup Champions and, once again, the top team in the Metro, while the Hurricanes had barely squeaked into the postseason, snapping a nine-year playoff drought.

The first-round matchup definitely had a David and Goliath feel to it, but the scrappy Canes proved to be a defiant bunch.

After dropping the first two games on the road, the Hurricanes took both of the next games in Raleigh before Washington once again pushed them to the edge with a Game 5 blowout victory.

Carolina wouldn't go away though and rallied to take Game 6 and then overcame two two-goal deficits in Game 7 to force overtime with the Capitals.

The Canes came out ahead in the end, defeating the Caps in seven games thanks to Brock McGinn's double-overtime winner.

That series had a ton of physicality too: Andrei Svechnikov was knocked out by Alex Ovechkin in Game 3 after the young Russian challenged the elder and Warren Foegele ended up breaking TJ Oshie's collarbone in Game 4 with a hit into the end boards.

Jaccob Slavin and Alex Ovechkin led all skaters in points that series with nine each, while Foegele led the Hurricanes in goals with four and Niklas Backstrom led the Capitals with five.

Petr Mrazek was in goal for Carolina, finishing with one shutout, and a 0.899 save percentage, stopping 170 of the 189 shots he faced.

Braden Holtby was in net for Washington and he had one shutout as well, but a 0.914 save percentage, stopping 213 of the 233 shots he faced.

This Year

Although the Canes technically won the season series (taking five points to Washington's four) both teams won two games.

The Hurricanes outscored Washington 14-10, outshooting the Capitals by more than 10 shots on average per game.

Seth Jarvis led the Canes in production, with five points, and both he and Jackson Blake each had three goals in the regular season series.

For Washington, only Alex Ovechkin had more than a single goal (2) and both he and Dylan Strom led the team in scoring with three points.

"They've been playing well all year, so it'll be a big challenge, but I think we'll be ready for it," said Jesperi Kotkaniemi.

The Canes also had decent success on the power play, going 3-for-14 (21.4%), but they were also fairly weak on the penalty kill, going 9-for-13 (69.2%).

So special teams could be a big factor, especially if emotions boil over again.

"It's playoffs," Brind'Amour said. "You know that that's going to happen. But you can't be reactive. You have to be the aggressor and not be reacting to things because you're going to put your team down. Special teams is where you win the series almost all the time. It always seems to come down to that."

In goal, Carolina had both Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov play twice against the Capitals.

Andersen went 1-0-1, with a 0.898 save percentage. Kochetkov went 1-1-0 with a 0.884 save percentage.

For Washington, Charlie Lindgren made three starts, going 2-1-0 with a 0.918 save percentage and Thompson went 0-1-0 with a 0.750 save percentage in his one start.

It's also notable that the last two games between these two teams turned a bit into a gong show. The penultimate game turned chaotic after Tom Wilson went after Sean Walker, leading to a big scrum behind the Washington net and eventually resulting in three fights and the ejection of eight different players.

The next time the two teams met a week later, the bad blood continued to spill over as Wilson checked Blake into his own netminder for a goal against and Jalen Chatfield dropped the gloves for a second time as Brandon Duhaime challenged him for retribution after the way he finished his previous fight with Connor McMichael.

Will that blood bad carryover? 

"I doubt it," Kotkaniemi said. "It's the playoffs out there now and everyone wants to win. You have to be smart when you go out there. If they want to go to the box, we'll take the power plays, for sure."

"I mean, it's just playoffs so it is what it is," said Shayne Gostisbehere. "Obviously the regular season is the regular season and it's over with. Obviously they also just had a pretty emotional series with Montreal as we did with the Devils. Now, it's a new series."

Well, there's only one way to find out (whenever the NHL finally decides to release a schedule).

Be sure to check out the Carolina Hurricanes 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs Hub for all postseason stories!  

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