Capitals and Hurricanes meet in a 2nd-round NHL playoff series with ‘no secrets’ and ‘no surprises’

ARLINGTON Va AP There is a huge difference between how the Carolina Hurricanes and the Washington Capitals try to sum goals The Hurricanes have by far the highest shot volume in the NHL playoffs while the Capitals led by NHL career goal-scorer Alex Ovechkin are more selective and use their defense to generate offense by forcing turnovers When it comes to defending the divisional rivals who meet in the second round beginning with Event on Tuesday night at Washington mimic each other As Carolina coach Rod Brind Amour explained We play the exact same way That makes the series a showdown with no secrets veteran Capitals defenseman John Carlson stated There s no surprises his coach Spencer Carbery commented Monday after practice We just know the ins and outs of a lot of their systems because we play the same thing It just becomes two teams of who can do it better and who can do it more consistently for a long period of time The Hurricanes and Capitals each went into the playoffs with home-ice advantage and won their first-round series against New Jersey and Montreal respectively each in five games The teams have been idle for nearly a week They last played a series in won by Carolina in seven We re definitely ready declared Sebastian Aho who led Carolina in scoring against the Devils with eight points and is now a father after his wife gave birth to the couple s first child Friday We re definitely rested We ve been sharp We ve been practicing well It s going to be a good fight but we re ready for it Special teams in round The Hurricanes thrived on the power play in round stopping all Devils power-play tries Carolina is the only playoff gang to check in at on the PK while also scoring a shorthanded goal The power play was an area that has been a concern for years Not this time Carolina converted of chances scoring at a rate of fifth-best in the first round after clicking at just over the previous six playoff appearances The Capitals who allowed the Canadiens to go of on the power play to rank th of teams at on the kill have their hands full It helps to have big forward Aliaksei Protas back from an extended injury absence Strome and Ovechkin Dylan Strome a point-a-game producer during the season led Washington in scoring in the first round with nine points The only athlete who averaged more Three-time NHL MVP Connor McDavid Strome s contributions may fly under the radar on a gang with Ovechkin and Tom Wilson but Carbery credited Canadian broadcasters for recognizing the -year-old center s huge impact on the series He should get that recognition because what he s done offensively Carbery declared He had a great first round and he deserves a ton of credit for why we are where we are So does Ovechkin who scored four goals and had particular big hits among his over five games an impressive feat at age He has the ability to to change the challenge with a hit with a goal with a big play with a blocked shot Wilson stated That s what leaders do They step up in the tough moments and put their body on the line Deep lines Since the Hurricanes dealt Mikko Rantanen at the contract deadline they ve relied on their forward depth to keep the pressure on with an aggressive forecheck and puck-control philosophy Fourth-line center Mark Jankowski illustrated that against the Devils Brind Amour tweaked his forward groupings to insert Jankowski a trade-deadline addition who had eight goals in regular-season games with Carolina over Jack Roslovic and it helped at even strength and on the penalty kill Brind Amour mentioned Jankowski s direct style is suited for the playoffs so it seems likely the Hurricanes stay with him to start this series Obviously I sought to be in there right away Jankowski revealed But we have such a good crew and our depth is something that we take a lot of pride in It s a huge strength of ours Getting heathier Carolina should have No goaltender Frederik Andersen back after he was knocked out of Encounter of the first round giving way to backup Pyotr Kochetkov for the rest of the series Andersen also has a fresh contract extension Center Jesperi Kotkaniemi shoudl be back after taking a stick to his right eye late in Event drawing the penalty that paved the way for Aho s winning goal Washington got a scare when goalie Logan Thompson left Meeting at Montreal with an injury but he returned a meager nights later and was excellent in stopping of shots in the series He was awesome all series including when I ran him over Strome mentioned He bounced back pretty good from that so I m very thankful for that The Capitals got Protas back at the end of the first round after missing three weeks with a skate cut to his left foot AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh North Carolina contributed AP NHL playoffs https apnews com hub stanley-cup and https apnews com hub nhl Source