The Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes meet in NHL action from the PNC Arena on Friday night.

The Washington Capitals will look to build on a 7-2 rout of the Columbus Blue Jackets last time out. Alex Ovechkin leads the Caps in scoring with 74 points including a team-high 38 goals and 36 assists while Evgeny Kuznetsov has 60 points with 40 assists. Tom Wilson has 41 points with 18 goals and 23 assists and John Carlson’s got 50 points with 10 goals and 40 apples. Ilya Samsonov has gone 17-9-4 with a 2.96 GAA and a .901 save percentage for the Caps while Vitek Vanecek is 16-7-5 with a 2.36 GAA and a .919 save percentage.

The Carolina Hurricanes will try to bounce back from a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their last game. Sebastian Aho leads the Hurricanes in scoring with 61 points including a team-high 27 goals with 34 assists while Andrei Svechnikov has 53 points with 23 goals and 30 assists. Tony DeAngelo has 40 points with 31 assists while Teuvo Teravainen has 47 points with 16 goals and 31 assists this season. Frederik Andersen’s started the bulk of Carolina’s action in goal, going 30-9-2 with a 2.06 GAA and a .928 save percentage this season.

Washington is 0-4 in their last 4 games played on no rest and 6-1 in their last 7 games overall while the over is 5-0 in their last 5 games overall. Carolina is 31-13 in their last 44 games played on no rest and 46-17 in their last 63 home games while the under is 5-0-1 in their last 6 games overall.

I get the case to be made for either side here, but truth be told, my stronger pay is on Washington here. I just think this Washington team is playing too well to bet against right now and while Carolina’s had success on the back-to-back, I don’t know how fond I am on the team without Andersen in goal. Washington’s looking more and more legit every game and I think that the Capitals get the job done here and at plus money, it’s hard to pass on here.