The Carolina Hurricanes handed the Vancouver Canucks (16-18-3) an “in your face” third loss in their last four games; third consecutive loss on their 5-game road trip, by a 4-1 score earlier today and it’s off to Washington (21-8-9) to face the Stanley Cup contending Capitals tomorrow, in the second of back-to-back games.

Washington also played today, on the road, against the New York Islanders at New York’s UBS Arena.

It will be the battle of back-to-back game opponents, for the Canucks and Capitals.

Making his first start in nearly a month, Vitek Vanecek made 23 saves to record his first shutout of the season in what turned out to be a 2-0 win over the Isles. Tom Wilson gave Vanecek all the offense he would need before the game’s first television timeout in the first period, and Alex Ovechkin‘s empty-net goal with 10.2 seconds remaining put a coda on the win for Washington, halting a four-game slide (0-2-2), as reported by Mike Vogel @vogscaps / washingtoncaps.com.

While the Capitals won, it was more of the same against the Hurricanes for Vancouver, as in the past two games. For example, a struggling power play, that is 0 for 12 on the road trip (0-4, 0-3, 0-5) and 2 for 17 in their last 6 games.

“It’s hard when your power play is struggling and you come in and your playing against a team that’s got the best penalty kill in the league and they’ve killed off thirty straight, and the more they kill, the stronger they get. We’ll get back to the drawing board about that.”, Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau explained.

“On this trip I think it’s let us down a little bit and if we had a power play goal here or there in either of the three games, we probably would have had a better chance of winning.”, Boudreau added.

The penalty kill has allowed 3 goals in the first three games of the road trip, going 5 for 8, and is 12 for 15 in the last 6 games. So that is good news. I guess.

Even strength goals are getting to be just as tough to get, as Vancouver only has 5 in its first three games of the five game road trip, considerably below that elusive minimum three goals per game needed to stay competitive in the NHL, much less win games.

The above just won’t do against the high scoring Capitals that boast Alex Ovechkin chasing Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record for most NHL goals scored.

Washington is 9th in the NHL with a 3.26 goals for average per game, Canucks 28th at 2.46.

The thing is, the Capitals penalty kill is 9th best in the NHL, putting pressure on scoring 5 on 5 for the Canucks.

And that is what the Canucks found out in Carolina.

“It’s difficult to make plays when you’ve got people in your face all night long. And they do a great job of that.”, Bruce Boudreau said of the Hurricanes 5 on 5 play against Vancouver.

If Washington uses tactics like “in your face hockey”, and making it difficult, for the Canucks to score, especially clogging up the neutral zone and jamming the Vancouver breakouts from their defensive end, it could be a long Sunday afternoon in Washington for the Canucks..

Could be much longer if the lack of offensive contribution continues like in the Carolina game in which after two periods six Canucks had one shot each, while seven players hadn’t a shot on net: Pettersson, Hughes, Podkolzin, Miller, Motte, Highmore, and Ekman-Larsson.

Canucks All-Star goalie Thatcher Demko was a surprise starter against Carolina, due to Jaroslav Halak out on COVID protocol. Demko will most likely be in net Sunday, making great saves, giving his team a chance to win.