When do the Hurricanes and Capitals play their NHL playoff series? Now we know
The first two teams who locked in their NHL second-round pairing finally know dates and times as they begin their best of seven series.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals will play Tuesday, at 7 p.m.. in Game 1 at Washington’s Capital One Arena and shown on ESPN. Game 2 on Thursday at 7 p.m. will also be at Capital One Arena, televised by ESPN, before the series moves to Raleigh.
The Capitals own home-ice advantage for the series based on their better regular season finish. The Capitals won the Metropolitan Division while the Hurricanes finished second. So the first two games of the series will be in Washington, followed by two games on Carolina’s home ice at Lenovo Center on Saturday, May 10, at 6 p.m., and Monday, May 12 at 7 p.m. Those games will be televised by TNT/TruTV/MAX.
Carolina was the first team to advance out of the first round, beating the New Jersey Devils, 5-4 in double overtime, on Tuesday night at Lenovo Center to win that series, 4-1, and eliminate the Devils. Washington followed suit on Wednesday night, closing out a 4-1 series win over the Montreal Canadiens with a 4-1 win in Game 5 in Washington.
The Hurricanes closed out their first-round series with uncertainty in goal after Frederik Andersen was injured when New Jersey’s Timo Meier in game 4 at New Jersey last Sunday. Pyotr Kochetkov finished off the game 4 win and was in goal for the game 5 clincher.
But Andersen returned to the ice for practice with the Hurricanes on Friday and Saturday as they prepared for Washington.
The Canes took Sunday off after practicing Friday and Saturday without knowing anything about the schedule other than the series would begin Tuesday in Washington.
The Washington-Carolina winner will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals to play the winner of the Toronto-Florida series. Toronto and Florida play game 1 of their second-round series on Monday.
Canes-Capitals series schedule
Game 1: Hurricanes at Capitals, Tuesday, 7 p.m. (ESPN) at Capital One Arena
Game 2: Hurricanes at Capitals, Thursday, 7 p.m. (ESPN) at Capital One Arena
Game 3: Capitals at Hurricanes, Saturday, 6 p.m. (TNT/TruTV/MAX) at Lenovo Center
Game 4: Capitals at Hurricanes, Monday, 7 p.m. (TNT/TruTV/MAX) at Lenovo Center
Game 5 (if necessary): Hurricanes at Capitals, May 15, at Capital One Arena
Game 6 (if necessary): Capitals at Hurricanes, May 17, at Lenovo Center
Game 7 (if necessary): Hurricanes at Capitals, May 19, at Capital One Arena
This story was originally published May 3, 2025 at 7:15 AM.