The Washington Capitals need to win Game 5 against the Carolina Hurricanes on May 14, or else their Stanley Cup Playoff run will come to an abrupt end.
After dropping both Game 3 and 4 at the Lenovo Center, the Second Round series returns to the Capital One Arena on Thursday night. While it's tough to come back and win a best-of-seven series when you're down 3-1, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery is taking it one game at a time.
"We don't really look at it big picture wise. It's just one game," Carbery told reporters. "So there's the starting point, it's just winning one hockey game, and then what gives us confidence we can do that? We've done it in this series."
"We've been a great hockey team all year long, we've been a good home team all year long, so that's really where the confidence is drummed up for, is winning one hockey game on home ice," Carbery added.
While Washington remains focused on getting a win, Carolina sent a strong message to the Capitals on Wednesday night, making their intentions more than clear for Game 5.
The team posted a quote from Canes' center Seth Jarvis that read, "You don't want to give them any life, give them any hope, and hopefully we'll finish the job over there."
With that kind of intensity coming to Washington, Capitals ring wing Tom Wilson knows it's going to take the team's best effort to get a win.
"I have no doubt with this group that the guys sitting on either side of me and across from me is going to bring everything they have," Wilson told reporters. "And we're going to do our best to show up and fight. And if we do that, we're confident we're going to make some noise and start with one."