Legace in net for Caps, then Peters for Pens

The next two games could be telling for the Canes — the Washington Capitals tomorrow, then the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday. They're games the Canes need to win to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, but they're back-to-back and offer any number of challenges.

Canes coach Paul Maurice said Manny Legace would start against the Caps, then Justin Peters against the Pens. Both have played well in Cam Ward's absence but will be facing two of the best — and most high-powered -- teams in the league.

Ward is expected to begin skating again this week. Maurice said today that Ward possibly would return to the ice for the first time Thursday.

Legace is coming off a shutout of the Atlanta Thrashers on Sunday, while Peters suffered his first NHL loss on Saturday against the Panthers. But Maurice won't wait until after Wednesday's game to make the goaltending call for the Pens.

"He played well in Florida," Maurice said of Peters. "There has been nothing in his game that says he hasn't given us a real good chance to win every night. It's as much about development but he's not going into the net for about development but because he's playing well."

The Caps and Pens should provide a sterner test for the Canes' newlook back end that now includes former Washington defenseman Brian Pothier, Alex Picard and Albany callup Jay Harrison.

"We're going to need them short-shifting and we're going to need them playing a real simple game," Maurice said. "But for any defense, but maybe for a group that's just coming together and with some new faces, how our forwards perform for them is the key piece in this.

"How our low centerman works with those guys, the decisions we make in the offensive zone and the neutral zone ... almost everything relates, either back to their end or your end. The chances you get offensively and the positions that you put yourself defensively are critical, more so when you get a team that can beat you off the rush."

The Caps can do that. So can the Pens. Few do it any better.

"If you're just a little bit out of position you're going to take penalties or you'll never recover in your own end positionally against those teams," Maurice said. "Semin and Ovechkin and Backstrom and Crosby and Malkin, all these guys, they don't really need any space sometimes. As good as they are, all they need is that half-foot, that half-step to get their shots off and then you have a hard time recovering.

"So our fowards have to put our defense in a position where they can keep that gap as tight as possible and not have to chase one of these guys down."