The Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes, geographic neighbors and budding rivals, will play against each other before the start of the 24-team playoff’s round-robin an play-in round. The Capitals game will be held on Wednesday, July 29 at 4 PM. All 24 NHL teams will play one exhibition game before the playoffs officially begin.

Capitals head coach Todd Reirden announced the news during his daily press conference after the second day of Phase 3 Training Camp.

Capitals coach Todd Reirden said team's exhibition game in Toronto will be vs. Carolina.

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) July 14, 2020

The game will be held at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena and it should be a good measuring stick of where both teams are. The two teams split the four games they played against each other (2-2) and scored the same amount of goals 12-12. The Capitals won the Metropolitan Division and finished the season with 90 standings points while Carolina finished fourth with 81.

Last year, after the Capitals swept the Hurricanes 4-0 in their season series, Carolina upset the defending champions in the first round of the playoffs. The Hurricanes won in double overtime of Game 7.

In the preseason, the two teams had fireworks likely due to Warren Foegele’s dirty board that knocked TJ Oshie out of the playoffs early.

After they face the Caps, the Hurricanes will play the Rangers in a best-of-five, play-in round to determine who advances.