MONTREAL CANADIENS VS CAROLINA HURRICANES 12/31/2019 LIVE 7:00 PM ET

These could be defining stretches for both the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes for entirely different reasons.

The teams meet Tuesday night at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., with the Canadiens completing an assignment of seven consecutive road games.

Carolina will be in the second contest of a seven-game homestand. The Hurricanes began this homestand with a riveting 6-4 victory against the Washington Capitals, who'll they'll meet again Friday.

In between, they must deal with Montreal, an opponent they haven't seen since defeating the Canadiens in a shootout at home on opening night.

"We love playing in front of our fans," Hurricanes left winger Warren Foegele said. "We know the energy that they bring."

Carolina's win over the Capitals ended a three-game losing streak. That outcome might have alleviated some unwanted pressure that could have developed if the slide continued.

"We needed a win desperately," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We needed to be the desperate team."

Tuesday's game might ultimately define how the Canadiens view this stretch on the road. They're 3-3-0 so far.

For the Canadiens, who've been without a home game for more than two weeks, the shortcomings tend to be connected to defense.

Montreal has lost its last two games despite scoring a total of nine goals. Those weren't enough in Saturday's 5-4 loss at Tampa Bay or the next day's 6-5 setback at Florida.

"When you score nine goals in two games, you should be able to get some points," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. "Unfortunately, we traded scoring chances with the other team, and we aren't in a position to do that. It's important to play a lot tighter defensively."

Julien said the defensive topic has been emphasized, often without the desired results.

"You can't play pond hockey in this league and come out and expect to win hockey games," Julien said. "We're sloppy. Everybody is to blame. Defensively, we're just sloppy right now. We're just happy to trade chances and that's what got us in trouble in the first place. So we've got to get back to work and clean up that part of our game."

When the Canadiens performed better defensively, things started to change earlier in the season.

"The guys know that, and they need to put it into practice here and that's what we need to do next game," Julien said.

Among Montreal's defensive concerns might be Hurricanes center Lucas Wallmark, who owns a career-best six-game points streak. He also scored in the season opener against Montreal.

The Hurricanes have won eight of their last 10 games against the Canadiens.

For Carolina, the final game of the calendar year is something to note. The Hurricanes made a breakthrough in the 2019 playoffs and then began this season with five consecutive victories.

So the 2019 log shows a 53-26-4 record for the second-most wins of any NHL team during that stretch. That's the most wins and points in a calendar year in franchise history.

The Hurricanes are playing on New Year's Eve for the 17th time since relocating to North Carolina. The team is 7-10-0 on that date, though 6-5-0 in home outings.