Tampa Bay Lightning Travel To Face Washington Capitals Before Christmas
By Will Clewis
Following a 5-2 comeback victory over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning will look to grab a third straight win over the Capitals.
After going over a month without winning back-to-back games, the Tampa Bay Lightning picked up their second win in a row over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. The Lightning scored five unanswered goals against the Blues after going down 0-2 in the first period. It was an impressive performance from the team despite all the injuries piling up lately.
Prior to the game, it was announced that forward Cedric Paquette would be in the lineup and he took part in the usual pre-game skate. Even with Paquette in, that still left the Lightning with four of their top forwards (not on long-term Injured Reserve, like Stamkos) out of the lineup, as Vladislav Namestnikov, Ryan Callahan, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov did not play against the Blues.
Not having those players on the ice on a nightly basis is a big blow, of course, but those who have been called up from the Syracuse Crunch have filled in well for them, including forwards Michael Bournival and Tanner Richard. Bournival, who was called up previously this season, scored the game-tying goal last night in the second period.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Following a win over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday and a thrilling comeback against the St. Louis Blues last night, the Tampa Bay Lightning (17-14-3, 37 pts., plus-6 goal differential) will now take on the Washington Capitals (19-8-4, 42 pts., plus-14 goal differential) for the second time this season before Christmas on Sunday.
It was a brief homestand this week, but the Lightning will return for a five-game homestand, which is the longest of the season thus far, starting next Wednesday.
Both the Lightning and Capitals were sitting in Wild Card spots in the Eastern Conference before the last time the two teams met. In that game in early December, the Lightning defeated the Capitals in a shootout and grabbed a much needed two points. However, since that game, the two sides have gone in different directions.
Following that shootout win, Tampa Bay has gone 2-3-2 in its last seven games and 4-4-2 in its last 10, while the Capitals reeled off six straight wins and two losses in that time.
In essence, this is an important game for the Lightning, as wins have been a bit hard to come by and all the injuries haven’t helped matters lately. Two in a row is nice, but three in a row, especially against a team like Washington, is even better. Hopefully, this will be the start of a new win streak.
Currently, the Capitals are sitting two points behind the Philadelphia Flyers in the Wild Card and five points the New York Rangers for third place in the Metropolitan Division. They’re certainly looking to move up the standings, especially after two straight losses, in one of the league’s best divisions this season. Both teams are looking to gain some traction, so it should be an interesting match-up.
Though the Capitals’ Power Play hasn’t been tearing it up this season like it has in the past, they’ve improved on it since that 2-1 shootout loss a few weeks ago, and it has certainly heated up as of late. The Capitals have scored 14 Power Play goals in the last 16 games, including seven goals in the last nine.
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Washington is 13th in the NHL on the man advantage, converting on 19.4 percent of their opportunities, and seventh in the league on the Penalty Kill with an 84.3 percent success rate.
As for the Lightning, their Power Play unit has been one of the best in the league this season and it’s refreshing to see this trend, especially after last year. Tampa Bay is third in the NHL on the man advantage, converting on 23.8 of their opportunities, and 22nd on the Penalty Kill with a 79.3 percent success rate.
The Lightning’s penalty kill went through a tough stretch earlier this month, including giving up three Power Play goals on seven opportunities to the Blues in a 5-4 regulation loss and four straight games allowing a goal or more on the man advantage, but it has recovered lately. Tampa Bay killed off all five of Detroit’s Power Plays on Tuesday and limited St. Louis to only one.
Even though Washington’s Power Play hasn’t been as good this season, it’ll still be important to limit their opportunities on the man advantage. Most NHL fans are well-aware of what the Capitals can do while up a man.
Depth for the Lightning has been an important factor in recent times, and they’ve relied on several players to step up, including forwards Brian Boyle, who has four goals in his last five games, and Jonathan Drouin, who has absolutely been on fire lately and has seven points in his last five outings.
In addition, defenseman Nikita Nesterov was used mostly as a winger against the Blues and played well in that role.
Head coach Jon Cooper has been mixing the lines up lately, trying to find chemistry while the injuries keep piling up. Players like Brayden Point, Vladislav Namestnikov and Alex Killorn have performed well together, especially against the Red Wings on Tuesday, and it shouldn’t be surprising if Cooper continues to roll with similar lines tonight and in the coming games.
As for the Capitals, captain and second-leading scorer, Alex Ovechkin, only has two goals in his last 12 games, both of which were on the Power Play, and has 23 points (14-9–23) in 31 games this season. Nicklas Backstrom, who leads the team with 27 points (9-18–27), has nine points in his last 11 games and is scoring at a 0.87 Points Per Game rate.
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Finally, goaltending-wise, Tampa Bay Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy earned the win against the Blues and improved to 8-4-1 on the season. Vasilevskiy has a .923 save percentage and a 2.38 Goals Against Average in 13 starts and has wins in his last two games.
Though the 22-year-old Russia native played last night, there’s a chance he might get another start tonight. Backup goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis is ready to go if needed.
The Capitals main starter in net, Braden Holtby, is likely to get the start tonight after suffering a shootout loss to the Flyers on Wednesday. The 27-year-old Saskatchewan native has a 14-7-3 record (9th), .926 save percentage (9th) and a 2.07 goals against average (7th) in 24 starts this season, and Holtby’s 14 wins through 31 games marks the second-most during his career.
In addition, Holtby has a 7-2-2 record and one shutout in his career against Tampa Bay. The Lightning managed to get one goal in regulation past him in that 2-1 shootout victory earlier this month, so we’ll see if they can get a few more past him tonight.
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Like they did before on Dec. 3, the Tampa Bay Lightning face a tough task against the Washington Capitals on the road. Tampa Bay hasn’t had much success against Washington at the Verizon Center in D.C., as the Capitals have a 41-11-4-4 record all-time against the Lightning on home ice. As such, the Lightning will have to battle hard once again to get an important third straight win tonight. Go Bolts!
TV/Radio/Live Stream Information
Game 35 match-up: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Washington Capitals
Venue: Verizon Center
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Watch/Listen: FS-Sun, 970 WFLA, TBL Power Play, Fox Sports Go
Opponent FanSided site: Stars and Sticks
Projected Lines (subject to change)
Tampa Bay Lightning
Fowards
Cory Conacher – Tyler Johnson – Erik Condra
Brian Boyle – Valtteri Filppula – Jonathan Drouin
Alex Killorn – Brayden Point – Cedric Paquette
Michael Bournival – Tanner Richard – J.T. Brown
Defensemen
Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman
Slater Koekkoek – Braydon Coburn – Nikita Nesterov (mixing in)
Goaltenders
Injuries/Scratches: Steven Stamkos (lateral meniscus tear, long-term injured reserve – 4 months), Ryan Callahan (lower-body, day-to-day), Ben Bishop (lower-body, 3-4 weeks), Nikita Kucherov (lower-body, day-to-day), Ondrej Palat (undisclosed injury, day-to-day), Vladislav Namestnikov (undisclosed injury, day-to-day), scratches to be determined
Washington Capitals
Forwards
Alex Ovechkin – Evgeny Kutznetsov – Justin Williams
Marcus Johansson – Nicklas Backstrom – T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana – Lars Eller – Andre Burakovsky
Daniel Winnik – Jay Beagle – Tom Wilson
Defensemen
Dmitri Orlov – Matt Niskanen
Goaltenders
Braden Holtby
Injuries/scratches: None, scratches to be determined