Capitals at Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning hope to use their experience and the visiting Washington Capitals look to ride the momentum of one of the best playoff runs in franchise history as the teams meet for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final Friday night. The Lightning have reached the conference final three times in the last four seasons and Washington makes its first appearance since 1998 after vanquishing its nemesis Pittsburgh in the second round.
“It’s more ‘We’re on a mission’ excitement,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told reporters. “It’s a little different than it was three years ago with the same group. There’s a confidence about them in the way we’re playing, how we’ve arrived at where we are right now, and a lot of that has to do because they’ve just been there before.” The Lightning, who knocked out both New Jersey and Boston in five contests to start the postseason, have 18 players that have combined for 273 conference final games and the Capitals total is 28 going into the series. However, this Washington team climbed out of a 2-0 hole in the first round by winning four in a row and triumphed at Pittsburgh in Game 6 without standout center Nicklas Backstrom, who is day-to-day with an upper-body injury. “I think we’ve got to be greedy,” Washington defenseman Matt Niskanen told reporters. “We’ve got to want more because this is a heck of a run. I don’t know if there is a group out there that knows how hard it is to get to this point (more than this one). So don’t waste the opportunity.”
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, TVA
ABOUT THE CAPITALS: Backstrom, who owns 13 points in the playoffs, has been skating on his own while forward Andre Burakovsky (upper-body injury) practiced Thursday and is also considered day-to-day after missing the last 10 games. Captain Alex Ovechkin makes his first appearance in the conference final after recording a team-high eight goals in 12 playoff contests, and his club-best 15 points are one better than linemate Evgeny Kuznetsov - who scored the overtime winner in Game 6 at Pittsburgh. John Carlson boasts 11 points in the playoffs and fellow defenseman Brooks Orpik, who has appeared in 137 postseason games, leads the team with a plus-9 rating.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING: Brayden Point, along with linemates Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat, have limited their opponent’s top threesome at even strength in the first two series and will likely get another test with the Tom Wilson-Kuznetsov-Ovechkin line. Right wing Nikita Kucherov leads the team with six goals and 12 points in the playoffs while linemate Steven Stamkos scored two of his three goals in the last three games. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who boasts a 2.20 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in the postseason, was 0-3-0 versus the Capitals before winning two of three while posting a .930 SP against them in 2017-18.
OVERTIME
1. Washington G Braden Holtby, who owns a 2.04 GAA in the playoffs, is 9-3-2 with a .910 SP in 16 career games against the Lightning.
2. Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman had six points - all on assists - against Boston after failing to hit the scoresheet in the first round.
3. The Lightning have won the last eight playoff games against the Capitals, taking the final four contests in 2003 and sweeping in 2011.