Lightning at Capitals
The Tampa Bay Lightning begin perhaps their toughest stretch of the season when they visit their former Southeast Division-rival Washington Capitals on Saturday. The Lightning have gained points in nine of 13 road games to date, but will be severely tested with 11 of the next 15 away from home – eight of them against teams currently in playoff position in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals look to extend their point streak to five games and beat Tampa Bay for the second time in five days.
Washington totaled eight goals while splitting a pair with the Lightning this season and offensive defenseman Mike Green returned to the lineup Thursday after missing seven games with an upper-body injury. Tampa Bay has yet to lose three in a row after edging Carolina 2-1 on Thursday to snap a two-game slide. The Lightning will aim to stay out of the penalty box with Washington clicking at 50 percent (9-of-18) on the power play in its last six meetings.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FX, Sun Sports (Tampa Bay), CSN Washington
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (19-8-3): Valtteri Filppula switched back to a line with captain Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan against the Hurricanes with Ondrej Palat out due to a lower-body injury. That moved Alex Killorn to a unit with Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov, who notched two goals Thursday with fortunate bounces to push his total to a career-best 11. Ben Bishop was rested against Carolina and is expected back in net to try and improve his 1-3-1 career record and 4.13 goals-against average versus Washington.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (13-10-5): Washington coach Barry Trotz told reporters of Green’s play in his return, “He was skating, he never seemed to be in trouble all night - very poised as he always is.” Fellow blue-liner John Carlson took up the slack with Green out and totaled nine points in the last seven games with a plus-9 rating. Nicklas Backstrom leads the Capitals with 27 points and has 40 in 37 career games against Tampa Bay while captain Alex Ovechkin boasts 37 goals and 74 points versus the Lightning in 56 contests.
OVERTIME
1. Ovechkin (273) and Stamkos (250) have scored the most goals in the NHL since 2008-09.
2. Tampa Bay announced rookie LW Jonathan Drouin, who has 11 points in 21 games, would not be loaned to Team Canada for the World Juniors.
3. The Capitals are only 5-5-4 at home this season after going 21-13-7 in their own arena in 2013-14 while missing the playoffs.