Lightning at Capitals
With his linemates injured and captain Steven Stamkos in the middle of a goal-scoring drought, Nikita Kucherov has taken on a lead role for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Kucherov has netted six tallies in as many games to top the team with 12 and looks to continue his hot streak when the Lightning visit the stingy Washington Capitals on Friday.
Kucherov helped revive the season for the Lightning, who have gone 5-2-0 this month, with the other two players on the successful “Triplets” line - Tyler Johnson (undisclosed) and Ondrej Palat (lower body) - in and out of the lineup. Stamkos has not scored a goal in 10 games and it won’t be easy to snap that slump against the top defensive team in the league, which is led by Braden Holtby. The 26-year-old netminder has earned at least one point in each of the last 13 games (12-0-1) – including two wins over the Lightning – while allowing 23 goals during that span. The Capitals are 10-1-1 in their last 12 contests, including a 4-2 win over the Lightning at home on Nov. 27 and a 2-1 triumph in Tampa Bay on Saturday.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Sun Sports (Tampa Bay), CSN-DC (Washington)
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (16-13-3): In addition to Johnson and Palat, forwards Jonathan Drouin (lower body), Cedric Paquette (upper body) and Joel Vermin (hand) likely are out while Erik Condra (lower body) is questionable. Jonathan Marchessault scored in wins at Columbus and Toronto to start the three-game road trip and has tallied four times in 15 games since his recall. Ben Bishop is expected back in net after sitting out in Toronto and has limited opponents to two or fewer goals in 15 of the last 17 contests.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (22-6-2): Nicklas Backstrom is second on the team with 27 points and needs one to become the fourth player in franchise history to reach 600. The other two among the team's top three scorers have struggled of late as Evgeny Kuznetsov has recorded two of his 28 points in the last eight games while captain Alex Ovechkin has been kept off the scoresheet in his last three contests. Defenseman John Carlson has scored in each of his last two contests and has registered three assists during his four-game point streak.
OVERTIME
1. Washington is second in the league on the power play despite going 1-for-13 over its last four contests.
2. Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman has recorded four points and a plus-7 rating in his last 11 games.
3. The Capitals recalled D Connor Carrick from Hershey and assigned D Aaron Ness to the American Hockey League club.