The Bolts Face the Caps For The First Time Since ECF

 

By: Kyle Pereira

Tonight, the Tampa Bay Lightning face off against the Washington Capitals in Amalie Arena for their first matchup on the season. An Eastern Conference Final rematch that everyone watching will enjoy. This is also the first of three meetings between these two teams over the next two weeks. The last time these two teams faced off, as mentioned earlier, was a 4-0 Capitals win in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

 

Tampa Bay Outlook:

The Lightning seemingly have had the Capitals number during the regular season, as they went 2-1-0 against the Caps last season, with a 4-3 OT win and a 4-2 win. Brayden Point scored the OT winner for the Bolts last season, and has recorded multi-point nights in three of his last four games against the Caps. Nikita Kucherov has points in seven straight regular season games against Washington. Tampa Bay is also looking to break their franchise record for single season wins with 55. The Lightning are the fourth team in NHL history to record 54 wins in back-to-back seasons. They can break the all-time record for single season wins with 63 if they win 8 of their last 11 games. The Lightning are one point away from a franchise record for points in a single season (113 points in 2017-18). Dan Girardi and Anton Stralman are still both out with injuries for the Lightning, although Jan Rutta has filled in valiantly in their absences.

 

Tampa Bay Lines:

Offense

Palat-Stamkos-Miller

Johnson-Point-Kucherov

Killorn-Cirelli-Joseph

Erne-Paquette-Gourde

Defense

Hedman-Sergachev

McDonagh-Cernak

Coburn-Rutta

Goalies

Vasilevskiy

Domingue

 

Washington Outlook:

The Capitals have gone 6-1-0 in the month of March, with their lone loss being in Pittsburgh on March 12th, by a score of 5-3. They’ve also won 10 of their last 12 games coming into this matchup. Braden Holtby had this to say on the matchup, “We’re excited to get there [Tampa] and test ourselves because it’s going to be a good hockey game. Obviously, it was a good series last year and they’ll be looking forward to playing us too. So we’re just excited to play a game that’s similar to playoff hockey.”

 

Washington Lines:

Offense

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson

Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie

Hagelin-Eller-Connolly

Burakovsky-Stephenson-Boyd

Defense

Kempny-Carlson

Orlov-Niskanen

Orpik-Jensen

Goalies

Holtby

Copley