Preview: Lightning at Capitals

LIGHTNING (17-14-3) at CAPITALS (19-8-4)
7 p.m. ET; SN1, SUN, CSN-DC, NHL.TV

Lightning team scope

The Tampa Bay Lightning scored five unanswered goals in a 5-2 win against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday. "There was plenty said between the first and the second [periods]," forward Brian Boyle told the Lightning website Thursday. "The good thing was, I think we all looked around before we were told what we needed to improve on by the coaching staff. I think we kind of echoed that prior to that amongst ourselves. No one's going to feel sorry for us, no one's going to take it easy on us because we have some injuries … so you want to make the most of these opportunities, and we've got some depth, so we demand a lot out of ourselves, and we pushed back pretty well." Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves in his first start since starter Ben Bishop was injured during a 4-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. Bishop is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a lower-body injury. Vasilevskiy could get the start against the Washington Capitals on Friday in the second game of a back-to-back set. Coach Jon Cooper used a lineup with seven defensemen and 11 forwards against the Blues, and could do it again Friday.

Capitals team scope

Goaltender Braden Holtby is expected to start for the Capitals. Holtby made 36 saves in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday and is 4-1-2 with a 1.67 GAA and .943 save percentage in his past seven games. The Capitals, who are 6-1-1 in their past eight games, are 11-2-3 in games when Holtby allows two goals or fewer. Washington has won 11 of its past 13 home games against the Lightning. "They've got some people out, but they still play the same game," coach Barry Trotz said Friday. "Their DNA within their organization is they've got a lot of small but highly skilled forwards, and they've got some speed and they play a similar style. They've been effective." Defenseman Matt Niskanen, who has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past five games, needs two assists to reach 200 in his NHL career.

Lightning projected lineup

Alex Killorn -- Tyler Johnson -- Brayden Point
Brian Boyle -- Valtteri Filppula -- Jonathan Drouin
Cory Conacher -- Tanner Richard -- Erik Condra
Michael Bournival -- JT Brown
Victor Hedman -- Anton Stralman
Jason Garrison -- Andrej Sustr
Slater Koekkoek -- Braydon Coburn
Nikita Nesterov
Kristers Gudlevskis
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Scratched:None
Injured:Ryan Callahan (lower body), Vladislav Namestnikov (illness), Cedric Paquette (lower body), Steven Stamkos (knee injury), Nikita Kucherov (lower body), Ondrej Palat (undisclosed)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Justin Williams
Marcus Johansson -- Nicklas Backstrom -- T.J. Oshie
Andre Burakovsky -- Lars Eller -- Jakub Vrana
Brett Connolly -- Jay Beagle -- Tom Wilson
Karl Alzner -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik -- Taylor Chorney,
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched:Zach Sanford, Daniel Winnik, Nate Schmidt
Injured:None

Status report

Connolly will replace Winnik in the Capitals lineup and Chorney is expected to replace Schmidt. Palat and Kucherov are not ready to return, according to Cooper.

Who's hot

Drouin has 13 points (seven goals, six assists) in his past nine games, with points in eight of those nine. … Hedman has 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in a five-game point streak. … Killorn has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past five games. … Filppula has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his past seven games.