#CapsBolts Postgame Notebook: Lacking The Lead

Tuesday's night's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final series between Washington and Tampa Bay was the Caps' 15th game of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs, and it was just the fourth of those 15 games in which the Capitals did not score that game's first goal.

More notably, it was only the second game in which Washington never held a lead, and the Caps ended up on the wrong end of a 4-2 final. The Lightning's win shaves the Caps' series lead to 2-1.

Throughout much of their 15-game run through the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring, the ride for the Capitals has been rather comfortable. Sure they've lost some games and some leads, and they lost the first two games of their first-round series with Columbus, putting them in a virtual must-win situation in Game 3 four weeks ago.

On Tuesday in Washington, the Caps faced a Tampa Bay Lightning team that had enjoyed a similarly comfortable ride until the first two games of this series, and one that was desperate for a victory after dropping the first two games at home.

Lightning coach Jon Cooper stressed the importance of owning a lead against the Capitals after Tuesday's morning skate, and then his team went out and put the Caps in a position they had not been in at any point during their 15-game rid through the postseason, in a three-goal ditch.

Here is Cooper on Tuesday afternoon:

"One of the things for me is you have to make [the Caps] play catch-up, because when they do have the lead they sit back, and you have to go through four guys. They all can skate, they're all angling, they're all in lanes, and it just makes it tougher.

"When they don't have the lead, they're a little bit more loose in the way they play. They don't sit back as much, they're not waiting for you to make a mistake because they're trying to create offense themselves. So if you want to have a chance to kind of open things up for yourself, make sure you get the lead."

And here is Cooper on Tuesday night, after his players put the Caps in a rare multi-goal hole:

"The big thing for us is - and it's worked I guess in the three games [of this series] - it's the team that really gets the lead is the team that's in the driver's seat. All of a sudden you're making the other team chase the game. Maybe they play a little different, and that was big for us.

"I know that we had the lead for a little brief part in Game 2, but to get a multiple-goal lead, that was a big thing for us. They get that 3-1 goal and the building is kind of hopping a little bit, and they pushed. But our big push was [Brayden Point] getting that fourth [goal] to kind of pop the balloon.

"It's just so much better to play with the lead."

Washington trailed for a total of 46 minutes and 7 seconds in Tuesday's game. Going into Game 3, the Caps had spent a grand total of 113 minutes and 30 seconds trailing on the scoreboard, the lowest total of any of the 16 playoff entrants in 2018.

Bolts' Best - The Lightning is a talent-laden team, and the Bolts had five representatives at the 2018 NHL All-Star Game in Tampa. Those five players were all at their best on Tuesday, and they were all productive in helping the Bolts to earn a victory in what was virtually a must-win game for Tampa Bay.

Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman and Point scored Tampa Bays four goals, and all four players had multiple-goal games as well. Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy yielded 10 goals in the first two games of this series in losing consecutive games for the first time this spring, but he stopped 36 of 38 Washington shots to move back into the win column on Tuesday.

"They're top players," says Cooper, "because to get to this point, you need to make sure you have 97-plus points during the 82-game season. And those guys were a big reason that we got to that point.

"When you get to the playoffs, really it's the team that wins. Usually there is a different hero every single night, and that's how we've advanced. I don't know who you're grouping in the top players, but you think of Kucherov and Stamkos and those guys leading the charge. When we've needed them in the big games - so, say Game 4 in the Boston series, Game 4 in the Jersey series, Game 3 in the Washington series - those guys have delivered when we've needed it. Often times, that's what those guys do - they come in when you need them."

Oh-For-Washington -This is the third playoff series between the Caps and the Lightning, and the next time the Capitals prevail over the Bolts in a playoff game in the District will be the first time.

The Lightning has won each of the previous two series (in 2003 and 2011), mainly because it has won every postseason game it has every played at Capital One Arena. Tuesday night's Game 3 triumph over the Caps gives the Lightning a 6-0 mark in Washington's barn in the playoffs. The Caps are 4-3 all-time in playoff games played in Tampa Bay.

Double Sawbuck - Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov scored late in the third period of Tuesday's game with goaltender Braden Holtby pulled in favor of an extra attacker. The goal was Kuznetsov's ninth of the playoffs, and his fourth in the last five games. Kuznetsov also stretched his scoring streak to six straight games (four goals, seven assists).

Kuznetsov now has 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in the 2018 playoffs, becoming the seventh Russian-born player to reach he 20-point plateau in a single Stanley Cup playoffs season.

Biting The Hand That Once Fed Him, Again - Caps winger Brett Connolly was originally a Tampa Bay draft choice, the Lightning's first pick (sixth overall) in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. But the Lightning moved on from Connolly after 134 games scattered over parts of four seasons, dealing him to Boston just ahead of the 2015 NHL trade deadline.

Now in his second season with the Capitals, Connolly scored Washington's first goal in Tuesday's Game 3, marking the second straight game in which he scored against his former team. Connolly now has four goals in the postseason, ranking him fifth on the team behind Alex Ovechkin (10), Kuznetsov (9), T.J. Oshie and Lars Eller (five each).

Eight Straight - Hedman stretched his scoring streak to eight straight games when he picked up the primary assist on Steven Stamkos' power-play goal in the first period of Game 3. Hedman later added a goal and another helper, but any way you slice it he now owns an eight-game scoring streak, which is the longest such streak by a defenseman in the playoffs in more than 20 years.

Ex-Caps and Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Murphy had a nine-game scoring run with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1995 Stanley Cup playoffs, and Hedman's is the longest streak of its kind since. The league's all-time record postseason scoring streak by a blueliner is a remarkable 17-game spree by Hockey Hall of Famer Al MacInnis with Cup-winning Calgary in 1989.

Eight Straight, Part Deux - With a pair of power-play tallies in Game 3, the Lightning has struck with the extra man in eight straight contests during the 2018 playoffs. The Bolts were 2-for-5 with the extra man on Tuesday, and they're 10-for-31 (32.3%) with the man advantage during that eight-game streak.

Tampa Bay's power play outfit has scored at least once in 11 of the team's 13 games this spring, and it has delivered multiple goals in four of those 13 contests.

By The Numbers - The top-line duo of Ovechkin and Kuznetsov accounted for 21 of Washington's 38 shots on net and for 33 of its 69 shot attempts in Game 3 … John Carlson led the Caps with 26:22 in ice time … Kuznetsov led the Caps with a dozen shots on net, with half of them in the third period … Ovechkin led the Caps with 18 shot attempts … Devante Smith-Pelly led the Caps with eight hits, and he piled up those body blows in just 8:48 worth of ice time … Matt Niskanen led the Caps with three blocked shots.