POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Bolts 3, Caps 2

Missed It By That Much - Facing the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in its own building on Monday night, the Capitals did a lot of good things and played a strong 60 minutes. But at night's end, they left Amalie Arena empty-handed for the first time in nine games on the young season.

Tampa Bay eked out a 3-2 win over the Capitals, who had a bevy of scoring chances throughout the night only to be denied by Lightning netminder Andrej Vasilevskiy on the best of those opportunities.
The Caps came out of the starting gate with a lot of verve, and Brett Leason's first NHL goal staked them to an early 1-0 lead. Washington was quick and sharp out of its own end for most of the night, especially for the first 10-12 minutes of the first period.
Vasilevskiy made arguably his best stop of the night in the early seconds of the second, denying Tom Wilson from the top of the paint in the final seconds of a carryover power play for the Caps.
Circumstances doomed the Caps on the two Tampa Bay goals in the second period. First, Washington's youthful fourth line was guilty of icing the puck early in the frame, and the Lightning exploited the matchup, putting its top line out for the ensuing offensive zone face-off. Five seconds later, Tampa Bay's Alex Killorn scored to make it a 1-1 game.
Nearing the midpoint of the period, the Caps were already down a man when Wilson and Killorn got tangled up in some incidental contact high in the Washington zone. Given that Wilson had already drawn a tripping call on Killorn in the first and another tripping call on Anthony Cirelli in the second, the powers that be weren't going to have Wilson drawing a third call in less than 30 minutes. And they weren't going to let it go as incidental contact, either. Off went Wilson for interference, and naturally, the Lightning scored the go-ahead goal on the 5-on-3.
Tampa Bay's third goal came in the third when Brayden Point scored on a breakaway following a Washington turnover in neutral ice, and the Caps pulled to within a goal when Conor Sheary scored on power play with 8:22 left in the third.
Deploying their 6-on-5 unit for the first time this season in the final minute of regulation, the Caps' best late chance came when Lars Eller took a feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov on a rush, but ultimately didn't have a good enough angle with which to get off a good shot.
"You've got to time it," says Eller. "It's all about timing the puck, and the angle just got too sharp at the end. Maybe I should have kept my feet moving a little more to catch it earlier, but at the same time I have to wait until the puck lands on the ice. It's frustrating because it's one of those where you're so close, but you're not there."
"I'm not sure I was in love with our game tonight," says Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "I don't think we managed the puck as well as we could have. I think our goalie was a big part. That save he makes on Wilson at the start of the second was phenomenal, and it was a one-goal game [at the time], so he was a big part of it.
"But I did like the way we played after they made it 3-2, to be able to shut the game down, and they did that."
Streak Stoppers -Washington's bid for a ninth straight game with at least a point to start the season fell short; the Caps were looking to match a franchise record they established at the outset of last season when they opened 6-0-3.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin was held without a point for the first time this season in Monday's game. His point streak was halted at eight games, matching his own personal best from the start of a season. Ovechkin also had an eight-game point run back in 2005-06, his rookie season in the NHL.
First Strike - Leason joined Hendrix Lapierre as the second Caps rookie to notch his first NHL goal this season. The 22-year-old winger scored just eight seconds into the first shift of his second game in the League, with Nick Jensen collecting the only assist on the play.
From the right half-wall, Leason put a wrist shot toward the net and it clicked off the stick of Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman and in at 1:13 of the first period.
Leason's goal is Washington's only 5-on-5 goal in the team's last three games, since it erupted for seven of them in a 7-5 win over the Senators in Ottawa on Oct. 25.
Get Your Wings - A game after Leason made his NHL debut for the Caps against Arizona, 20-year-old center Aliaksei Protas made his debut in the League against the Lightning on Monday. Protas was Washington's third-round pick (91st overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft, and when he took the ice on Monday in Tampa, the Caps became the first NHL team to have three of their 2019 picks play in the League. Connor McMichael (first round) and Leason preceded Protas.
Protas skated just 3:53 over his seven shifts in the game, winning one of five draws he took on the night.
By The Numbers -John Carlson led the Caps with 24:36 in ice time … Ovechkin led the Caps with six shots on net and nine shot attempts … Wilson led the Capitals with four hits … Jensen, Wilson, Kuznetsov, Martin Fehervary and Trevor van Riemsdyk each blocked two shots to lead Washington … Eller won 13 of 22 draws (62 percent).