SKATE SHAVINGS - News and Notes from Caps' Morning Skate 3/20

Re-Make/Re-Model - Four nights after they finally met for the first time in the 2018-19 regular season, the Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning are set to do battle once again, this time in the District. The two combatants of last spring's exciting seven-game Eastern Conference final series met for the first time on Saturday night at Tampa's Amalie Arena, with the Bolts taking a 6-3 decision.

A pair of empty-net goals in the game's final minute skewed the score of that one, but the Lightning was in control of the contest throughout. Washington played well for the final 40 minutes, but struggled to get started and dug itself a two-goal deficit in the first period.
The Caps came back and pulled within a goal on three separate occasions, but were never able to get the equalizer. Alex Ovechkin scored twice - including once on the power play in the second period - to run his league-leading goal total to 48.

"I thought we turned the puck over a little bit too much in the first, but they are an opportunistic team," says Caps defenseman John Carlson, who scored the other Caps goal in the game. "We just gave them a little bit too much momentum.
"I think we had a great second period. You always like to score on the power play, but I thought after that we didn't get enough momentum and they made a little bit of a push there. We played pretty well, but when you are playing this good of a team, you need more than pretty well."
It wasn't the Lightning's top six that hurt the Caps on Saturday. Third line winger Alex Killorn recorded a hat trick and defenseman Erik Cernak netted the fourth, empty-netters aside.
"It seems like they're pretty solid," says Carlson of the Lightning. "There are no surprises. Just like us, they've got - for the most part - the same team, and we know how dangerous they are. I thought parts of their game were real good. I thought our forwards in the first period did a real good job helping us break the puck out against a lot of pressure, and it just felt like that next play was lacking. They can transition pretty good and create turnovers, and I just thought we weren't crisp enough at getting completely out of our zone."
From a Washington standpoint, all four of the Lightning goals were easier than the Caps would have liked. The first came off a short-ice, odd-man rush caused by Washington turnover in neutral ice. The second was a centering feed that glanced into the net off of Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov. The third came off a rush - and a rebound - just 14 seconds after Washington lost a face-off in the offensive zone. The fourth came on a sustained offensive zone shift during which the Caps were operating with a rather odd and rare trio of forwards: Jakub Vrana, Chandler Stephenson and Tom Wilson.

The Caps did some good things in Saturday's loss, too. They generated scoring chances in the game's final 40 minutes, their penalty killing outfit was stellar against an extremely daunting Tampa Bay power play that features a trio of prolific scoring threats, and they limited the Lightning's top players at five-on-five.
As they get set to tee it up again, the Caps seem to have a strong sense of what they need to do differently in order to come out on top.
"I think the first goal is big," says Carlson. "It seemed to be big [against the Lightning] last year. I think you saw that tonight - we were kind of chasing it even though we were playing well. We were still forced into doing maybe a few things that we normally don't do. These are fun games to play in. This is a big time hockey game, and it's fun to play in those I look forward to more."
There's another one tonight.
"Obviously the last game was a good battle, and we are expecting that again," says Wilson. "We are going to have to take care of ourselves here and get ready to play the best team in the league [Wednesday] night. It's important points, and another measuring stick game. We're looking forward to it, and another chance to get a crack at them. When you have that feeling and you play them again so soon, it's nice to get back after it."
The Setup - Facing a team as strong as the Lightning while finishing a set of back-to-back games is not optimal, but the Caps put themselves in a good position for Wednesday's game during Tuesday's 4-1 win over the Devils in New Jersey. Defenseman Brooks Orpik and goalie Braden Holtby had the night off against the Devils, but both are expected to play against the Bolts on Wednesday.
No Washington defenseman logged more than Matt Niskanen's 21:18 on Tuesday, a game in which the Caps were tasked with only two penalty killing missions. All Caps forwards skated between 12 and 19 minutes, with Alex Ovechkin leading the way at 18:26, well below his average of 20:47 per night this season.
"We just saw them the other day, so it's a big challenge for us," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "They didn't play [Tuesday], so for us to go into it on a back-to-back is difficult with travel. But I think that we were able to use a lot of players [Tuesday] and I thought Pheonix played well. So we will see Braden [Wednesday] and hopefully our guys shouldn't be too worn down from that game. We were able to spread out the minutes for the most part.
"They're a top team and it's a great challenge. We need to be better than we were in Tampa against them to give ourselves a chance."
As was the case with most of his players, Reirden pointed to the start as the area most in need of improvement the second time around.
"We have to make sure that we are ready to start the game when the puck drops," Reirden declares. "I liked our second and third [periods] - for the most part - against them. In the first period, they were playing at a high pace; they have a little animosity given last year's loss to us [in the playoffs].
"We expected their best there in Tampa, and they are going to feel the same way again [Wednesday]. But we've got to be ready to start the game right away. They will be the fresher team, so we've got to make sure that we can slow them down a little bit early by playing with some good structure through the neutral zone and making them go 200 feet to create offense until we get our legs underneath us and going."
Top Of the Charts - Both the Caps and Bolts played a game between their Saturday night meeting in Tampa and Wednesday's tilt in Washington. The Caps beat the Devils on Tuesday night in Newark, and the Lightning downed the Coyotes on Monday in Tampa, both winning by 4-1 scores.
In Tampa Bay's triumph, Steven Stamkos scored the Lightning's first goal, the 384th of his NHL career. With that goal, Stamkos moved past Vincent Lecavalier (383) for the most career goals in Tampa Bay franchise history.
In doing so, Stamkos becomes one of just three active players who rank at the top of their current team's all-time goals list. He joins Washington's Ovechkin (655) and Vegas' William Karlsson (63) on that short list.

In The Nets - Holtby gets the net for Washington on Wednesday against the Lightning. Holtby started on Saturday against the Bolts, stopping 29 of the 33 shots he faced in a 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay.
Since the All-Star break, Holtby owns a 10-6-1 record with a shutout, a 2.54 GAA and a .917 save pct. Lifetime against the Lightning, he is 9-4-2 with a couple of shutouts, a 2.84 GAA and a .908 save pct.
Andrei Vasilevskiy gets the net for the Lightning on Wednesday in Washington. Vasilevskiy stopped 30 of the 33 shots sent his way in Saturday's victory over the Caps, and he enters Wednesday's game with a four-game winning streak and with 14 wins in his last 15 starts.
Since the All-Star break, Vasilevskiy is 15-1-2 with three shutouts, a 1.79 GAA and a .942 save pct. Lifetime against Washington, he is 3-4-0 with a 3.26 GAA and a .904 save pct.
All Lined Up - Here's how we expect the Caps and the Lightning to look when they meet on Wednesday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
62-Hagelin, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly
65-Burakovsky, 26-Dowd, 18-Stephenson
Defensemen
6-Kempny, 74-Carlson
9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik, 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
70-Holtby
1-Copley
Injuries
None
Scratches
23-Jaskin
29-Djoos
72-Boyd
TAMPA BAY
Forwards
18-Palat, 91-Stamkos, 10-Miller
9-johnson, 21-Point, 86-Kucherov
17-Killorn, 71-Cirelli, 7-Joseph
73-Erne, 13-Paquette, 37-Gourde
Defensemen
77-Hedman, 98-Sergachev
27-McDonagh, 81-Cernak
55-Coburn, 44-Rutta
Goaltenders
88-Vasilevskiy
70-Domingue
Injuries
5-Girardi (lower body)
6-Stralman (lower body)
Scratches
24-Callahan
62-Martel