Lightning at Capitals: Projected lines, injuries, storylines
Tampa Bay travels to Washington for a Black Friday matchup against the caps
by Bryan Burns / TampaBayLightning.com
The Lightning travel to Washington to face their former Southeast division rivals at 5 p.m. on Black Friday. Tampa Bay continues one of its toughest stretches during the season facing the Blackhawks, Capitals and Penguins over a four-day stretch.
Lines from Wednesday's game vs. Chicago. Subject to change.
Forwards
Vladislav Namestnikov - Steven Stamkos - Nikita Kucherov
Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Yanni Gourde
Alex Killorn - Tyler Johnson - J.T. Brown
Chris Kunitz - Cedric Paquette - Ryan Callahan
Defense
Victor Hedman - Andrej Sustr
Mikhail Sergachev - Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn - Dan Girardi
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy or Peter Budaj
FRIDAY'S MATCHUPThe Lightning and the Capitals are playing the second of three meetings this season and the first of two at Capital One Arena...Tampa Bay rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 for a 4-3 overtime victory over the Caps at AMALIE Arena in the teams' first meeting, Brayden Point scoring the OT game-winner at 3:08 of the extra session...The Bolts are 2-7-0 in their last nine games against the Caps...The Lightning have dropped their last four games in D.C., the last victory coming in a 1-0 shootout win April 13, 2014...The Bolts are 15-36-
6 with four ties all-time in D.C...Braydon Coburn has recorded more career assists (14) vs. Washington than any other NHL team, and his 16 points against the Caps are tied for the most he's put up against any team (also: PIT and CAR).
SATURDAY'S STORYLINES
Tampa Bay continues to pace the NHL for points (34), points percentage (.809), ROW (15), goals (82) and goal differential (+29)...TheLightning are tied with STL for most wins in the League (16)...The Bolts are off to their best start in franchise history with 34 points and a 16-3-2 record through 21 games, six points better than the 28 points put up by the 2013-14 (14-7-0) and 2014-15 (13-6-2) teams through 21 games...Tampa Bay owns the best road record in the NHL (7-1-1)...The Lightning have won six in a row on the road, tied for the second-longest road win streak in franchise history, and can match the all-time franchise mark for consecutive road wins (7) set Jan. 7-Feb. 1, 2007 with a win tonight...The Bolts have earned at least a point in eight-straight road contests for the third-longest road point streak in Lightning history (franchise record: 10, set Feb. 5-March 10, 2004 and Jan. 5-Feb. 20, 2008)...The Lightning are playing the first half of a back-to-back set tonight, their fourth of 13 back-to-backs in 2017-18...The Bolts are a perfect 3-0-0 in the first game of a back-to-back set so far this season...The Lightning are playing the middle game in a stretch of three games in four days.
INJURIES
2017-18 Regular Season Man Games Lost: 16
Current injuries:
Jake Dotchin - Undisclosed (DAY-TO-DAY) 1 game
TRANSACTIONS
Nov. 14 -- Acquired G Louis Dominigue from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for G Michael Leighton and F Tye McGinn
STAMMER TIME
Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos tallied an assist on the game-winning OT goal Nov. 22 vs. CHI to give him points in 18 of 21 games this season...Stamkos has recorded more points through 21 games (36) than any other player in Lightning history, bettering his own mark of 35 he set in 2010-11...Stamkos continues to pace the NHL for scoring.
NHL SCORING LEADERS
1. Steven Stamkos (TBL) 10-26--36
2. Nikita Kucherov (TBL) 17-16--33
3. Johnny Gaudreau (CGY) 10-21--31
Stamkos has 11 multi-point performances in 2017-18...Stamkos owns a share of the longest point streak in the NHL this season (4-17--21 over 11 games from Oct. 6-26) along with teammate Nikita Kucherov...Stamkos has recorded at least one assist in 15 games andhas nine multi-assist performances on the season...Stamkos leads the NHL for assists.
ANDREI THE GIANT
Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 29-of-31 shots Nov. 22 vs. CHI to pick up his NHL-best 15th win of the season (no other League goalie has more than 13 wins)...Vasilevskiy has allowed two or fewer goals in four of his last five starts and 11 of 18 starts overall this season...Since Oct. 14, Vasilevskiy has allowed two or fewer goals in 11 of 14 starts...Vasilevskiy ranks fifth in the NHL for goals-against average (2.32) and tied for fifth for save percentage (.929)...Since the trade that sent Ben Bishop to Los Angeles last season (2/26/17), Vasilevskiy is 27-6-3, the 27 wins ranking first in the NHL over that stretch