#CapsBolts Skate Shavings: Century City

Washington opened its 2017-18 pursuit of the Stanley Cup on Oct. 5 against the Senators in Ottawa. Tonight, the Caps will play their 100th game of the season - including regular season and playoffs - and they must win it if they're to play in a 101st game on Wednesday night in Tampa.

Three straight losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference final series have the Caps on the verge of elimination, trailing 3-2 in the series. They must win tonight to force a deciding Game 7 on Wednesday against the Bolts in Tampa, and they must win that game to move on to the Stanley Cup final against Vegas, which eliminated Winnipeg in five games in the Western Conference final on Sunday afternoon.

The Caps have been eliminated from the first and second round of the playoffs many times over the years, but this is the first time they've had their backs up against the proverbial wall in the third round since 1990, the first time in their history they managed to get this far.

Does it feel any different to be heading into an elimination game when you're only two wins shy of reaching the Cup final?

"It does feel different, obviously," says Caps center Jay Beagle. "It feels like there is more at stake. None of us are ready to be done. None of us are ready to have this season be over. We were even talking in rounds one and two about how it felt different - the year felt different and the way everything has played out felt different.

"We're not ready to be done, and it's in our hands. I feel like when we play the right way and we played like we did in the second and third periods of Game 5, we set ourselves up with a good chance to win a hockey game. And when we don't, when we wait and see what a team is going to do, [we have trouble]. And that's on all of us, that was on all of us in that first period. It wasn't just the first shift; it was the whole first period. It's unacceptable.

"It's a good feeling to have it be on you. You know if you play your best, and you know if you bring it tonight, that we're going to walk away with a win. That's a good feeling and we have to just make sure that everyone is ready and prepared and we go out and do a job."

"Yeah, probably a little bit," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "Every situation is a little different. We were in a different situation in the first round and we've been in a different situation in the second round. Just another thing to grow with."

Get 'Em Out - As desperate as the Caps are to keep their season going, the Lightning is every bit as desperate to take them out on Monday and to avoid the uncertainty of a decisive Game 7. Regardless of whether the Caps or the Lightning comes out of the East to face Vegas for the Cup, the Stanley Cup final series gets underway a week from Monday, on May 28. Each of the three surviving teams at this stage has its share of bumps and bruises, and a couple of extra days rest would be a welcome salve for the Lightning. Additionally, anything can happen in a Game 7, so Tampa Bay will be eager to remove that possibility. The Lightning will be extremely motivated to finish the Caps on Monday, rather than waiting until Wednesday.

The Lightning wasted no time in eliminating its first two playoff opponents this spring - New Jersey and Boston - taking them both out in the first chance to do so, in Game 5 of each series.

"Well, there's no doubt that we'd love to do that," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said on Sunday. "The difference was both those were at home. This one we're going on the road. But we've been in these situations before. In these last four years or three playoff runs, you just do the math every different way. We've been up 2-3, down 3-2, been on the road, been at home. We can't look back, we just have to look forward.

"We have to understand the magnitude of the situation. Yes, we're going on the road and we have had success there, but to close this out, if you can, garner a couple more days' rest. As you know, at this time of year, we're banged up, they're banged up. The mental fatigue. Any time you can close one out earlier than seven is a good thing."

Tampa Bay recently went almost eight years in between regulation victories over the Capitals in Washington during the regular season. But in a real oddity, the Lightning has never lost a playoff game in the District. The Bolts come into Monday's Game 6 owning a 7-0 postseason record in the big barn on F St.

"The series isn't over till you win four games," says Lightning forward Tyler Johnson. "We really haven't accomplished anything yet. We're one game away, but that's what it is, one game away. You never want to give a team life. You want to try to get it over as fast as possible."

Lead Me On - Washington led on the scoreboard almost exclusively in the first two games of this series, winning both games. Tampa Bay led on the scoreboard almost exclusively in the last three games of this series, winning all three.

In the 2018 playoffs, the Lightning is 8-1 when leading after the first period, and it is 9-0 when leading after two. The Bolts were 36-1-2 when leading after 40 minutes during the regular season. As the Caps have learned in the last three games, spotting the Lightning an early lead - and in particular, a multi-goal lead - is not a recipe for success.

"I think it's huge," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "It just changes the way you play, and you want to be on the right side of that, obviously. The game is a lot easier when they have to take all of the risk. I think you saw that in the first two games [of the series ] with all of the odd-man rushes that we were able to create, and just good, hard wall plays and good breakouts. So that's definitely No. 1 on our priority list tonight, is to get a good start and get the first goal, for sure."

Washington got that first goal in Game 4, taking a 1-0 lead on a Dmitry Orlov blast before the game was even five minutes old. But that lead was short-lived; the Lightning managed a pair of quick strikes that left the Caps looking up at a 2-1 deficit before the first period was even halfway over. Washington's 70 seconds of lead time in Game 4 is all the lead time it has had in these last three games, and the Caps have trailed for more minutes in the last three games than they did in the 14 playoff games before that this spring, combined.

Tampa Bay scored the game's first goal just 19 seconds into Game 5, and it never trailed thereafter, rolling up an early 3-0 lead before the Caps began to try to claw their way back into the contest.

"Ultimately, getting the lead has been huge for us," says Cooper. "They've had that attack mentality in Game 5 to start the game. And in Game 4, when [the Caps] scored first, we get two quick ones right after that. So we've kind of taken momentum from them. Whether that's killer instinct or whatever you call it, it's a pretty good response from the guys."

Burakovsky's Back - The Caps will make one personnel adjustment for Game 6, re-installing Andre Burakovsky into the lineup in place of Alex Chiasson. Burakovsky was injured early in Game 2 of the Caps' first-round series with Columbus, and he missed Washington's next 10 games.

On the sidelines for nearly a month, Burakovsky returned to the Washington lineup at the start of the series against the Lightning. Missing so much time at such a critical stage of the season has proven to be difficult for Burakovsky, who struggled mightily in Game 4 and was subsequently scratched for Game 5.

With Washington facing elimination, the Caps want Burakovsky's speed and scoring ability in the lineup tonight. During morning skate line rushes, he was on a unit with familiar linemates Lars Eller and Brett Connolly, but Trotz hints that other changes could be in the offing this evening.

"He is a guy who has given us some good offense all through his time here," says Trotz of Burakovsky. "We think that he could probably add some of that.

"We're going to move some pieces around. What you saw today probably won't stay that way. But if it does, we have some options. We're looking at a couple of things that we're going to trying to do during the game, and obviously we've got a plan."

The last time the Caps faced elimination in Game 6 of a playoff series was in the second round against Pittsburgh in 2017. The Capitals prevailed 5-2 in that game, and Burakovsky spearheaded the Washington attack with a pair of goals. Three of his six career goals in the postseason have come in elimination games.

In The Nets - Without Braden Holtby, the Caps likely would have exited the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs well before Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final series. Holtby outplayed Columbus goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky in the Caps' first-round series, and he did the same with Pens goalie Matt Murray in the second round.

Holtby posted a .932 save pct. in the first round and a .921 save pct. in the second round, but he has been outplayed by Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy in this series. Holtby has a save pct. of just .883 in the ECF series while Vaslievskiy is at .905. In the last three games - all Washington losses - the difference between the two is much more pronounced. Holtby is at .844 while seeing just 64 shots while Vasilevskiy is at .943 on a much higher workload of 106 shots.

Bottom line, the Caps need Holtby to steal a few saves, a period, or even a game if they're going to advance to face Vegas in the Cup final. As it stands right now, Vasilevskiy stealing Game 4 from the Caps in Washington is the difference between the two teams in the series.

Holtby is 6-5 all-time - with four consecutive victories - in Game 6, and he is also 6-5 all-time in games in which the Caps are facing elimination.

"We're just trying to focus on the task at hand," says Holtby, "that's putting together the effort that we need to have success. Every one of us just trying to get in the right frame of mind to play our best game individually, focus on what you have to do for the team, and the team will come together that way. If you just worry about doing your job and supporting your teammates and doing that, we will have success."

After allowing 10 goals in his first five periods of work - he was pulled at the start of the third period of Game 1 - in this series, Vasilevskiy has limited the Caps to exactly two goals in each of the last three games, and two of those Washington goals were scored late in the contest, after Holtby was pulled for an extra attacker. The Capitals reached Vasilevskiy for seven goals at five-on-five in the first two games of the series, but Washington has managed just four such tallies in three games since. In his two previous elimination games this spring, Vasilevskiy stopped 53 of the 55 shots he faced for a .964 save pct., allowing one goal on the power play and another at five-on-five, and winning both by identical 3-1 scores.

All Lined Up - Here is how we expect the Caps and the Lightning to look when they take the ice for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final series on Monday night at Capital One Arena:

WASHINGTONForwards

8-Ovechkin, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson

13-Vrana, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie

65-Burakovsky, 20-Eller, 10-Connolly

18-Stephenson, 83-Beagle, 25-Smith-Pelly

Defensemen

6-Kempny, 74-Carlson

9-Orlov, 2-Niskanen

44-Orpik, 29-Djoos

Goaltenders

70-Holtby

31-Grubauer

Scratches

1-Copley

22-Bowey

28-Jerabek

39-Chiasson

63-Gersich

72-Boyd

79-Walker

Injured

None

TAMPA BAYForwards

18-Palat, 91-Stamkos, 86-Kucherov

37-Gourd, 21-Point, 9-Johnson

17-Killorn, 71-Cirelli, 10-Miller

14-Kunitz, 13-Paquette, 24-Callahan

Defensemen

77-Hedman, 5-Girardi

27-McDonagh, 6-Stralman

55-Coburn, 98-Sergachev

Goaltenders

88-Vasilevskiy

70-Domingue

Scratches

29-Koekkoek

59-Dotchin

62-Sustr

89-Conacher

Injuries

73-Erne (lower body)