Lightning at Capitals preview

LIGHTNING (17-12-4) at CAPITALS (25-6-5)
7 p.m. ET; NHLN, NBCSWA, SUN, NHL.TV

Washington is 9-2-0 in its past 11 games and 18-4-2 in its past 24 after a 6-3 road win at the New Jersey Devils on Friday.
Tampa Bay is 3-1-1 in its past five games after going 2-4-1 in its previous seven. The Lightning, after leading 3-1, lost 4-3 to the Dallas Stars in overtime on Thursday.
The Capitals and Lightning conclude their season series; Washington won 4-3 in overtime at Capital One Arena on Nov. 29 and 5-2 in Tampa Bay on Dec. 14.

Players to watch

Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov has 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) in a 12-game point streak against Washington and needs one goal for 200 in the NHL, one assist for 300 and two points for 500.
Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom had four points (two goals, two assists) on Friday and has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his past 12 games.

They said it

"We have a good system in place and when we play it, things go well for us. We're getting some tough bounces against us, but I thought the last couple games we've controlled a lot of the play and skated well." -- Lightning forward Brayden Point
"[We] were able to get the two points against a hard-working [New Jersey] team that is young and competitive. Now we get back, get some sleep and get ready for a fresh Tampa squad that's probably not that happy right now. So, we've got to make sure that we're ready." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- Steven Stamkos
Pat Maroon -- Cedric Paquette -- Yanni Gourde
Carter Verhaeghe -- Tyler Johnson -- Mitchell Stephens
Victor Hedman -- Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched: Luke Schenn
Injured: Braydon Coburn (lower body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin -- Lars Eller -- Richard Panik
Brendan Leipsic -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Nick Jensen
Jonas Siegenthaler -- Radko Gudas
Braden Holtby
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched: Travis Boyd
Injured: None

Status report

Neither team held a morning skate. … Holtby returns in goal after Samsonov started Friday against New Jersey.

Stat pack

Tampa Bay is 0-3-1 in its past four games against Metropolitan Division teams. Killorn has scored four goals in his past five games against the Capitals. … The Capitals are 4-0-1 in the second game of back to backs. Ovechkin needs one power-play goal to pass Teemu Selanne (255) for third place on the NHL all-time list. Ovechkin has 91 points (48 goals, 43 assists) in 71 games against the Lightning, tied for the most points he has earned against an NHL franchise (Atlanta/Winnipeg and Carolina).