'Wednesday Night Hockey': 5 Storylines

The defending Stanley Cup champions and the newly crowned Presidents' Trophy winners meet for the second time in four days when the Tampa Bay Lightning visit Capital One Arena to play the Washington Capitals in the first game of a "Wednesday Night Hockey" doubleheader (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN). Tampa Bay (56-13-4) clinched the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team on Monday for the first time since entering the League in 1992-93, and the defending champion Capitals (43-23-7) are two points ahead of the New York Islanders for first place in the Metropolitan Division.

In the second game, the Central Division-leading Winnipeg Jets (43-25-4) visit the Anaheim Ducks (30-35-9) at Honda Center (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TSN3). The Jets have won three in a row, including a 3-2 victory at the Los Angeles Kings on Monday.
Here are 5 storylines to watch:

Capitals look for revenge

Amazingly, the Capitals and Lightning went 71 games before facing each other for the first time this season, a Tampa Bay win at Amalie Arena on Saturday, the first of three games between the teams in a 15-day stretch; they play again at Tampa Bay on March 30. The Lightning stunned the Capitals with two quick goals midway through the first period, and Washington spent the rest of the night chasing the game. The Capitals got within one goal three times but couldn't get the equalizer before pulling goalie Braden Holtby and allowing two empty-net goals in the final minute. Washington's road to repeating as Stanley Cup champ could include a rematch with Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference Final. The Capitals can make their path easier by finishing first in a division that has its first five teams separated by nine points, so defeating the Lightning at home is vital.

Ovechkin closing in on 50

Two of Washington's three goals in the loss at Tampa Bay were scored by forward Alex Ovechkin, who is two goals from his eighth 50-goal season, one short of the NHL record held by Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky. Ovechkin leads the NHL with 48 goals; if he finishes the season on top, he'll be the first player in NHL history to do so eight times. There was talk two years ago Ovechkin might have lost something; since then, he has led the NHL with 49 goals last season, powered the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup since entering the NHL in 1974 and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. He has a five-goal lead on Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl (second in the League with 43 goals); at 33, he's still the most dangerous scorer in the NHL and the first player any opponent has to be concerned about stopping when Washington.

Lightning playing for history

The Lightning clinched the Atlantic Division, Eastern Conference and Presidents' Trophy on Monday with a 4-1 win against the visiting Arizona Coyotes. But there are still a few things they can accomplish in their remaining nine games in addition to getting ready for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Six victories in those nine games will tie the Lightning with the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings for the NHL single-season record for victories (62). Getting 16 of the possible 18 remaining points on their schedule would give the Lightning 132 for the season, which would match the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens for the most in NHL history. Forward Nikita Kucherov, the NHL scoring leader with 117 points (35 goals, 82 assists), already has more points than any player since Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby had 120 in 2006-07. If Kucherov gets 10 points in his final nine games, he would finish with 127, matching Jaromir Jagr of the 1998-99 Penguins for the most in the NHL in the past 20 years.

Jets coming together

It has been an up-and-down season in Winnipeg, where the Jets haven't shown anywhere near the consistency they did a year ago, when they set a Jets/Atlanta Thrashers record for points (114) and victories (52), finished second in the NHL standings and advanced to the conference final for the first time. Forward Blake Wheeler (88 points; 20 goals, 68 assists) and center Mark Scheifele (79 points; 34 goals, 45 assists) each is on his way to a career season, but third-year forward Patrik Laine has scored five goals the beginning of January and No. 1 goalie Connor Hellebuyck hasn't matched the form that made him a Vezina Trophy finalist last season. Still, Winnipeg has won three straight and is 6-3-0 this month, enough to keep it one point ahead of the Nashville Predators for first place in the division.

Ducks almost out of time

Anaheim is nine points behind Arizona, which holds the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference and would need to run the table in its final eight games to have even a remote chance of qualifying for the postseason. Realistically, they're going to pay the price for a stretch from Dec. 18 through Feb. 9, when they won twice in 21 games (2-15-4). But they've won their past two games, 5-3 at the Colorado Avalanche on Friday and 3-2 at home against the Florida Panthers two days later. Anaheim's biggest problem has been scoring; the Ducks are last in the NHL with 2.30 goals per game. Center Ryan Getzlaf leads Anaheim with 46 points (13 goals, 33 assists), and forward Jakob Silfverberg is tops with 22 goals, including four in his past five games. Goalie John Gibson hasn't gotten much help for most of the season; he's 22-21-8 with a 2.86 goals-against average but a .917 save percentage.