The Washington Capitals are flying high as they return to home ice to face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
The Capitals have won their past three games, their longest winning streak since they took four straight from Oct. 11 to Oct. 17. With 15 goals in the past two games, Washington now leads the NHL in goals in November — an enormous turnaround for a team that had been mired in an offensive slump for most of the season.
Washington’s first two games against the Lightning ended in 3-2 scores. The Capitals won the first meeting in overtime at Capital One Arena on Oct. 14, then Tampa Bay beat Washington in Florida two weeks ago.
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“Guys have a really clear understanding of what to expect from the opposition and what the Tampa Bay Lightning do really, really well,” Coach Spencer Carbery said Saturday morning. “… It doesn’t change anything tactically — I mean, a little bit, because you’re making small adjustments, but it doesn’t change how we prepare.”
After two dramatic wins in a row — beating visiting Edmonton, 7-4, on Wednesday and winning, 8-4, in Montreal on Thursday — the Capitals plan to keep the same lineup of skaters for Saturday’s game. Center Nic Dowd is out for the third game in a row with an upper-body injury but skated Saturday morning, a positive step in his recovery.
Logan Thompson will start in goal for Washington. Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to start for the Lightning.
The offensive outburst in the past two games was sorely needed for the Capitals, but Carbery is keeping his attention on the defensive side of their game after they allowed four goals in each of those matchups.
“The challenge for myself as a coach is now, because you’ve got a confident group that feels really good and then you also want to make sure that the other parts of your game are staying really tight,” Carbery said. “So if we don’t score seven, we still can win. … To me, just because we won a game, I don’t just gloss over and go, ‘Oh, okay, move on to the next one.’”
How to watch Lightning at Capitals
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Capital One Arena
TV: Monumental Sports Network
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM)
Records: Tampa Bay 11-7-2, Washington 11-8-2
Capitals’ projected lineup
Forwards
Anthony Beauvillier — Dylan Strome — Alex Ovechkin
Aliaksei Protas — Justin Sourdif — Tom Wilson
Brandon Duhaime — Connor McMichael — Ryan Leonard
Sonny Milano — Hendrix Lapierre — Ethen Frank
Defensemen
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Lightning’s projected lineup
Forwards
Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Nikita Kucherov
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Nick Paul
Oliver Bjorkstrand — Dominic James — Gage Goncalves
Curtis Douglas — Yanni Gourde — Zemgus Girgensons
Defensemen
J.J. Moser — Darren Raddysh
Charle-Edouard D’Astous — Emil Lilleberg
Declan Carlile — Steven Santini
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Pregame reading
The newest Caps fan was born last night. Her dad had three assists.
His first goal was a beauty. His second? Just watch.
This NHL rookie is living the dream. That doesn’t mean life is easy.
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