Dec. 23 vs. Tampa Bay Lightning at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Stream: MonSports.net/Stream
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
Tampa Bay Lightning (16-13-5)
Washington Capitals (17-9-4)
Washington plays its final game before the NHL’s annual holiday break when it hosts the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night at Capital One Arena. Saturday’s skirmish marks the first of first of three meetings between the two former Southeast Division rivals this season, and it’s the first of two Lightning visits to the District this season. The Bolts will be back in town again on April 13, during Washington’s final homestand of the season.
The Caps carry a modest three-game winning streak into Saturday’s game. Each of the three victories required more than 60 minutes of hockey to secure, and each came against a Metropolitan Division rival. After going 12-9-5 against Metro foes last season, the Caps have rolled up a 9-2-1 record against their fellow divisional denizens this season.
Most recently, the Caps handed the Columbus Blue Jackets a 3-2 overtime defeat on Thursday night in Ohio’s capital city, skating off with two points when Alex Ovechkin netted the 26th game-winning overtime goal of his career – adding to his own NHL record – a power-play goal that snapped a 14-game red light dry spell for the Caps’ captain, the longest drought of his 19-year NHL career.
Washington’s overtime power play opportunity came in the form of a holiday gift from Jackets’ goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, who took a break from his senses – and from playing a pretty strong game – to administer some needless noogies to Washington winger Tom Wilson, who had been shoved into the Columbus net while following up a Martin Fehervary scoring chance in overtime.
For the second time in as many nights, the Caps won a 3-2 decision over a division rival in a game in which they never trailed, and for the second time in as many nights, they won on a 4-on-3 power-play goal in overtime. Dylan Strome scored the overtime game-winner on Wednesday against the Islanders, and Ovechkin made Merzlikins pay for his mindless roughing minor on Thursday.
Throughout much of the first third of the season, the Caps have subsisted largely on the strength of goaltending, penalty killing, a tenacious and fearless defense, and work ethic. They’re hoping this recent power play awakening continues; the extra man unit has now delivered five times in the last five games (5-for-15, 33.3%).
“I think we moved the puck well,” says Ovechkin of the Caps’ power play. “I think we find the rebounds and we hold the puck well, and you can that we spent all the power play in the [offensive] zone, like a minute, 1:10, 1:20, and it gives us confidence. You can see when we make a play, we have shots and we score two big goals.
“I hope it’s a message for us on how we have to play, and we’re just going to continue to play like that.”
Ovechkin pounded seven shots on net in Thursday’s win; he also missed twice – hitting iron once – and had seven tries blocked. His patented one-timer from his left dot office on the power play has not led to any of his six goals this season, but twice in Thursday’s game, Ovechkin opted to sling a wrist shot to the net on the power play, and both shots resulted in Washington goals.
Anthony Mantha tipped the first one through Merzlikins on the power play in the first period, giving the Capitals a 1-0 lead. That second wrister beat Merzlikins on the short side to send the Caps home with a pair of points.
“That’s what he’s good at,” says Mantha of Ovechkin. “He’ll get that team guessing. You just think he has a shot, but he has that vision to pass the puck always, and there’s plenty of times that he did so.”
This is true. Washington has scored only 11 power-play goals in 29 games this season, and Ovechkin’s game-winner on Thursday was his second of those 11. But the Caps’ captain leads the team with seven power-play assists and nine points with the extra man, so he has had a hand in more than 80 percent of Washington’s power play scoring this season.
Mantha’s power-play goal was his first of the season, just his third in 144 games with the Capitals, and his first in more than a year, since Oct. 20, 2022 in Ottawa.
“It feels great,” says Mantha of the power play’s recent resurgence. “Honestly, inside of the locker room, we knew it was going to eventually click. It didn’t go the way [we wanted] early on, and the guys made the adjustments, and they’re still making the adjustments to make it work. So it’s a big props to the group in here.”
And props to Mantha himself; he added a second goal in the second period for his second multi-goal game of the season. Mantha now has nine goals in just 26 games played this season, and he is now in the midst of the highest G/60 rate season of his nine-year NHL career at 1.6. His previous high was 1.3 in 2018-19 when he scored a career high of 25 goals.
Since suffering an 8-1 humbling at the hands of the Stars in Dallas on Dec. 2, the Lightning has rallied to win six of nine games (6-3-0), including each of the last two. The Bolts swept a two-game homestand, smacking St. Louis by a 6-1 count on Tuesday and downing Vegas 5-4 on Thursday night.
Tampa Bay spotted the Golden Knights an early two-goal lead in Thursday’s game, then roared back to take a 4-2 lead with a four-goal eruption in the middle frame. Vegas pulled even in the third, and then the Lightning’s Nick Paul sealed it for the Lightning, netting the game-winner with 1:13 remaining in regulation.
The Lightning continues to play well at home, going 10-3-3 at Amalie Arena to this juncture of the campaign. But the Bolts have been underwhelming on the road to date, going 6-10-2.
Tampa Bay played without top-notch netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy for the first month and a half of the season, and they’ve split 14 games (7-7-0) right down the middle since his return.
