5 Keys: Lightning at Capitals, Game 4

LIGHTNING at CAPITALS
8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS
Washington leads best-of-7 series 2-1
WASHINGTON --The Washington Capitals have another chance to move within one victory of advancing to the Stanley Cup Final when they play the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final at Capital One Arena on Thursday.

The road team has won the first three games in the series. The Capitals are 3-4 at home in the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Lightning are 4-1 on the road.
RELATED: [Backstrom skates, questionable for Capitals in Game 4 | Complete Lightning vs. Capitals series coverage]
Here are 5 keys for Game 4:

1. Pretend it's a road game

The way for the Capitals to fix the issues that have plagued them at home is to make Game 4 feel like a road game.
How?
"When you're on the road, you just expect things to not necessarily go your way, and I think at home sometimes you can kind of wait and feel like it's going to come easier," forward T.J. Oshie said. "I think in that regard we can get better at that, we can just approach the game like we did on the road, where whatever happens you've got to play through it and no complaining. Kind of play like men."

2. Hedman's heroics

Victor Hedman was all over the ice in Game 3.
He had a goal and two assists to extend his point streak to eight games (one goal, 10 assists), the longest in Lightning playoff history (Martin St. Louis held the record since 2004, when he had 11 points in a six-game streak) and the longest by an NHL defenseman since Larry Murphy had 15 points (two goals, 13 assists) in nine games for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1995 postseason.
Hedman led the Lightning with 25:08 of ice time, including 5:02 on the power play and 4:01 on the penalty kill. He had five shot attempts, two on net. He had two blocked shots, including one shorthanded on Evgeny Kuznetsov in the first period.
"You could just see he was jumping into plays. He was on pucks, he was defending, he was just doing everything we need from him," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

3. Get a lead

The team that scores first has won all three games in the series.
The Lightning are 7-1 in the playoffs when they score first and 2-3 when they don't. They think the Capitals soften their structure, especially in the neutral zone, when they play from behind. That creates more space for Tampa Bay.
The Capitals are 8-3 when they score first and 2-2 when they don't. When they lead, they think they can keep their structure in the neutral zone, which limits the Lightning's speed and eventually their forecheck as well.

4. Checking with your legs

Cooper has referenced the Lightning's ability to check with their legs often because it's essential to how they want to play -- fast and aggressive without their risks turning into rewards for the opponent.
The Lightning did that in Game 3. They stayed above the Capitals forwards in the offensive zone and kept their structure through the neutral zone. They didn't make risky pinches, and the Capitals didn't get the odd-man rushes that fueled them in Games 1 and 2.

5. Capitals' balance on PK

The Lightning went 2-for-5 on the power play in Game 3, and they're 5-for-12 in the series.
They've been successful in two ways: connecting on the pass through the middle between forwards Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos for one-timers from the face-off circles, and using Hedman at the point as the setup man for one-timers from the circles for Stamkos and Kucherov.
The issue for the Capitals is that they've been caught in between. If they cut off the middle lane, they sacrifice coverage on Hedman. If they cover Hedman, they allow the middle to open.
"The one area we want to adjust is just limiting it to one option instead of having both," goalie Braden Holtby said.

Lightning projected lineup

Ondrej Palat -- Steven Stamkos -- Nikita Kucherov
Yanni Gourde -- Brayden Point -- Tyler Johnson
Alex Killorn -- Anthony Cirelli -- J.T. Miller
Chris Kunitz -- Cedric Paquette -- Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman -- Dan Girardi
Ryan McDonagh -- Anton Stralman
Braydon Coburn -- Mikhail Sergachev
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Louis Domingue
Scratched:Andrej Sustr, Jake Dotchin, Slater Koekkoek, Cory Conacher, Peter Budaj
Injured:Adam Erne (lower body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Lars Eller -- T.J. Oshie
Andre Burakovsky -- Chandler Stephenson -- Brett Connolly
Devante Smith-Pelly -- Jay Beagle -- Alex Chiasson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Brooks Orpik -- Christian Djoos
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched:Madison Bowey, Jakub Jerabek, Shane Gersich, Travis Boyd, Nathan Walker, Pheonix Copley
Injured:Nicklas Backstrom (right hand)

Status report

Backstrom, who has missed the past four games, is still considered day to day and his availability will be a game-time decision, Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. He has not been medically cleared to play, but that could change before the game. Washington is 3-1 without him. ... Stamkos was hit in the face by a puck at the start of the morning skate, left the ice, and then returned.