Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Tampa Bay Lightning (17-10-2, 36 points) and Washington Capitals (16-12-2, 34 points) faceoff live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. in the first of three meetings this season. The game can be live streamed here. Tampa Bay fans can hear all of the action on 560 WQAM while Washington fans can do the same on WFED 1500.
Washington enters play in second place in the Metropolitan Division and trails the fifth place Tampa Bay Lightning by two points in the Eastern Conference standings entering play tonight.
The Lightning fell 2-1 to the Winnipeg Jets Saturday night in a game that had coach Jon Cooper scratching his head as to why the team didn't have many opportunities and scoring chances.
"Nine shots through 31 minutes . . . and it's not like we didn't have our legs, we didn't shoot pucks," Cooper said via NHL.com. "So when you only play 130 feet of the ice, and you just want to sit there and play keep-away, not shoot pucks, it' not going to work for you."
The Capitals earned a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers that saw goalie Philipp Grubauer earn his first ever NHL victory in net.
''It's a huge pressure, but he handled it,'' captain Alex Ovechkin said per NHL.com. ''It's good for him and it's good for us.''
Ovechkin leads the NHL with 22 goals and has added nine assists for 31 points while Nicklas Backstrom has six tallies and 21 helpers for 27 points and Mikhail Grabovski has found the back of the net nine times and added 16 assists for 25 points thus far this season.
Martin St. Louis has paced the Lightning with 27 points off of 12 goals and 15 assists while Valtteri Filppula has found the twine 10 times and added 10 assists for 20 points and Teddy Purcell (seven goals, nine assists) and Alex Killorn (six goals, 10 assists) each have 16 points.
Tampa Bay's probable starter in between the pipes is Ben Bishop, who is 15-5-1 with a 1.98 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage while the Capitals will likely go with Braden Holtby, who is 13-9-1 with a 2.71 GAA and a .923 save percentage.
The Lightning look to keep climbing the ranks in the Eastern Conference while the Capitals look to stay in the mix atop the Metropolitan Division when the puck drops at the Verizon Center tonight.
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