Tampa Bay @ Washington preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 16, 2019 ) Washington 3, Tampa Bay 6

The Tampa Bay Lightning clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time in franchise history with almost three weeks left in the regular season, but it won’t be hard for them to keep focus as eight of the final nine games are against teams in the playoff hunt. The Lightning look to knock off the reigning Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals for the second time in five days when they open a three-game road trip on Wednesday.

“At the end of the day, a great regular season will be remembered somewhat, but we want to be remembered for what happens in the playoffs,” Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonagh told reporters after Monday’s 4-1 win over Arizona. “We’ve set ourselves up for a great opportunity here, and we’ve got to get through these last nine games hopefully healthy and playing on all cylinders and really focused and determined and ready to stand to any challenge.” The Lightning, who lost Games 6 and 7 to Washington in the Eastern Conference finals last May, won a physically spirited game against the Capitals 6-3 at home on Saturday and will host them again on March 30. Washington is in a dogfight for the Metropolitan Division title and moved two points ahead of the second-place New York Islanders with a 4-1 victory at New Jersey on Tuesday as Braden Holtby was rested for the matchup with Tampa Bay. Captain Alex Ovechkin, who scored twice against the Lightning on Saturday, recorded an assist in the victory and leads the team with 82 points while sitting two tallies shy of his eighth career 50-goal campaign.

TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network

ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (56-13-4): Captain Steven Stamkos became the franchise leader in goals by scoring his 384th on Monday, passing Vincent Lecavalier, and told reporters: “Hopefully a lot more to come and just happy to do it in a game that meant a lot to this franchise.” Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL with 117 points, including 13 in eight games this month, but was kept off the scoresheet on Monday. McDonagh has recorded a goal, four assists and a plus-10 rating in his last five games and leads the NHL at plus-39 while moving within five points of the career high of 43 he set in 2013-14 with the New York Rangers.

ABOUT THE CAPITALS (43-23-7): Brett Connolly, a former first-round pick of the Lightning, reached 20 goals for the first time in his career Tuesday and added an assist to give him six points in his last three contests. Nicklas Backstrom notched an assist on Tuesday to give him at least 50 for the sixth straight season and ninth overall while defenseman John Carlson saw his six-game point streak come to an end. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored against the Devils to get within one tally of hitting the 20-goal mark for the third time in four seasons and reaching 100 for his career.

OVERTIME

1. The Capitals have gone 28-for-30 on the penalty kill over their last nine games, including a 4-for-4 effort against the Lightning on Saturday.

2. Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy has won 14 of his last 15 starts to tie for the league lead in victories with 35 despite missing a month to injury.

3. Holtby is 6-2-0 in his last eight starts after allowing four goals on 33 shots Saturday to drop to 9-4-2 in the regular season versus the Lightning.

PREDICTION: Capitals 4, Lightning 2