Game 20: Washington Capitals (14-6-1) at Tampa Bay Lightning (11-7-2)

Time: 7:30 p.m. EST

Location: Amalie Arena

TV/Stream/Radio: TNT/MAX/102.5FM

Odds: Lightning -148

Congratulations to everyone, you have survived one of the toughest short-time working weeks of the year. It is the afternoon of the Wednesday before American Thanksgiving, so all important work can be postponed until the next Monday. Unfortunately for the Lightning and Capitals, they have one more piece of business to take care of before they can consider Turkey and Detroit Lions football.

The Caps are back in town for their second visit in the last month and are hoping to be a little more productive in the scoring department after the Lightning shut them out on October 26th. Goals from Mitchell Chaffee, Conor Geekie and Brayden Point provided the offense and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for his 35th career shutout. This matchup is a little different as Alex Ovechkin is out with a broken fibula and Mitchell Chaffee will likely be a game-time decision after leaving the Bolts early in an 8-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche.

The Bolts look to build on this offensive explosion that followed a series of questionable plays with another strong performance against a Caps team that beat the Florida Panthers in their last game. By the way, is everything okay down there at sunrise? The Cats have lost their last four games in a row. This allowed the Lightning to limit the game to just one point with two games remaining.

Things will be tight in the Atlantic race as Tampa Bay sits in third place with 24 points, behind the Maple Leafs (28 points) and Panthers (25 points), but the Sabers and Bruins (23 points) are right behind the Lightning . Our favorite skaters still have at least one game in hand where they’re all together, but it looks like it’s going to be a season-long dogfight for a place in the playoffs.

It will be a busy end to the holiday week for the Bolts as they have Thursday off and then play back-to-back games against Nashville and Toronto before a nice four-day break. So far in November, their record has been a poor 4-4-2 as they have gone on a Jekyll and Hyde style run. One night they blew a 3-1 lead against Columbus, and a few nights later they rocked the Avalanche to their core. They fail to score against Philadelphia and then lose four to the Jets and four to the Devils in their next two games. They are absolutely unpredictable this season, that’s for sure.

Washington arrives without its talisman as Ovechkin continues his rehab from the broken leg he suffered against Utah on Nov. 18. This puts a damper on his quest to surpass Wayne Gretzky’s once-unbreakable scoring record and leaves the Caps without one of their top scoring threats. Since the injury, they have gone 1-2 and lost home games against Colorado (one goal scored) and New Jersey (two goals scored) before getting back on the winning list with a 4-1 victory over the Panthers.

Tom Wilson has risen to the top in Ovechkin’s place, and the league’s lightning rod is having a decent season with 15 points (6 goals, 9 assists), but that takes away some of the balance that has been his success so far. Connor McMichael is still on the rise and newly signed Lars Eller has 3 points (2 goals, 1 assist) in 6 games since moving from Pittsburgh. Logan Thompson appears to have won the number one starting role, posting a 2.44 GAA with a .917 SV%.

As for the Lightning, they still appear to be without the services of Nick Paul, who did not practice on Tuesday. Mitchell Chaffee was also absent from the skate, as coach Jon Cooper, coaching in his 900th regular-season game, used the usual “everyday” nickname to describe his status.

If he can’t go, there will likely be another 11/7 lineup for the Bolts, with Darren Raddysh and Nick Perbix both moving in. At the time of publication, no one from Syracuse has been drafted to take the spot. No matter what the roster looks like tonight, the mission will be the same. Limit mistakes, work quickly and cleanly, and focus on getting the puck over the goal line rather than making a worthy play.

Sit back, relax, dream about tomorrow’s turkey dinner, and enjoy some Lightning hockey.

Potential lines

Tampa Bay Lightning

Forward:

Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov

Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – ?

Gage Goncavles – Morgan Geekie – Cameron Atkinson

Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening – Mikey Eyssimont

Defense:

Victor Hedman/JJ Moser

Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak

Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix – Darren Raddysh

Goalkeeper:

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Washington Capitals

Forward:

Aliaksei Protas – Dylan Strome – Tom Wilson

Connor McMichael – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Taylor Raddysh

Hendrix LaPierre – Lars Eller – Andrew Mangiapane

Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Ivan Miroshnicehenko

defense

Jacob Chychrun – John Carlson

Rasmus Sandin – Matt Roy

Martin Fehervary – Trevor van Riemsdyk

goalkeeper

Logan Thompson

Charlie Lindgren