Lightning at Capitals 5/17/18 - NHL Picks & Predictions

On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Lightning visit the Washington Capitals for Game 4 of their NHL Eastern Conference Finals best of seven series.

The Capitals lead the series 2-1, but the Lightning narrowed the lead to one game after defeating Washington 4-2 on Tuesday night in Game 3. Victor Hedman led the Lightning in scoring in Game 3 with one goal and two assists. The goal was his first of this postseason. Andrei Vasilevskiy was strong in net for the Lightning stopping 36 of the 38 shots he faced. Hedman assisted on goals by Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos and was an important part of three penalty kills for the Lightning. Brett Connolly and Evgeny Kuznetov scored for Washington. Braden Holtby stopped 19 shots for the Capitals. Nicklas Backstrom missed the fourth straight game for Washington and is questionable for Thursday’s Game 4. During the postseason, Nikita Kucherov leads Tampa Bay in goals scored with seven and in points with 16. Victor Hedman leads the Lightning in assists with 10. Andrei Vasilevskiy in 13 playoff games in net for Tampa Bay is 9-4 with a goals against of 2.68 and a save percentage of .915. During the regular season, Tampa Bay was 1st in goals scored at 3.5, 13th in goals against at 2.9, 3rd in power play percentage at 23.9, and 27th in penalty kill percentage at 76.1.

This postseason, Alex Ovechkin leads Washington in goals scored with. Evgeny Kuznetsov leads the Capitals in assists with 11 and points with 20. Braden Holtby in 14 appearances in net for the Capitals this postseason is 10-4 with a goal’s against of 2.18 and a save percentage of .921. During the regular season, Washington was 9th in goals scored per game at 3.1, 16th in goals against per game at 2.9, 7th in power play percentage at 22.5, and 15th in penalty kill percentage at 80.3.