The Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals meet Friday in NHL action at the Capital One Arena. The Tampa Bay Lightning look for a win after winning 6 of their last 9 games. The Washington Capitals need a win after losing 5 of their last 6 games.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are averaging 3.23 goals per game and are scoring on 22.2 percent of their power play opportunities. Steven Stamkos leads Tampa Bay with 7 goals, Nikita Kucherov has 15 assists and Brayden Point has 37 shots on goal. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 3.08 goals per game and are killing 78.7 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Andrei Vasilevskiy has given up 26 goals on 288 shots faced, and Brian Elliott has allowed 13 goals on 124 shots.

The Washington Capitals are averaging 2.73 goals per game and are scoring on 25 percent of their power play opportunities. Alex Ovechkin leads Washington with 8 goals, Evgeny Kuznetsov has 9 assists and John Carlson has 27 shots on goal. Defensively, the Washington Capitals are allowing 3 goals per game and are killing 82.2 percent of their opponent’s power plays. Darcy Kuemper has given up 27 goals on 323 shots faced, and Charlie Lindgren has allowed 13 goals on 140 shots.

The Lightning are 7-3 in their last 10 Friday games and 132-62 in their last 194 vs. Eastern Conference. The Capitals are 1-4 in their last 5 games playing on 1 days rest and 1-5 in their last 6 overall. The over is 4-1 in Lightning last 5 overall. The under is 7-1 in Capitals last 8 overall. The Lightning are 6-15 in the last 21 meetings in Washington. The favorite is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings. The home team is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

I’ve tried to shoot the Washington Capitals some bail over the last week or so, but the offense isn’t coming along, and the losses are starting to get out of control. The Tampa Bay Lightning are starting to look more and more like the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that plays high level hockey at both ends of the ice. Washington hasn’t been kind to the Lightning over the years, but this is a different team this time around. I’ll lay the reasonable juice with the road team.