Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby have company. The NHL’s two biggest stars have made room this season for Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos.
In just 22 games Stamkos, a third-year professional, already has an NHL-best 21 goals and leads the league with 38 points. Crosby is second overall with 36 points, and Ovechkin is tied for third with 29. The only surprise is how fast the 20-year-old Canadian has joined their ranks. He was, after all, the consensus No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft and long considered an elite talent. Stamkos also tied Crosby for the goals title last season. They each finished with 51, one ahead of Ovechkin.
Stamkos and the Lightning (13-7-2, 28 points) are at Verizon Center on Friday evening for a post-holiday matchup against the Capitals (15-6-2, 32 points). Washington won the first meeting between the teams 6-3 on Veterans Day and sits four points clear of Tampa Bay for first place in the Southeast Division. But the Lightning have won five games in a row and scored 22 goals during that stretch.
“We’re playing arguably right now the best team in the league — or at least the hottest team, anyway,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters after Thursday morning’s practice at Kettler Iceplex. “And they have two of the hottest offensive players in the league. We know that we’ve got our hands full.”
| Up next |
| Lightning at Capitals When » Friday, 5 p.m. Where » Verizon Center TV/Radio » CSN/1500 AM |
| Caps notes |
| » Both Friday’s home game against Tampa Bay and Sunday’s game against Carolina are scheduled to start at 5 p.m. |
| » Lightning forward Martin St. Louis is tied with Alex Ovechkin for third place in points (29). Five of the NHL’s top 12 scorers play for either Washington or Tampa Bay. |
| » The Caps have the best home record in the NHL at 10-1-1. They are making a run at the franchise-record 30 home wins that they tied last season. |
The Caps halted a three-game losing streak with Wednesday’s 3-2 win at Carolina. On Thursday the team returned goalie Braden Holtby and defenseman Brian Fahey to Hershey of the American Hockey League. That likely means defenseman Tom Poti (groin) made it through Wednesday’s game — his first since Nov. 11 — without incident and that either Mike Green (upper-body injury) or Tyler Sloan (undisclosed) is ready to return, too. Goalie Semyon Varlamov (groin) also made it through his first start since Oct. 21 unscathed, but there’s no word on whether he or Michal Neuvirth (lower-body injury) will start against Tampa Bay.
Meanwhile, forward Mike Knuble, who suffered a broken jaw after taking a shot to the head Saturday against Philadelphia, is ready to return to the ice — wearing a face shield this time — on Friday. That could send Ovechkin back to his normal left-wing position after Boudreau experimented with him on the right wing against Carolina. Ovechkin snapped out of a slump with a season-high 10 shots on goal and three primary assists in that game.
