Minus Pierre-Luc Dubois, Capitals prep to 'do a job' against Lightning

"The Lightning's top line of Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov is a formidable trio - they combined for seven points in Tampa Bay's first three games - and its second line with Jake Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli and Gage Goncalves is also strong. The Capitals will be without center Pierre-Luc Dubois; he is day-to-day, Carbery said, with a lower-body injury that caused him to miss the final minutes of Sunday's win at the New York Rangers."

""We're going to have to do a job. We all know the strengths of Tampa's lineup, especially with those five forwards. That's where it starts," Carbery said. "You have to be able to limit what they're able to do, because they have the ability to absolutely take over a game and you don't have a shot. If they have one of their nights that they have frequently, with any of those two lines, it's hard to get a result against them.""

Coach Spencer Carbery said the Capitals will handle Tampa Bay's star forwards carefully. The Lightning's top line of Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov combined for seven points in Tampa Bay's first three games, and the second line of Jake Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli and Gage Goncalves remains strong. Center Pierre-Luc Dubois is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and missed the final minutes of the Rangers game. Washington will lean on Connor McMichael's line, with assistance from other trios, and will shuffle lines with Anthony Beauvillier joining Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin. Logan Thompson is expected to start; Andrei Vasilevskiy is Tampa Bay's projected starter.

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