In taking all three games of their homestand coming out of the 4 Nations Faceoff break, the Lightning (34-20-4, 72 points, third place in the Atlantic) have outscored opponents 11-2. Over their current nine-game point streak dating to Jan. 30, they’ve held opponents to an average of 1.67 goals a game.

With the deadline just days away, that’s what we’re going to look at using the Stanley Cup Checklist. The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn created the Cup Checklist in 2020 to find common elements essential to a team’s success between a decade of champions.

Mitchell Chaffee and Gage Goncalves scored, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced behind a remarkable tight-checking team effort and the Tampa Bay Lightning won their eighth consecutive game by beating the Eastern Conference-leading Washington Capitals 3-1 on Saturday.

But the Lightning are on a roll of their own, and they continued their best string of hockey this season with a 3-1 win over the Capitals, extending their season-best win streak to eight games.

Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, Dallas centre Roope Hintz and Montreal captain Nick Suzuki have been named the NHL’s three stars of the week.

The Capitals lost their third game in a row for the first time all season despite Ovechkin scoring his 884th career goal.

Tampa Bay's Brandon Hagel reached the 30-goal plateau by scoring in his fourth straight game, and the Lightning extended the Eastern Conference's longest winning streak to eight with a 3-1 showing against the host Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon.

After the dust settled from Friday’s trade deadline, the Lightning certainly felt like they were a team better positioned for the playoffs. They weren’t the only ones in a wide-open Eastern Conference,

Alex Ovechkin scored the 884th goal of his NHL career to move 10 away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s record. The Washington Capitals captain beat fellow Russian Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning with four minutes left in the third period on Saturday.