With a 5:07 PM start to their traditional “Black Friday” game this evening, the Capitals did not hold a game day morning skate this morning. Capitals bench boss Todd Reirden met with the media at 2:45 PM this afternoon to answer questions and provide a pregame update. Here is the latest from Capital One Arena ahead of tonight’s Lightning-Capitals clash.

LINEUPS

Washington
Braden Holtby will get the start in goal this evening. Ilya Samsonov will get the start tomorrow night in Detroit. Garnet Hathaway is back in the lineup after serving his three-game suspension for spitting on Derek Gudbranson on 11/18.

Nicklas Backstrom won’t play today, but will skate before tomorrow’s game in Detroit, and the team will then re-evaluate. He has not been ruled out for the Red Wings game.

Carl Hagelin remains on injured reserve and will be able to return in San Jose on Tuesday.

Here is the Capitals lineup for tonight:

Capitals expected lines vs Tampa Bay:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Eller-Oshie
Panik-Stephenson-Boyd
Leipsic-Dowd-Hathaway

Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Siegenthaler-Gudas

— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 28, 2019

Tampa Bay
The lightning held a game day org skate early this morning at Capital One Area. Here are their lines for tonight.

Lines from morning skate:

Palat-Point-Kucherov
Killorn-Cirelli-Stamkos
Maroon-Paquette-Gourde
Verhaeghe-Johnson-Joseph

*Conacher not on the ice

Hedman-Shattenkirk
McDonagh-Sergachev
Coburn-Schenn
Rutta

*D-pairings all rotated.

Vasilevskiy

— Caley Chelios (@CaleyChelios) November 29, 2019

ESSENTIAL LINKS

Game Preview – Lightning at Capitals (NoVa Caps)

Ilya Samsonov is only 22, but his teammates don’t see him as young (WaPo)

Bill Peters Resigns as Calgary Flames Head Coach (NoVa Caps)

SHAVINGS

• With an assist on Wednesday against the Florida Panthers, Jakub Vrana recorded his 100th career point (51g, 49a).
  Vrana became the 23rd Capitals draft pick at the forward position to record 100 points with the franchise and the 15th player from his 2014 NHL Draft class to reach the mark, despite being 19th in his draft class in games played.
• This season, Vrana’s 11 goals rank second on the Capitals (Alex Ovechkin: 15).
• All 11 of Vrana’s goals have come at even strength, which is tied for the fourth-most in the NHL. Since 2018-19, Vrana’s 1.42 goals per 60 minutes of five-on-five play leads the Capitals and is tied for fourth in the NHL among players with at least 90 games played.

By Jon Sorensen
Follow @nova_caps

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NoVa Caps (@nova_caps)