Lecavalier breaks hand in Lightning's loss to Capitals

The Lightning served notice through their fast start they could be a threat to the Washington Capitals' dominance in the NHL's Southeast Division.

Their attempt to hand-deliver the message Thursday night at the Verizon Center didn't go as well as hoped.

Not only did they fall 6-3 after allowing Alexander Semin an all-third-period hat trick, but they also lost captain Vinny Lecavalier to a non-displaced fracture of his right hand for three to four weeks.

Lecavalier injured his hand in the first period when he extended his right hand to swat at a puck, and the torque of the stick caused a bone to snap. He returned to play and finally came out after the second period.

The injury is to the same hand that has been bothering him for much of the season and is not expected to require surgery.

"It's from the shot three weeks ago where it was a bad bone bruise, and it was probably just on the verge of (breaking)," Lecavalier said. "That's what they told me. There's no way to tell. It wasn't broken, but (Thursday night), when I overextended it, I kind of felt a pop. So I guess that was the fracture."

Already without Simon Gagne and Steve Downie, the Lightning will play at Pittsburgh tonight without three of their top six forwards. Gagne is out indefinitely with a neck injury and vision problems, and Downie is out until at least Sunday with a back and upper-body injury.

Lecavalier has three goals and six assists, but Coach Guy Boucher said the veteran has played better than those numbers suggest. He also called Lecavalier "a warrior" for not wanting to come off the ice with his broken hand.

"We had a good talk (at) the beginning of the year," Boucher said. "It wasn't about his points. We don't care if he gets five goals (on the season). Me and (General Manager) Steve (Yzerman) talked to him about leading this group and doing the small details."

The Lightning trailed only 4-3 after Steven Stamkos scored his NHL-leading 14th goal with 8:17 remaining, but after Pavel Kubina's potential game-tying shot ricocheted off the post, Alex Ovechkin restored Washington's two-goal lead with his ninth goal of the season.

Semin, who had given the Capitals 3-2 and 4-2 leads in the final period, added an empty-net goal with 16 seconds left to account for the final goal.

It was clear by the end of the night the Lightning played a Capitals team that still sets the standard in the division. It's a team against which Tampa Bay went 0-11-1 before beating Washington a couple of times last year.

"We knew that coming in (the Capitals were a good team)," Stamkos said. "But we outshot them (41-26) in their rink. We had chances to win the game. We just didn't bury opportunities.

"You look, (Kubina) hit the post there. That would have tied the game. It hits the post and doesn't go in. Scramble in front, they come down and score to make it 5-3. It's the way it goes sometimes."

Teddy Purcell's goal off a rebound midway through the first period gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead and quieted the crowd of 18,398. But not for long.

Washington scored twice in the second period to take a 2-1 lead. Tom Poti, returning to Washington's lineup after missing eight games, backhanded a rebound in, and Mike Knuble scored from behind the goal line.

The Lightning battled back and tied it at 2 early in the second period on Ryan Malone's tap-in from the right post on a power play. But Semin gave the Caps the lead for good 4:33 into the final period and put them up 4-2 at 10:56 with a blast from the right circle against goaltender Dan Ellis.

After Stamkos got the Lightning to within one, the Capitals simply had too much firepower.

"I thought it was a great first period," Stamkos said. "We didn't give them much in the second. It was just, we knew they'd come out strong. We just kind of fell asleep. We didn't move our feet. We weren't making passes. We weren't first on puck and they were able to capitalize.

"A team like that you can't give them opportunities. Especially when we only took one penalty (Thursday night)."