Bolts, Capitals ready to clash

In the past few seasons, the landscape of the Southeast Division flip-flopped.

While the Lightning were working their way up toward the NHL elite and eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Washington Capitals slipped into the cellar.

In the past three seasons, however, Washington has been the team on the rise while Tampa Bay has returned to the depths.

On the way up, Washington induced its form of capital punishment on the Lightning, winning 12 consecutive meetings.

As such, a burning desire began to spark inside a Lightning team tired of being battered by the high-energy, high-scoring division rival. That brimmed over in the team's last meeting on Jan. 12, a 7-4 Tampa Bay victory that was full of emotion and passion on both sides as the Lightning snapped that winless streak.

"We know that we have to play a really good game against them and we have to play with passion against them. We can't be average in our passion, average in our play to beat that team," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "That's why it was a mandate for a lot of us, just bring your passion and I saw a lot of guys bring passion that night, something we are going to need (this) afternoon. We are going to need a lot of passion and a lot of smart hockey."

The building emotion has been an ongoing process that dates to the end of the 2007-08 season, when Washington qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2002-03 as Tampa Bay's run of four consecutive playoff appearances was ending.

•In the next-to-last game of the season, Washington's Matt Cooke made a run at Vinny Lecavalier, leveling him with an unexpected shoulder-on-shoulder hit that required Lecavalier to undergo shoulder surgery.

•On New Year's Day last season, Alex Ovechkin slammed Tampa Bay defenseman Jamie Heward into the boards at Verizon Center with a questionable hit from behind. Heward was taken off the ice on a stretcher and suffered a concussion that ended his season - and his career.

•In Tampa last season, Ovechkin raised the ire of the Lightning when he celebrated his 50th goal of the season by dropping his stick behind Tampa Bay's net and putting his hands over it as if to signify it was too hot to handle.

•In the last meeting Jan. 12, Brooks Laich leveled Tampa Bay goaltender Mike Smith, giving Smith a strained neck that kept him out of the lineup for two weeks. Later in the game, Ovechkin was accused by some Lightning players of a dirty knee-on-knee hit to Steve Downie. Then, as Downie and Ovechkin came out of the box, the two dropped gloves and squared off before Matt Bradley raced in to intercede on Ovechkin's behalf.

Will anything carry over into this afternoon's affair?

"I would think so. I hope so," Lightning center Zenon Konopka said. "We battled that game, that was one of our better games so I hope we bring that same intensity. ... I haven't been here for the past couple of years, but I think they kicked us when we were down and spit on us once we were down."

But does that make this matchup a rivalry? Often that type of competitiveness stems solely from playoff battles, which the teams have only done once. And rivalries often derive if the meetings are not as lopsided as the results have been the past three seasons.

This might be on the verge of becoming an exception, however.

"I think these are bigger games now and the way the number of games they beat us; now the last game we came back and beat them. We played physical with them - yeah, I think it's a division rivalry that's starting, for sure," Lecavalier said.