Stamkos gets plenty of attention

With the season hanging in the balance, the play of Steven Stamkos has risen to a new level.

The second-year pivot entered Friday with a league-best seven-game goal streak and a 17-game point streak, the second-longest in the league this season. His 42 goals on the season are the third-most in franchise history, and his 18 power-play goals are a team record.

He has done most of that damage in the past six weeks as Tampa Bay has tried to challenge for a playoff spot.

"What I like about this streak is that with the pressure of our team trying to win, a kid like him, these are pressure games and he's coming up big," Lightning coach Rick Tocchet said. "That's tough to play under pressure and score, which he is obviously doing."

As Stamkos, who was the alternate captain Friday, has risen up the league scoring charts, so has his notoriety. During the team's trip through Canada this week, Stamkos received plenty of media attention, particularly in his hometown of Toronto, where the Lightning spent two days.

Washington coach Bruce Boudreau might have heaped the highest praise of all on the 2008 first overall pick.

"I think he's going to be a bona fide superstar that is going to challenge Alex (Ovechkin) for these goals and awards, along with Sidney (Crosby), in the not-too-distant future," Boudreau said. "He's scored in 17 straight games (entering Friday), which is incredible, and when I watch him, not having known him from junior or anything like that, he's just an incredible talent."

Ohlund, Malone out

D Mattias Ohlund sat out Friday after getting his leg tangled up with Christian Hanson in Toronto on Thursday. Ohlund got up slowly and finished the game, but he had to sit out with what the team called a lower-body injury. Ohlund has been hampered by a sore ankle he suffered Nov. 14 that forced him to miss seven games.

Ryan Malone, who missed Tuesday's game with an undisclosed upper-body injury, tried to play Thursday, but he only made it through 10 minutes of mainly ineffective ice time.

Back in the fold

With Ohlund out, D Matt Smaby returned to the lineup after missing the past three games and four of the past six as a healthy scratch.

Tocchet hopes the time watching from above helps Smaby, who was a 20-minute-a-night defenseman at the end of last season, partly out of necessity.

"I think puck poise is something that needs to get better if he wants to be a regular defenseman," Tocchet said. "That's something that we always stress here, is that when you have the puck and you have time, you have to execute those plays, you can't just throw those pucks away.

"And when he runs into problems, he is making bad reads and throwing pucks away. The capability is there, I think it's just experience and keep working with him."

Nuts and bolts

D Matt Walker had two goals in his first 291 career games. He has two in the past three games. ... RW Steve Downie suffered a bloody nose after a center-ice hit from Shaone Morrisonn, but he returned for his next shift.