Game Day Updates: Lightning at Red Wings Line Combinations, Key Match ups
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For the Red Wings: Tyler Bertuzzi and Xavier Ouellet appear to be the odd men out at the morning skate. Niklas Kronwall is getting the night off to rest his knee. Drew Miller and Ryan Sproul should get back into the lineup tonight. Petr Mrazek will be in goal.
For the Lightning: Jonathan Drouin is out with an upper body injury and Anton Stralman is out with an undisclosed injury. Ben Bishop appears to be getting the start in net.
Detroit Line Combinations
Forwards
| Justin Abdelkader | Henrik Zetterberg | Tomas Tatar |
| Dylan Larkin | Frans Nielsen | Luke Glendening |
| Gus Nyquist | Darren Helm | Anthony Mantha |
| Steve Ott | Riley Sheahan | Drew Miller |
Defensemen
| Danny DeKeyser | Mike Green |
| Brendan Smith | Ryan Sproul |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Jimmy Howard |
Power Play units:
- Nyquist-Zetterberg-Abdelkader (net front), Green-Sproul
- Tatar-Nielsen-Larkin, Mantha (net front), Smith
Tampa Bay Line Combinations
Forwards
| Vladislav Namestnikov | Steven Stamkos | Nikita Kucherov |
| Ondrej Palat | Tyler Johnson | Alex Killorn |
| Brayden Point | Valtteri Filppula | Ryan Callahan |
| Brian Boyle | Cedric Paquette | J.T. Brown |
Defensemen
| Victor Hedman | Andrej Sustr |
| Nikita Nesterov | Jason Garrison |
| Slater Koekkoek | Braydon Coburn |
Goaltenders
| Ben Bishop (starting) |
| Andrei Vasilevskiy |
Keys to the Game:
Use the Man Advantage
Scoring more goals than the other team is that basis of winning hockey games. Scoring goals when you have more guys on the ice than the other teams seems like it should make the game a lot easier. The Red Wings, however, haven't shared that same philosophy lately. The team is 0-12 on the power play in their last three games. It'll be no easy task against Tampa. The Lightning have the 6th best PK in the league right now, but if the Wings want to win games they have to win the special teams battle.
Stay out of the Box
On the flip side, the Lightning have the 6th best PP in the league too. So it's pretty clear the Wings should stay out of the damn penalty box (looking at you Steve Ott). The Red Wings seem to have enough trouble slowing Tampa down as it is. I would like to avoid any Stamkos one-timers if possible please. Thanks!
60 Minutes
The Red Wings need to start on time and they need to play hockey from whistle-to-whistle. We saw last game in Montreal what happens if you're not ready to go when the puck is dropped. We've seem plenty times what happens when you don't play a full 60 minutes. The Wings have gotten behind in games. The Wings have blown leads. This hockey team isn't good enough to play from behind and they're sure as hell not good enough to just give away points. Full 60 = 2 points.
Let's Go Red Wings.