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Lightning 3 – Wings 1: Losing streak extends to eight games.

Our starting lines:

Also, this happened…

Wings looking for their first regular season win in Tampa in…a decade. Cool.

First Period

Zadina hasn’t missed a step, he’s already stirring up trouble with Smith and Larkin in the first 2 minutes. Nemeth is off to the Bad Boy Box for holding and the Wings penalty kill gets to work just 3 minutes in. Wings clear the puck down the ice three times and kill the penalty, not too shabby.

Larkin gets a solid elbow in the face and is Not Thrilled. If you remember, and as FSD has mentioned 5 times, he took a hit on Wednesday that shook him up a bit. And yes, the ref was right there.

Time for a Rrrrrrred Wings Powerplay!! Joseph to the Crime Cubicle for hooking. The powerplay is a pooperplay until Zadina shows up and breaks through Tampa himself because nobody else wants to help. Speaking of Zadina, Hedman gives him a slash and is in the Punishment Terrarium. That means we have a 5v3 powerplay for half a minute! Larkin goes CLANK. Then he breaks his stick during the next faceoff. Captain can’t get a break (except the literal breaking of the stick as I just mentioned).

RED WINGS SCORE!! Right after the powerplay expires, Wings do some passing (and not another failed drop pass circus) which sets up Zadina to take the shot. Puck bounces off Namestnikov and into the net. Zadina is making the whole entire difference, and everyone will be keeping an eye out to see if he runs outta gas later.

That gets us halfway through the first and Tampa has 1 shot to our 7.

Refs have declared everything is a crime and we’re back on the penalty kill. Givani Smith cools off in the Bad Habits Habitat for slashing. Helm doing some old fashioned Helm-style penalty killing but Greiss still has to make some big saves as Tampa wakes up and remembers we’re the Red Wings. Penalty killed!

Uh-oh. Pat Maroon scores with 6 minutes to go. We’re tied 1-1. I take back the partial compliment I gave to Helm’s penalty killing as he turned over the puck and set up this goal against. Ok apparently Adam Erne made the costly turnover, Helm was falsely accused by Mick, but to be faaaiiirrr Erne is hard to notice as someone who exists.

Guess what? ANOTHER DAMN PENALTY. Larkin to the Crimes Cabana for tripping, which is ridiculous because HE WOULD NEVER. Wings will have a little more penalty killing to start the second but that’s a wrap on the first. Much better effort so far than last game, which is a low bar to jump, and a lot of credit to Zadina.*

*This recap was not written by Filip Zadina.

Mickey Redmond Moment: “We’ve been watching our diet”

Second Period

Penalty killed off the rest of the way with no problems. Tampa gets a finger wag for Too Much Man but not enough for a penalty. 5 minutes in and we’re still tied with shots now 18-12 in favor of Tampa. Larkin pulling some double shifts, nothing wrong with that.

Halfway through and we’re playing some boring hockey, which is a compliment to the Wings. Smith and Zadina makes some noise with a nice attempt which puts a little spark in the offense. Givani is making another strong case for him to remain with the big club, so I’m sure we’ll be yelling about him being kicked back to the taxi squad or all the way to GR later tonight.

Just over 5 minutes to go, nothing much more to talk about, shots are tied 20-20 and the score is still tied 1-1. Stetcher sets up Ryan who sprinkles a little razzle dazzle, slight spark of joy  but nothing new for the scoreboard. Stetcher continues to play solid for us, which again is a low bar for our defense, but looks like a smart move to bring him onboard.

OH GEEZ. Barclay Goodrow scores with 2:30 to go. Puck shot from the International Space Station flutters right through the five-hole into the net. Stamkos and Hronek block the view of Greiss and it’s 2-1 Tampa. Not ideal.

Onward to the third. Only down by one goal, we got em right where we want em!!

Mickey Redmond Moment: “They relegated us to watching the beer fridge cuz the Russians were stealing all our Canadian beer”.

Third Period

We should all be very proud that the Wings have 24 shots on net. A moral victory. But now the Red Wings offense has taken a little 5 minute break and is letting Tampa camp out in our zone. I’m sure it’s a total coincidence that the whole team slows down when Zadina is getting tired.

Refs have given up calling penalties. Too much man? Who cares. Blatant trip? Meh. Boarding? This isn’t an airport. It’s not like our powerplay would do anything, but it’s the PRINCIPLE.

Halfway through and we still only have 24 shots. Not great! We finally get another one, and it’s a good chance. Djoos sends the puck over to Larkin who is wide open but Vasilevsky is able to make the save.

5 minutes to go, we’re up to 26 shots! Fabbri tries to make something happen but gets bothered all the way around the net. He hasn’t been noticeable so far, for good or bad reasons. Having a defense, must be nice.

Gagner is hit from behind and goes down, taking a while to get back up from hands and knees. Hard to tell what hurts, didn’t hit his head but he might have some serious whiplash.

3 minutes to go, we now have 28 shots! But Tampa only has 30. Thank goodness Helm, LGD and Erne are on the ice.

2 minutes to go. Greiss still in the net.

1:30 to go. Greiss heads to the bench.

1 minute to go. Red Wings finally have the puck.

30 seconds to go. Empty net goal 🙁

FINAL: 3-1 Tampa.

Mickey Redmond Moment: [Larkin is sent ass over teakettle into the bench] “Did that ever knock the bowling pins down…holy geez.”

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