Hey look, the Red Wings did something with their lines! And we’ve got quite a shakeup on our hands. The only actual player swap is Brendan Smith in for Alexey Marchenko (which, okay, that’s half of what we wanted) Kyle Quincey, who must be really hurt, because if you’re going to sit any other non-Marchenko defensemen for performance, Q isn’t the one that comes to mind. It also looks like the forward lines have been put through the Blashill Blender to start the game tonight.
Joakim Andersson regains his rightful place as 3C (because it’s apparently 2013 again), while Justin Abdelkader andRiley Sheahan have been dropped to the fourth line with Luke Glendening. I’ll admit, when I first saw that Tomas Tatar was on a line with Andersson, I was sure he was going to be dropped even further with his ice time. Having big minute munchers in Abdelkader and Luke Glendening on the same line made me wonder how much we’d actually see the third unit, but I’m also wondering if Abdelkader’s been dropped because of what happened last game.
It seems pretty clear that Blashill was going for a more balanced lineup here. The Euro Twins have been split yet again to run their own lines, and I have to say I’m excited about getting Dylan Larkin back with Henrik Zetterberg. Of course, one of Abdelkader and Darren Helm has to be with either Zetterberg or Pavel Datsyuk at all times, but right now I’m glad it’s Helm.
Petr Mrazek looks to be getting the nod tonight. Howard hasn’t been playing bad enough to warrant losing his job, but I don’t think I’m uncomfortable with this decision. Petr’s had a lot of time off now to recover from that groin tweak in February that I think still bothered him for a while, and if there’s ever a time to play a goalie that could steal one for the team, Game 3 at home in an 0-2 series is the one to do it.
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Dylan Larkin |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Brad Richards |
| Tomas Tatar | Joakim Andersson | Andreas Athanasiou |
| Justin Abdelkader | Luke Glendening | Riley Sheahan |
Defensemen
| Danny DeKeyser | Alexey Marchenko |
| Jonathan Ericsson | Niklas Kronwall |
| Brendan Smith | Mike Green |
Goaltenders
| Petr Mrazek (starting) |
| Jimmy Howard |
Power Play units:
- Nyquist-Zetterberg-Larkin, Abdelkader (net front), Kronwall
- Tatar-Datsyuk-Sheahan (net front), Richards, Green
Lightning Lineups
Forwards
| Alex Killorn | Tyler Johnson | Nikita Kucherov |
| Ondrej Palat | Valtteri Filppula | Jonathan Drouin |
| Erik Condra | Cedric Paquette | Ryan Callahan |
| Brian Boyle | Vladislav Namestnikov | Mike Blunden |
Defensemen
| Victor Hedman | Matthew Carle |
| Jason Garrison | Andrej Sustr |
| Nikita Nesterov | Braydon Coburn |
Goaltenders
| Ben Bishop (starting) |
| Andrei Vasilevskiy |
Key Matchups:
Red Wings vs Discipline
This isn’t just about staying out of the box, though taking five penalties in a row didn’t do the team any favors last game. No, this is about the real dumb stuff post-whistle. The refs have been letting way too much go in this series already, but the Wings don’t need to give the stripes any reason to give them the extra calls.
Johnson vs Filppula/Paquette/Namestnikov
Old news, I know: the Red Wings are being murdered by the Bolts’ top line. In an annoying repeat of the last playoff series between these teams, Tyler Johnson again had two goals in a Game 2 victory for Tampa. That’s basically been the only line scoring for the Lightning. However, the Wings can’t expend all of their energy and focus on stopping the one trio of opponents. Neutralizing the top line but letting the other three win their matchups will result in the same outcome.
Fun Facts!
- The Red Wings have an all time 55-57 record in Game 3 of any playoff series, going back to 1934. They are 21-22 at home in those games.
- The Wings won Game 3 last year against these Lightning in Petr Mrazek’s first career playoff shutout.
- Tyler Johnson secretly cries for his aquatic brethren whenever an octopus hits the ice. Also, #Tampa #fans #are #really #sensitive #about #Tyler #Johnson’s #fish #face
