Morning Skate: Lightning vs Red Wings
6:00p ET, Joe Louis Arena
Detroit, MI
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Lightning Blogs: Raw Charge
This one won't be easy.
TBL is coming off of a 7 goal annihilation of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Red Wings are coming off of a game where they scored four goals, which is considered a lot for them. Tampa Bay is one of the more potent high-powered offense teams in the NHL. They have players like Steven Stamkos, who can literally score whenever he wants, and great setup players like Tyler Johnson and Valtteri Filppula (I miss you.. I miss you a lot.)
If the Wings are going to get out of this alive, they need to do what they did last game: Capitalize on the power-play. TBL's PK is definitely not their strong-point. I would consider them pretty thin at the backend, so that's where we can take an advantage. I look for another big game from Niklas Kronwall, Jakub Kindl, and expect Darren Helm to start scoring some god damned goals. I am terrified for this stupid Tampa team, but fuck them. We will win this game.
The Expected Lineups
Forwards
| Gustav Nyquist | Henrik Zetterberg | Johan Franzen |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Justin Abdelkader |
| Andrej Nestrasil | Darren Helm | Daniel Cleary |
| Drew Miller | Luke Glendening | Joakim Andersson |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Brendan Smith | Danny DeKeyser |
| Jakub Kindl | Kyle Quincey/Brian Lashoff |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Tomas Jurco
Injuries: Stephen Weiss (groin) & Kyle Quincey (probable), Pavel Datsyuk (groin, also i hate my life)
Forwards
| Valtteri Filppula | Steven Stamkos | Ryan Callahan |
| Ondrej Palat | Tyler Johnson | Nikita Kucherov |
| Jonathan Drouin | Vladislav Namestnikov | Cedric Paquette |
| Brendan Morrow | Brian Boyle | JT Brown |
Defensemen
| Anton Stralman | Matt Carle |
| Jason Garrison | Radko Gudas |
| Eric Brewer | Andrej Sustr |
Goaltenders
| Ben Bishop (starting) |
| Evgeni Nabokov |
| LIGHTNING | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 10-3-1 (21 pts) | Record | 7-3-4 (18 pts) |
| 3.86 (2nd in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.64 (14th in NHL) |
| 2.64 (15th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.21 (9th) |
| 27.1% (3rd) | Power Play % | 16.4% (20th) |
| 78.6% (19th) | Penalty Kill % | 89.6% (2nd) |
| Steven Stamkos (8 goals) | Goal Leader | Gustav Nyquist (7 goals) |
| Tyler Johnson (17 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (16 points) |
Opponent Outlook
Player to Fear: Steven Stamkos. The way he shoots the puck gives me nightmares.
X-Factor: Valtteri Filppula. Remember him? Do you think he remembers us?
Familiar Faces: Steve Yzerman. You know.. The guy who once did the thing.
- The Red Wings are 26-9-2 (W-L-OTL) all-time in the regular season against the Tampa Bay Lightning
- Jimmy Howard is 3-1-1 all-time against Tampa Bay./