Time: 7:30 PM
Place: Little Caesars Arena
TV: FSD, SN1, TVAS, SUN
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket, AM 1270
Lightning Blog: Raw Charge
Like many, I am stunned by the Red Wings’ start. Not only that, but now we get to play a game for 1st Place in the Atlantic Division tonight vs. Tampa. I’ll take statements I’d never thought I’d say for 600, Alex. I know, I know, it’s only Game #6 and they started 6-2 last year, but hey, tell me winning isn’t fun?
Behind the offensive output of Mike Green, Henrik Zetterberg, Anthony Mantha and Dylan Larkin, the Red Wings are averaging close to 4 G/game through the first five games of the year. Again, I know it is early and it’s only a small sample size, but we have to enjoy this start the best we can. The Red Wings start the week off vs. the Lightning and this is arguably one of the biggest weeks in October the Red Wings have had in a while. The Red Wings 3 games this week are vs. TB, @ TOR and vs. WSH. If they somehow win 2⁄3 games, maybe it will be time to start believing in this team again.
On the other side of the puck, the Lightning are good again. Like, really good. They started the year 4-0 before falling to the Blues on Saturday. Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos (now that he seems to finally be healthy) are as deadly of a 1-2 punch as Stevie Y had hoped for. The one area they are looking to work on is their goaltending. After trading Ben Bishop in the offseason, 23-year-old Andrei Vasilevskiy has taken over the starters job and he has yet to have a solid game. While he is 4-1 on the year, he carries a 3.20 GAA and .911 SV% into tonight’s matchup. It should be a fun game with a lot of offense as first place (and maybe Steve Yzerman) are on the line at Little Caesars arena tonight
Projected Lines
Red Wings
Tatar-Z-Nyquist (But wouldn’t you love to see Mantha on this line again?)
Mantha-Larkin-Abdelkader
Frk-Nielsen-Helm
Glendening-Sheahan-Booth
Kronwall-Green
Ericsson-Daley
Ouellet-Jensen
Howard
Mrazek
Lightning
Namestnikov-Stamkos-Kucherov (Yikes)
Palat-Point-Gourde
Killorn-Johnson-Brown
Kunitz-Dumont-Callahan
Hedman-Dotchin
Sergachev-Stralman
Coburn-Girardi
Vasilevsky
Budaj
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Game Day Prediction Contest
Would you like to predict the outcome of the game and potentially become internet famous? Well you’re in luck, because here’s your opportunity. Here’s how it works.
First off, if you don’t have an SBN Username, make one! We’d love to have you, plus it’s much easier to track your predictions season-long. Then make your guess on the winning team, final score, and who the Red Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated. If you don’t use those formats, your answers will be disregarded. All submissions are timestamped and will be accepted only until the official game start time. Only one submission per person, please. The Red Wings POTG will be determined by the collective of WiiM writers.
Each correct winning team prediction is worth 1 point. Each correct player of the game prediction is worth 3 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct, you’ll receive 15 points.
Good luck!
