Detroit Red Wings look to avoid Lightning Strike in Tampa tonight

The Detroit Red Wings are in Tampa Bay tonight to square off with the NHL’s best. The Lightning have a regular season record of 51-13-4.

The Detroit Red Wings who are 2-0 on the season without the services of Dylan Larkin will be without their star forward once again tonight and likely tomorrow. The Wings have back to back games this weekend against the Florida teams.

Unlike the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Detroit Red Wings have a record of 24-33-10 on the season. Tampa has a shot at breaking the Wings regular season record set during the 1995-96 season where they won 62 games. That season the Wings finished 62-13-7. Tampa has to nearly win out to break it which is unlikely, but I wouldn’t put anything past this team, they are a powerhouse.

The way this team is performing just adds fuel to the fire as we are left to ponder why the man who built this bully, left the ship at sea. Steve Yzerman abruptly stepped down as the Lightning GM a week or so before the preseason started while the team was a Stanley Cup contender. They are more than just contender’s this season they are favorites.

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It just adds speculation to the decision. Was there friction between Yzerman and Lightning ownership? Was he truly homesick? We will probably never know the exact line of thinking, but if Tampa were to win the Cup this season, I wonder if Yzerman would be left with a little bit of an empty feeling, knowing he built this team.

You can imagine how good the special teams of a team with the record like the Tampa Bay looks like, but we will tell you anyway. The Lightning own the top power-play in the NHL operating at a whopping 29% success rate. To go with the top PP unit comes the best penalty kill unit in the league. They rank first with an 85.6% kill rate. Unbelievable.

To go with the tremendous special teams, Tampa scores 3.78 goals per game on average which you’ve guessed it ranks 1st in the league. Tampa owns the best shooting percentage in the league at 11.7%. They are also 4th in the NHL only allowing 2.62 goals per game.

We all know Steven Stamkos and likely the leagues MVP Nikita Kucherov, but Brayden Point has enjoyed a career year too. Point has experienced 37 goals and 44 assists totaling 81 points during 66 games this season. He’s also a plus 20 with 6 game-winning goals as he’s averaged 18:46 TOI per game. The outpouring of production is incredible with less than 20 minutes of ice. His CF% is very good at 52.2% but a bit lower than I expected playing for this team.

Kucherov’s stat line this season is 31 goals, 77 assists totaling 108 points in 66 games. Stamkos has recorded 34 goals, 45 helpers totaling 79 points. The trio paces the Lightning offense. They are a complete team with Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonough anchoring the back-end in front of Vezina netminder Andrei Vasilesvskiy.

Andreas Athanasiou led the Detroit Red Wings to victory over the New York Rangers in the absence of Dylan Larkin. Athanasiou played as the top center between Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha. He recorded a goal and an assist and scored the lone goal during the shootout in a 3-2 Detroit Red Wings victory.

Expect Athanasiou to continue to thrive on the top-line. It also should spill over when Larkin returns to the line-up. Andreas should gain confidence knowing his coaching staff is willing to rely on him moving forward. When Larkin returns Andreas will have solidified himself as the teams’ second center moving Frans Nielsen back to where he should be at this point in his career, the teams’ third line center. An over-priced third line center but that’s a story for another day.

Next. Plans to demolish Joe Louis Arena Approved. dark

The goaltending matchup is “the battle of backups.” Jonathan Bernier will get the nod for the Detroit Red Wings against Louis Domingue. Puck drop is set for 7:00 pm, tune into FSD for the action.

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