Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Detroit Red Wings: An opponent with many familiar faces

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Detroit Red Wings: GAME 8

Time: 5:30 pm Eastern Time

Location: Amalie Arena

Broadcast/Streaming: Fox SUN, NBCSN, SN1

Opponent SBNation Site: Winging it in Motion

Preview:

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s homestand continues with the first game of the season against the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings are heading into this two-game series as an obvious underdog, rolling out a six-game losing streak and sitting at the lowest position in the Central Division, while the Bolts are sharing second place with the Florida Panthers one point behind Carolina

As already mentioned a million times elsewhere, the Red Wings are deep in a rebuilding process. The team has a diverse and talented pool of prospects, however most of them are still very young, that’s why the Red Wings are trying to surround them with more experienced players such as Marc Staal, Bobby Ryan and even former Lightning player Vlad Namestnikov, for whom the Red Wings have become the fifth team since his departure from Tampa Bay in 2018.

During the offseason Detroit was one of the teams who reportedly could help the Lightning with their cap space issues by taking Tyler Johnson’s contract, but it didn’t come to that point. We still don’t know how serious the talks between the two teams were, but instead the Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman had chosen to sign another center forward in Namestnikov, with whom he’s familiar from his stint with the Lightning.

Newly named captain Dylan Larkin is currently leading the team with nine points in ten games. Tyler Bertuzzi, next on the Red Wings roster in scoring, won’t help his team tonight against the Bolts after getting injured in the first game against the Panthers and will miss the next 4-6 games. The Red Wings also can’t rely on Filip Zadina, who’s still on the COVID-19 protocol list, but is expected to be available on Friday.

On the other hand Robby Fabbri attended a practice yesterday and will return to the lineup tonight after spending last two weeks in quarantine due to a positive COVID-19 test. Another former Lightning player Adam Erne is also expected to return to the lineup.

After the two successful games against the Nashville Predators, the Lightning are not expected to make big changes in their line combinations. The only question is if they will continue to use the 11/7 line-up with Alex Volkov as a healthy scratch. With a relatively weaker opponent we could also see Curtis McElhinney making his debut this season in one of the next two games: so far Andrei Vasilevskiy started in all seven games.

The game is scheduled at an unusual time – 5:30 PM on a weekday, so if you don’t want to miss this game, don’t forget to set a reminder. The second game against the Red Wings will be played on Friday’s night.

Tampa Bay Lightning Lines

Forwards

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Steven Stamkos

Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Tyler Johnson

Blake Coleman - Yanni Gourde - Barclay Goodrow

Pat Maroon - Mathieu Joseph

Defense

Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta

Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev - Cal Foote

Luke Schenn

Goalies

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Curtis McElhinney

Detroit Red Wings Lines

(lines from yesterday’s practice)

Forwards

Robby Fabbri - Dylan Larkin - Bobby Ryan

Taro Hirose - Vadislav Namestnikov - Anthony Mantha

Mathias Brome - Valtteri Filppula - Givani Smith

Adam Erne - Luke Glendening - Darren Helm

Defense

Filip Hronek - Patrik Nemeth

Danny Dekesyer - Christian Djoos

Marc Staal - Troy Stecher

Goalies

Thomas Greiss

Calvin Pickard