Detroit Red Wings at Tampa Bay Lightning: Game 54
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern Time
Location: Amalie Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: BSSUN, BSDET
Opponent SBNation Site: Winging it in Motown
The Bolts get the opportunity to forget about last night’s 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight with a date with Detroit. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 of 39 shots he faced in the loss. Only Colorado, Vegas, and Boston have peppered Vasy with more shots this season than last night.
Looking in the other direction, only 21 shots on goal is the worst offensive output the Bolts have made except for the previously mentioned Vegas game and a Carolina game. Obviously more shots against mean less time with the puck and fewer shots for, but it’s hard to tell which side of the ice was the problem for the Lightning.
If you’d ask Jon Cooper, I think his answer would be somewhere in the middle. Not winning battles at both end boards, but mostly losing territorial advantages in the neutral zone. From what I can see on the heat map from last night, the Bolts got into good shooting areas in the offensive zone, they just gave up way too much volume and quality to the Penguins.
Tonight’s game against Detroit should be much better defensively, because if not, Brian Elliott is in net and it probably won’t be another good night.
The Red Wings are a fun team who have the young talent that can sometimes put on a show offensively. I’m looking at you, Lucas Raymond. Focusing on defense and possession, and letting the offense come from there will be the key to beating this young team.
Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines (from last night)
Forwards
Ondrej Palat – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn – Steven Stamkos – Mathieu Joseph
Pat Maroon – Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Corey Perry
Ross Colton – Anthony Cirelli – Taylor Raddysh
Defense
Victor Hedman – Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev – Cal Foote
Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Brian Elliott – projected starter
Detroit Red Wings Projected Lines
Forwards
Vladislav Namestnikov – Dylan Larkin – Lucas Raymond
Robby Fabbri – Pius Suter – Tyler Bertuzzi
Michael Rasmussen – Joe Veleno – Filip Zadina
Adam Erne – Carter Rowney – Sam Gagner
Defense
Nick Leddy – Moritz Seider
Jordan Oesterle – Filip Hronek
Marc Staal – Troy Stecher
Goaltenders
Alex Nedeljkovic – projected starter
Thomas Greiss
