Tampa Bay Lightning at Detroit Red Wings: GAME #64
Time: 12:30 pm Eastern Time
Location: Little Caesars Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: ESPN+, BSSUN, BSDET
Opponent SBNation Site: Winging it in Motown
Even the best long vacations have that moment where you’re just exhausted and start thinking about it being time to go home. As the Lightning play in their 10th different city in the last 10 games that point is probably here. Not to mention that this hasn’t been the best of road trips. Detroit was the last team they played at home before this weird stretch of 11 games in 11 different city (with only one being in Tampa). Over the 9 games they’ve played they have a lackluster 3-6 record.
Now they have a couple of afternoon games as they finish off the road trip with a back-to-back. The Red Wings are coming off of a 5-2 loss to the Islanders (the team the Lightning play on Sunday). Since the meeting with Tampa Bay back on March 4th Detroit has struggled even more, going 2-7 in their 9 games with wins over Vancouver and Philadelphia.
Tampa Bay has been mixing up the lines as they look to get some of their scorers back in the groove. (Gambling side note, the Lightning have played to the total goals under in seven straight games). The Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov line has been re-united in practice while Brandon Hagel has been bumped up to play with Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn. Anthony Cirelli is centering the all-center line with Ross Colton and Nick Paul while the School Bus Line remains together.
If the Lightning are going to go through a small slump, now is the time to do it. They have a month (and a lot of home cooking) to right the ship and work their way back up the standings. The Atlantic is still crowded enough at the top that a quick wining streak will pop them out of the Wild Card spot in no time.
Tampa Bay Lightning projected lineup
Forwards
Ondrej Palat — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn — Steven Stamkos — Brandon Hagel
Nicholas Paul — Anthony Cirelli — Ross Colton
Pat Maroon — Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — Corey Perry
Defensemen
Victor Hedman — Jan Rutta
Mikhail Sergachev — Zach Bogosian
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Goaltender
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Brian Elliott
Detroit Red Wings projected lineup
Forwards
Michael Rasmussen — Dylan Larkin — Lucas Raymond
Tyler Bertuzzi — Jakub Vrana — Pius Suter
Oskar Sundqvist — Adam Erne — Taro Hirose
Joe Veleno — Sam Gagner — Chase Pearson
Jordan Oesterle — Moritz Seider
Defensemen
Marc Staal — Filip Hronek
Gustav Lindstrom — Jake Walman
Goaltenders
Alex Nedeljkovic
Thomas Greiss
