Three Things: A Wings-Bolts game preview, Eliot’s Olympic journey and Wings reaching out to disabled athletes

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

1. The Tampa Bay Lightning website’s Elisabeth Dichiara penned a Wings-Bolts game preview:

Thursday’s Matchup
The Lightning are playing their last of four meetings this season against Detroit. Tampa Bay earned a 5-2 win in its matchup earlier this season on Jan. 7, Louis Domingue made 34 saves in his debut for the Lightning…He had not played in the NHL since Oct. 28 for the Arizona Coyotes…Defenseman Dan Girardi had a goal and an assist, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov scored, and Ondrej Palat and Vladislav Namestnikov each had two assists for Tampa Bay…Tyler Johnson has points in eight of his last nine regular season games vs. DET…The Lightning have won 10 in a row in the regular season overall against the Red Wings, their longest active win streak versus any team and fourth-longest win streak versus any opponent all-time…Andrei Vasilevskiy has never lost in his career vs. DET, going 5-0-0 with a 1.86 GAA and .940 save percentage…Cedric Paquette has more goals (4) and points (5) vs. DET than any other NHL team and recorded his only career hat trick Jan. 29, 2015 vs. DET…Nikita Kucherov has more regular season goals (11) against the Red Wings than any other NHL team and has recorded points (7-3–10) in five-straight games vs. DET.

Thursday’s Storylines
The Lightning face the Red Wings for the last time in the regular season and have the opportunity to sweep the series…Despite the loss on Tuesday, the Lightning are off to their best start in franchise history with 79 points through 57 games, five points better than the 74 points put up by the 2010-11 team (34-17-6) and the 2014-15 team (34-17-6) through 57 games…The Bolts continue to lead the NHL for wins (38), points (79), ROW (36), points percentage (.693), goals (202) and goals per game (3.54)…The Lightning lead the NHL for road victories (19), road points (40) and road goals (110).

2. Fox Sports Detroit spoke with Darren Eliot regarding his Olympic memories as he participated in the 1984 Olympics with Team Canada:

 

3. And the Red Wings and Warrior Hockey helped out a local team on Wednesday, presenting the Motor City Stars–a team of disabled athletes–with Warrior gear:

Update: WXYZ chronicled the Wings’ activities:

efore these special players hit the ice, Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader and a few of his teammates had a special message for this one of a kind team.

“This month is hockey is for everyone throughout the NHL and we’re supporting that cause and through our partners with warrior, we have a surprise for you guys,” Abdelkader said.

New stocks, gloves and pants for the team help offset the cost to play and ensure that any kid, regardless of ability, can play a game that’s easy to love.

“It was amazing, once in a lifetime experience,” Motor City Stars teammate Michael Irvin said.

“I love hockey! Hockey is one of the greatest sports around, I’ve been bugging my dad to play hockey for, I dunno since I’ve been on skates and this is just a great organization,” Stars teammate William Batty added.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!