Red Wings-Lightning morning skate Tweets and game preview: Talbot vs. Vasilevskiy; Cernak out for Bolts

The 21-19-and-4 Detroit Red Wings will play the 24-16-and-3 Tampa Bay Lightning tonight (7 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/FanDuel Sports Sun/97.1 FM), and it may be an opportune time to play Tampa Bay.

For the Red Wings, this is the first of a set of back-to-back games, with Detroit traveling to Dallas to play the Stars tomorrow night as well.

I know that not many of you plan on watching the entire game as the Detroit Lions play the Washington Commanders at 8 PM, but I’m just not a football person, so while I want the Lions to win for you and the city’s long-suffering Lions fans, I’m going to be watching the Wings-Bolts game all the way through.

The Bolts won their last game, a 3-2 shootout decision over the Anaheim Ducks, but Tampa is 2-1-and-1 over their last 4 games, and they’re 4-1-and-5 in their past 10 games.

As TampaBayLightning.com’s Benjamin Pierce notes, the Lightning tend to dominate against the Red Wings, at least historically speaking…

The Lightning will open a four-game season series against their Atlantic Division opponent Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at AMALIE Arena…

Tampa Bay is 38-36-5 all-time against the Red Wings, a record which includes an 11-8-2 run over the previous five seasons…

Detroit won all three of the 2023-24 matchups in regulation…

Nikita Kucherov is the franchise’s all-time leading scorer against Detroit, posting 20-26—46 in 36 games…Steven Stamkos sits second with 23-19—42. Defenseman Victor Hedman ranks third with 5-35—40 in 44 games…Brayden Point is near a point per game against the Red Wings with 18-15—33 in 34 games…Hedman (2-2—4) and Kucherov (0-4—4) co-led the team in last season’s three-game series against Detroit, and Brandon Hagel (1-2—3) also had a point per game…

Andrei Vasilevskiy is 14-4-0 against the Red Wings with a .928 save percentage in his Bolts career…Vasilevskiy was 0-2-0 against Detroit last year despite posting a .924 SV%, stopping 61 of 65 shots…Jonas Johansson was 0-1 with an .878 save percentage.

As the Associated Press noted, however, the Lightning possess a 2-and-6 record against Atlantic Division teams.

The Wings are at least better against their Atlantic Division rivals at 5-7-and-1, and as you know by now, Detroit’s record is 8-and-2 over the course of their past 10 games.

Here are tonight’s game notes:

gn-2025-01-18-0727-DET@TBLDownload

The Lightning hit the ice at Amalie Arena for their morning skate just before 10:30 AM.

The team recalled defenseman Max Crozier from the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch after losing defenseman Erik Cernak to an injury during the Bolts’ win over Anaheim, so Cernak’s status bears watching.

The Lightning will be wearing their black third jerseys for a special reason tonight, per Red Wings announcer Ken Kal:

And again, I’m expecting all ten of us to be watching the Wings game tonight…

If you missed it, the Free Press’s Helene St. James asked the Wings’ locker room and coach about their playoff football allegiances…

There’s also this from FanDuel Sports Network Detroit’s John Keating:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James reported from Detroit’s morning skate:

As did the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

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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!

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