Of Red Wings-related note ahead of today’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning (1 PM EST start on ABC/Sportsnet/97.1 FM):
- DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a game preview this morning, and he emphasizes the Red Wings’ momentum coming into today’s game:
The Red Wings are 1-1 against the Lightning this season, including a 5-1 loss at AMALIE Arena on Jan. 18 and a 2-0 shutout win at Little Caesars Arena a week later (Jan. 25).
“All [games] are important, especially against a divisional opponent,” Lucas Raymond said. “It always means more, especially the way the standings are right now. But at the same time, for us, we need to play our game. Play the way we’ve been doing for the last seven games, just keep building off of that and getting momentum.”
A 5-4 shootout victory over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday gave Detroit an impressive sweep of its most recent four-game Western road trip, marking the fifth time in franchise history that the club has won every contest on a road swing of at least that length.
“Those buildings are tough to play in and those are good teams,” Red Wings head coach McLellan said. “And to have won games in so many different ways – we won without our power play, with great goaltending, with our power play, with above-average goaltending, not great, penalty kill – that was pretty unique. The trip itself was special, but it’s in the past now.”
An important piece down the middle, J.T. Compher (upper body) is expected to return to Detroit’s lineup on Saturday. The 29-year-old forward, who hasn’t played since Jan. 25, has missed the last five games.
“I felt pretty good the rest of that game [on Jan. 25], then obviously something that knocked me out for a little bit,” Compher said. “I felt like we did a good job getting back into the swing of things, and good to have these two practices at home [on Thursday and Friday] before I hopefully get out there.”
2. The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton offers this quote in his game preview:
“I dislike the last and first games coming out of All-Star breaks or Christmas breaks or whatever, just because it can get away on you,” Todd McLellan cautioned after Friday’s practice. “One o’clock in the afternoon game, [the players] are probably waking up in the morning, and some of their wives got bags packed for the kids already and stuff like that. We have a task in front of us, and we expect a lot from each other. So while there will be distractions and things that can pull you away from the game, expectations are high that we give each other everything we have.”
3. Diandra Loux posted a preview from the Lightning’s perspective:
The Lightning had two massive divisional wins against the Ottawa Senators earlier in the week. If they manage to grab two more this weekend, it would put them in a good spot in the standings heading into the break.
“We know what we need to do in this room,” said Brandon Hagel. “When that break comes, we don’t want to be out of the playoffs, we want to be in it. So that’s our goal here, to take advantage one game at a time.”
Anthony Cirelli was out of Thursday’s game with an upper body injury. No word yet on whether or not he will be available on Saturday. Side note: He is expected to be on the Team Canada roster for the 4 Nations tournament.
On Friday evening, Tampa Bay recalled former University of Michigan forward Dylan Duke from AHL Syracuse. Duke has skated in 36 games with the Syracuse Crunch this season and recorded 13 goals, which is tied for the sixth-most among all AHL rookies.
Typically we don’t see Andrei Vasilevskiy playing in back-to-back games. With the two week break approaching, we are still waiting on confirmation for this weekend’s Atlantic Division matchups.
4. Per MLive’s Tyler Kuehl:
Detroit has a chance to win its eighth game in a row for the first time since 2008. Coming into Saturday, the Red Wings are fourth in the Atlantic Division, holding the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Lightning jumped ahead of the Wings in the division and conference standings after beating the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night; Tampa has points in four straight games. They are hanging onto third in the Atlantic, one point ahead of Detroit.
5. Here are today’s game notes:
