The 28-21-and-5 Detroit Red Wings face off against the 29-20-and-4 Tampa Bay Lightning later today (1 PM EST start on ABC/Sportsnet/97.1 FM) in a game that has both Wild Card and Atlantic Division playoff implications.
The Red Wings currently sit at 61 points, tied with the Ottawa Senators for a Wild Card spot, and they sit one point behind the Lightning, who have a game in hand on Detroit–a game that will be spent when the Bolts head to Montreal to play the Canadiens on Sunday afternoon (1 PM on the NHL Network).
Things have been going well for Tampa Bay of late: they’re 3-0-and-1 in their last 4 games, and they swept the Ottawa Senators 4-3 and 5-1 on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, at Amalie Arena.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper told the Tampa Bay Times’ John Romano that he wants the Bolts to go into the Four Nations Cup break with a pair of victories:
“We’re banged-up probably like most teams are. We’ve got to hope we can get a little healthy here,” coach Jon Cooper said. “You’ve got to understand, it’s just two more games. We have to dig deep … I’m okay going on the road right now. Get this team together, get focused and, you know what, let’s take our best shot and see what we can do here for two games.”
These games are significant mostly because of their timing. They offer the Lightning an opportunity to prove their mediocre record on the road (11-13-2) is a byproduct of a brutal January schedule — when they went 2-7-1 in 10 road games — rather than a character flaw.
Both Montreal and Detroit are behind them in the standings, but the Lighting have lost three of their four meetings against the teams. On top of that, the Red Wings have been one of the hottest teams in the league since firing coach Derek Lalonde.
These games also arrive just as Tampa Bay hit the reset button. Following their awful January, the Lightning had a five-game homestand that allowed them to claw their way from the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed back to No. 6.
“We had some long road trips in January,” said forward Jake Guentzel. “So for us to come home for these last five (was) nice. When you’re home, you can kind of rethink and refocus.”
Field Level Media also framed the Bolts’ state of mind going into today’s game thusly:
“[The Senators series] was a massive two games for us,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “We had this five-game homestand, we dropped the first one to Chicago, but for us to get seven out of the next eight (points) was pivotal. Especially against a division rival that we’re neck-and-neck with. And they were hot coming in.”
Star forward Nikita Kucherov has recorded at least one point in 16 of the last 17 games. He contributed two assists in the latest victory.
“Obviously a great effort, this was a huge two games for us,” center Jake Guentzel said. “This is our identity; we’ve got to not give up much because that’s a high-scoring team over there. I think it’s easy to get up for these games … playoff mentality against a team we’re fighting against.”
This is the third meeting since Jan. 18 between the Lightning and Red Wings. Tampa Bay won the first matchup, 5-1, led by Kucherov’s goal and two assists. In the rematch a week later, Detroit recorded a 2-0 shutout as Cam Talbot made 28 saves.
They’ll finish the four-game season series in April.
TampaBayLightning.com’s Benjamin Pierce framed today’s game with a short preview:
The Lightning will go for a third consecutive Atlantic Division win when they play the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Saturday…
Tampa Bay is 1-1-0 against the Red Wings this season, winning 5-1 on Jan. 18 before losing 2-0 on Jan. 25…
Forwards Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel co-lead the Lightning in scoring against Detroit with 1-2—3 this season…
The Lightning are 39-37-5 all-time against Detroit, a record that includes an 11-9-1 record since the 2020-21 season…
Kucherov leads the Lightning in career scoring against the Red Wings, scoring 21-28—49 across 38 games…Steven Stamkos (23-19—42) is second, followed by defenseman Victor Hedman, who has 5-36—41 in 46 games against Detroit…
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has started both games against the Red Wings this season, going 1-1-0 with a .971 save percentage and allowing one goal in each game…He is 15-5-0 with a .933 save percentage in his career against Detroit with one shutout.
MLive’s Ryan Zuke reports that there will be a “hometown connection” on the ice for Tampa Bay on Saturday–that isn’t Luke Glendening…
Former Michigan forward Dylan Duke could be making his NHL debut about 40 miles from where he played college hockey.
The Tampa Bay Lightning called up Duke from American Hockey League affiliate Syracuse Crunch on Friday. There’s a good chance the 2021 fourth-round pick will be in Tampa Bay’s lineup Saturday afternoon when it faces the Detroit Red Wings at 1 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena.
Saturday could be a special day in Detroit for the Duke family. Dylan’s younger brother, Tyler Duke, is a junior defenseman for the Wolverines, who will play No. 2 Michigan State at 8 p.m. in the annual Duel in the D at LCA.
Dylan, 21, took part in the rivalry matchup at LCA each of the past three seasons before forgoing his senior year and turning pro. The 5-foot-10, 177-pound Ohio native has 13 goals and nine assists and is a plus-6 in 36 games this season for the Crunch.
He was instrumental in helping Michigan reach the Frozen Four the last three years, registering 53 goals and 45 assists in 122 games.
As far as the Red Wings are concerned, extending their 7-game winning streak to 8 games, and their 8-0-and-1 streak to 9 games, is imperative to go into the Four Nations break with some momentum.
Coach Todd McLellan told MLive’s Ansar Khan that the Wings are well aware of the importance of today’s matinee as a “four-point game”…
“It’s one (game), but it’s an important one,” McLellan said. “All the stuff we’ve done to this point, it’ll either end and we’ll leave with a sour taste in our mouth for two weeks, or we can play a real hard game, competitive game and feel pretty good about coming back. So that’ll be a little bit of a poke for the guys.
The Lightning (29-20-4) are third in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the Red Wings.
When the teams met Jan. 25 in Detroit, Emil Lilleberg’s high hit on J.T. Compher sidelined the center for five games and got the Lightning defenseman suspended two games. Michael Rasmussen was shaken up but avoided injury after being tripped by Nikita Kucherov while depositing the puck into an empty net in a 2-0 win.
McLellan is not seeking retribution, however.
“I want to see us play a good, hard hockey game,” McLellan said. “Ras is fine. We can think about that all we want, but where we’re at, what we’ve accomplished to this point, we need to keep moving the team forward, and the focus has to be on playing hard and playing a good 60 minutes. It takes everybody to beat them and that’s what our focus will be.”
Players are determined not to lose focus.
“The (streak) we’re on now, it’s been by committee and that feels sustainable,” Larkin said. “We’ve been getting unbelievable goaltending and we’ve been wearing teams down. I haven’t been able to say that for too many teams I’ve played on, but with Elmer (Soderblom) coming in and Ras playing well, the size we have on the back end — I look at that L.A. game, really felt like it was a fast playoff-style game, but we wore them down and that’s a big, fast team as well.”
And if you’re into the Four Nations Face-Off implications of this game, NHL.com provides for your needs:
Lightning captain Victor Hedman, who will also serve in that role for Team Sweden in the 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20, will compete against one of his teammates at the tournament, Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond. Hedman has 42 points (seven goals, 35 assists) in 51 games this season, and Raymond leads the Red Wings with 58 points (21 goals, 37 assists) in 54 games. Detroit (28-21-5) has a seven-game winning streak for the second time this season; it also won seven straight from Dec. 29-Jan. 12. Tampa Bay (29-20-4) has won two in a row and has a four-game point streak (3-0-1).
