Red Wings-Lightning Tweetcap: The easy blame’s on Gibson. The real truth is that the Wings’ defensive game sucks right now.

The Detroit Red Wings headed into today’s match-up with the Tampa Bay Lightning having lost 3 of their past 4 games, and having surrendered 18 goals over their past 4 endeavors.

Sitting just outside the NHL’s playoff picture, it isn’t necessarily time for the team to panic, but it’s definitely time for the Wings to recommit themselves to playing sound defensive hockey.

Tampa Bay came into today’s game boasting a 5-game winning streak, so the Wings faced a stiff challenge today.

On Friday afternoon at Little Caesars Arena, the Red Wings laid another egg, bluntly, dropping a 6-3 decision to the depleted Lightning.

J.T. Compher would open the scoring 11:29 into the 1st, off a fine assist from Michael Rasmussen (who had his best game of the year), but Raddysh, Goncalves and Gourde would give Tampa a 3-1 lead by 3:01 of the 2nd period, and while the aforementioned Rasmussen would make it 3-2 at 3:13 of the 2nd…

Yanni Gourde was able to hack a rebound over a prone Gibson at 16:09, and after Dylan Larkin scored the 4-3 goal at 18:26, Tampa held Detroit off the scoreboard during a mid-3rd-period power play, and just after killing it, Jake Guentzel tipped the 5-3 marker at the top of the crease at 12:37 of the 3rd.

Detroit pulled Gibson with about 3:30 left in the 3rd, but Brandon Hagel simply scored an empty-netter at 17:13 to afford Tampa a larger margin of victory than perhaps was needed.

While Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 of 36 shots, I’m not blaming John Gibson for this one. Tampa had too many looks that were either involving traffic, rebounds or tips, and it’s unfair to blame the goalie alone when the defense in front of him was so very atrocious.

Detroit’s got to clamp down defensively if they are to head into Boston and snap that 3-game losing streak tomorrow night.

PREGAME: John Gibson and Andrei Vasilevskiy led their respective teams out onto the ice for warmups:

The Lightning have something of a depleted lineup without Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh and Eric Cernak, but they’re always dangerous…

And the Red Wings made two moves which indicated that Simon Edvinsson would return from his flu bug, as would Michael Rasmussen:

And the Red Wings made some changes to their lineup as well, bringing Simon Edvinsson and Michael Rasmussen back from illness, and Jacob Bernard-Docker off the bench:

The Red Wings also had a famous musician in attendance today:

1ST PERIOD:

The Red Wings and Lightning dressed the following starters and lineups:

The Lightning had the jump on the Red Wings early as they came out with speed and poise, but Detroit would get back into things after the first four minutes of play…

The problem was that every time the Wings would clear the puck, Tampa would retain possession…

Andrei Vasilevskiy did make a hell of a stop on Alex DeBrincat working a 2-on-1 with Marco Kasper, but then the Bolts cycled the snot out of the Wings and forced an icing in Detroit’s zone.

GOAL: Detroit’s Danielson line had a very good shift and kept possession, Michael Rasmussen passed the puck to the front of the net from the corner and J.T. Compher chipped the pass into the top of the net, coming off the bench (Compher), to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.

Detroit 1, Tampa Bay 0: Compher (4) from Rasmussen (4) and Edvinsson (4) at 11:29 1st period.

Detroit also got an “almost” when Patrick Kane took a pass from Finnie and stuffed the puck into an open net…but the puck rolled off his blade and slithered across the blue ice of Vasilevskiy’s crease instead.

PENALTY: Alex DeBrincat was called for slashing on Jake Guentzel at 16:31 of the 1st period.

GOAL: Nikita Kucherov set up Darren Raddysh for a ripper of a slap shot that went through traffic and through John Gibson as well.

Detroit 1, Tampa Bay 1: Raddysh (3) from Kucherov (17) and Guentzel (13) at 17:07 1st, PPG.

2ND PERIOD:

GOAL: Tampa Bay’s Paul and Bjorkstrand sent the puck in to Goncalves at the Red Wings’ blueline. Both Jacob Bernard-Docker and Albert Johansson did little other than swat at the puck, and Gage Goncalves chugged up the gut and deked out John Gibson to make it 2-1 at 34 seconds of the 2nd period.

Detroit 1, Tampa Bay 2: Goncalves (2) from Bjorkstrand (7) and Paul (2) at 34 seconds of the 2nd period.

GOAL: Tampa Bay’s Yanni Gourde whacked a rebound into the net over John Gibson after both Albert Johansson and Jacob-Bernard Docker made terrible defensive plays again and afforded Gourde the shot and the reboudn, flickering the puck over the Wings’ goalie at 3:01 of the 2nd.

Detroit 1, Tampa Bay 3: Gourde (4) unassisted at 3:01.

GOAL: Michael Rasmussen would send the puck out from behind the net to J.T. Compher in the low slot, he’d chip the puck over Vasilevskiy and off the goalpost, and the puck bounced down and was jammed into the net by a backhand shot from Michael Rasmussen at 3:13 of the 2nd period.

Detroit 2, Tampa Bay 3: Rasmussen (3) from Compher (5) at 3:13.

GOAL: Charlie-Edouard D’Astous raced up the gut 3-on-3, the Red Wings’ defense did an awful job of affording Tampa a cycling play, and as Yannie Gourde ripped the puck into the Red Wings’ net over John Gibson, Nate Danielson chose to shove Zemgus Girgensons into Gibson at the top of the crease, negating the Wings goaltender’s ability to make a stop.

Detroit 2, Tampa Bay 4: Gourde (5) unassisted at 16:09 2nd period.

GOAL: Moritz Seider and Simon Edvinsson cleared Detroit’s zone, sent the puck up to Lucas Raymond, and he deked and dangled through a tangle of Bolts, fed Dylan Larkin along the left wing half boards, and Larkin flittered a fine shot off Vasilevskiy’s glove and into the net at 18:26 of the 2nd period.

Detroit 3, Tampa Bay 4: Larkin (14) from Raymond (19) and Edvinsson (4) at 18:26 2nd.

3RD PERIOD:

NO GOAL: Raddysh ripped the puck on goal as Ben Chiarot and Pontus Holmberg got in Gibson’s sight lines, and Holmberg bumped Gibson, negating what would have been a 5-3 goal for Tampa Bay. The goal was negated approximately 3:30 into the 3rd period.

PENALTY: Brandon Hagel went for tripping, bitching all the way, as Albert Johansson stumbled at 9:13 of the 3rd, giving Detroit its 1st power play of the game.

PENALTIES: Yanni Gourde and James van Riemsdyk sat at 11:32 of the 3rd, giving both teams a 4-on-4.

With 7:44 remaining, Ben Chiarot goofed the coverage on Hagel and he sent a shot in on Gibson, who made a beautiful save…

GOAL: But Moritz Seider turned the puck over, Nikita Kucherov sent the puck to the point, Darren Raddysh ripped a shot on goal and Jake Guentzel tipped the puck at the top of the crease, behind Simon Edvinsson and just in front of Gibson, who had no chance on the goal against.

Detroit 3, Tampa Bay 5: Guentzel (13) from Raddysh (9) and Kucherov (18) at 12:37 3rd.

GOALIE PULL: Detroit pulled John Gibson just after 3:30 remained in the 3rd period.

GOAL: Brandon Hagel scored an empty-net marker at 17:13, from Tyler Raddysh, who had a 3-point game.

Detroit 3, Tampa Bay 6: Hagel (13) from Raddysh (10) at 17:13, empty net.

STATISTICS: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:

Published by

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!