TAMPA, FL (WFLA) – The Tampa Bay Lightning will open the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs against a familiar opponent – the Detroit Red Wings. The Bolts rallied to defeat the Wings in seven games in the first round of the postseason last year; the first speed bump on their road to the Stanley Cup Final.SERIES SCHEDULE
Game 1: @ TB, Wednesday 4/13, 7pm on NBCSN Final DET 2 – TBL 3
Game 2: @ TB, Friday 4/15, 7pm on CNBC Final DET 2 – TBL 5
Game 3: @ DET, Sunday 4/17, 7pm on CNBC Final TBL 0 – DET 2
Game 4: @ DET, Tuesday 4/19, 7pm on NBCSN Final TBL 3 – DET 2
Game 5: @ TB, Thursday 4/21, Time/TV Final DET 0 – TBL 1
Game 6: @ DET, Sunday 4/24, Time/TV TBD*
Game 7: @ TB, Tuesday 4/26, Time/TV TBD*
*If necessary
GAME 3 PREVIEW:
Tampa Bay Lightning will be playing Detroit Red Wings at JLA Sunday evening. Red Wings’ goalie Petr Mrazek was in the net during the morning practice and seems likely to start for the Wed Wings Sunday night.
Red Wings Head Coach Blashill said at the press conference after the morning practice: “Last year he did a real good job against Tampa so we made the decision to put Petr in.”
Blashill didn’t give an official confirmation on the defenseman Kyle Quincey being out of the lineup for the game, but it seems like Brandon Smith is in. Red Wings’ defensive pairings look like this for the evening:
Kronwall-Ericsson
Marchenko-Dekeyser
Green-Smith
“Brendan wasn’t out because he was playing bad. Brendan was out because we have seven good defensemen and I have to choose six,” Blashill said about Smith.
Tampa Bay Lightning’s defenseman Anton Stralman traveled to Detroit with the team and was on an exercise bike during the morning practice. Bolts’ goalie Ben Bishop will be in the net for the Lightning in Game 3.
The Bolts’ line rushes:
Killorn-Johnson-Kucherov
Palat-Filppula-Drouin
Paquette-Namestnikov-Callahan
Condra-Boyle-Blunden
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper confirmed that the defenseman Anton Stralman is not wearing a cast and will not play in the first round, but he could be ready for the second.
“He’s an extremely popular player on our team… He’s quiet but he’s a funny guy. He keeps things light with our group,” Cooper said about Stralman.GAME 3 RESULT:
(AP) Andreas Athanasiou and Henrik Zetterberg scored, Petr Mrazek made 16 saves and the Detroit Red Wings beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0 on Sunday night. Detroit cut its deficit to 2-1 in the first-round series. Game 4 is Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena. Game 5, which is now necessary, will be at Tampa Bay. After brawling late in the last game, gloves were dropped, fists flew and there were piles of players on the ice when the Game 3 ended. Ben Bishop made 28 saves for the Lightning, who had their top line of Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn shut down after the trio combined for six points in the first two games of the series.STAY WITH WFLA for Live Updates and the Game Analysis
Follow us on Twitter: WFLA Sports Reporter Paul Ryan is in Detroit to bring you the latest – @WFLAPaul
REGULAR SEASON RESULTS
Detroit: 41-30-11 (93 points, 3rd in Atlantic)
Tampa Bay: 46-31-5 (97 points, 2nd in Atlantic)
The Lightning and Red Wings split their four meetings in the 2015-16 season. Both teams went 2-0 at home.
10/13 @ DET: Tampa Bay 1, Detroit 3
11/3 @ DET: Tampa Bay 1, Detroit 2
2/3 @ TB: Detroit 1, Tampa Bay 3
3/22 @ TB: Detroit 2, Tampa Bay 6
The Lightning limped into the postseason, losing 10 of their last 17 games. However, the Red Wings took a similar course. Detroit backed into its 25th-consecutive playoff berth, despite losing to Boston in game 81 (the Bruins also finished with 93 points, but missed the playoffs because of a tiebreaker) and the Rangers in game 82 (New York rested nearly one-third of its regular starting roster).OVERVIEW
Thanks to the National Hockey League’s realignment two seasons ago, the Red Wings and Lightning have quickly become rivals in the Atlantic Division. Home ice advantage could prove to be crucial in this series, as evidenced in the regular season.
Both teams struggled to be consistent this year. The Lightning were one of the streakiest teams in the league, boasting winning streaks of seven and nine games (a franchise record), but also losing four out of five games on four different occasions. The Red Wings were chained to the same seesaw, winning 3+ games six times and losing 3+ five times. The difference in this best-of-seven series could simply be whether Dr. Jekyl or Mr. Hyde shows up to the rink.FORWARDS
Leading Scorers
TB: Kucherov (30 goals, 36 assists, 66 points), Stamkos (36 goals, 28 assists, 64 points), Killorn (14 goals, 26 assists, 40 points), Palat (16 goals, 24 assists, 40 points)
DET: Zetterberg (13 goals, 37 assists, 50 points), Datsyuk (16 goals, 33 assists, 49 points), Tatar (21 goals, 24 assists, 45 points), Larkin (23 goals, 22 assists, 45 points)
The Lightning’s top-six seems superior on paper. However, injuries are going to play a factor in the outcome of this series. Tampa Bay will certainly be without Stamkos, who is recovering from successful vascular surgery on a blood clot in his right arm. Ryan Callahan (10 goals, 18 assists, 28 points) may need surgery and his availability for the first round has not been determined. Although Callahan doesn’t contribute a ton offensively, he’s one of the best two-way forwards in the NHL, and he would be an asset in shutting down Detroit’s top lines. Tyler Johnson (14 goals, 24 assists, 48 points) left the last game of the season with an upper-body injury. His status for game one has not been decided. Kucherov came into his own this year and looks like a 30+ goal talent worth building a franchise around if Stamkos should depart Tampa Bay in free agency.
The Red Wings rely on an “It takes a village” approach. Detroit’s leading scorer (Zetterberg) only amassed 50 points in 82 games, but 13 different skaters finished the year with 20+ points (the Lightning also had 13). Unlike the Lightning, the Wings enter the postseason relatively healthy. Zetterberg and Datsyuk (who announced his desire to leave the NHL after this season) have clearly lost a step over their long and productive careers but are still top-six forwards who make big plays. Nineteen-year-old All-Star Dylan Larkin will be worth keeping an eye on in his first postseason. His production diminished significantly as he hit the “wall” in the second half of the year, but he’s one of the fastest skaters in the league and will be a menace on both ends of the ice. Tatar and Nyqvist (17 goals, 26 assists, 43 points) have been extremely streaky when it comes to scoring.
Advantage: Even
The Red Wings don’t have as much firepower as the Lightning, even with Stamkos out of the lineup, but if Johnson and Callahan both miss games in the playoffs, that could tip the scales in Detroit’s favor. The old guard still runs the show in the Motor City, but that won’t be the case for much longer. The x-factor could be recent call-up Jonathan Drouin, who scored in each of the last two games of the regular season. Can he supplant Stamkos’ production when the spotlight shines brightest?DEFENSEMEN
Leading Contributors
TB: Hedman (10 goals, 37 assists, 47 points, +21), Stralman (9 goals, 25 assists, 34 points, +16), Coburn (1 goal, 9 assists, 10 points, +12)
DET: Green (7 goals, 28 assists, 35 points, -12), Kronwall (3 goals, 23 assists, 26 points, -21), Dekeyser (8 goals, 12 assists, 20 points, +2)
Stralman is recovering from a broken right fibula, and won’t be ready in time for this series. That’s a big hole on the Bolts top-pair, and it diminishes Hedman’s effectiveness slightly. However, the Lightning have seen Jason Garrison and Matt Carle step into larger roles down the stretch of the season. Carle, in particular, has been red-hot (5 assists, +6 in last five games). Coburn is a stalwart despite his lack of offensive production. You rarely hear his name mentioned on a television broadcast, and for a stay-at-home defenseman, that’s a good thing.
Objectively speaking, Detroit’s blue line has been a garbage fire in stretches this season. The Red Wings “best” defenseman is Nik Kronwall, who finished the year a team-worst -21. Granted, that’s a function of Detroit’s negative goal differential; the Red Wings scored 13 fewer goals than they allowed, while the Lightning were +26. The Red Wings rely too heavily on the young Dekeyser. Ericsson and Quincey are error-prone when pressured in their own end, and tend to take back-breaking penalties. Green has lost a step since leaving his Norris-contending days in Washington, but still quarterbacks Detroit’s power play with panache. Advanced metrics suggest Brendan Smith is actually Detroit’s best d-man, but Smith has been a healthy scratch since March 26.Advantage: Tampa Bay
Even without Stralman, the Lightning are deeper on the back end than the Red Wings. Hedman is the cream of the crop, and his dynamic play will help decide the outcome of this series for better or worse. When Detroit is struggling to score, head coach Jeff Blashill likes to have his defensemen join the rush, leading to potential odd-man opportunities the other way. Tampa Bay will look to capitalize on those chances in this series.GOALTENDERS
TB: Bishop (61 GP, 35-21-4, 6 SO, 2.06 GAA, .926%), Vasilevskiy (24 GP, 11-10-0, 1 SO, 2.76 GAA, .910%)
DET: Mrazek (54 GP, 27-16-6, 4 SO, 2.33 GAA, .921%), Howard (37 GP, 14-14-5, 2 SO, 2.80 GAA, .906%)
Ben Bishop has proven to be among the elite goaltenders in the NHL and should be in Vezina consideration (he won’t win it though). Bishop had a banner year in Tampa Bay, breaking franchise records for career wins and shutouts. Meanwhile, Detroit’s goaltending situation has been a carnival since game one. Petr Mrazek appeared to have stolen the starting job from Jimmy Howard, but he gave it back late in the year after a stretch of abysmal play that saw him pulled for Howard several times. I think Blashill will opt to start Howard against the Lightning, but that could change very quickly.Advantage: Tampa Bay
Bottom line: Bishop can win this series for Tampa Bay. Howard/Mrazek can lose it for Detroit.SPECIAL TEAMS
TB: Power Play: 15.8% (28th), Penalty Kill: 84% (7th)
DET: Power Play: 18.8% (12th), Penalty Kill: 81.6% (14th)
15.8% on the power play, even in today’s NHL, is embarrassing. The Lightning have too many weapons on this team to perform so poorly. Without Stamkos, the man-advantage becomes even less dangerous. The Red Wings also struggled to score on the power play for stretches this year, but seem to have figured things out lately. The men to watch might just be Brian Boyle and Justin Abdelkader- both are effective net-front presences that could cause problems for Bishop and Howard.Advantage: DetroitPREDICTION
This will be one of the most difficult to predict series in the first round of the playoffs, simply because both teams have been maddeningly inconsistent this year. Which Lightning team will show up? The one that won nine-straight games, or the one that lost five-of-six in mid-March? Sadly, injuries may be the deciding factor. Detroit is mostly healthy, while the Bolts are being held together by duct tape and moxie at the worst possible time.
That said, I think the Lightning are a better hockey club right now. I expect this series to go six or seven games, with Tampa Bay finding a way to prevail. Their reward? The potential return of Stralman in round two against the Panthers.LIGHTNING IN SEVEN GAMES