Lightning at Red Wings: The light at the end of the tunnel

Game Forty-eight: Tampa Bay Lightning (26-18-3) at Detroit Red Wings (22-21-5)

Time: 7:00 PM EST

Location: Little Caesars Arena, Detroit

TV/Stream/Radio: FDSNSUN, FDSNDET, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App

Odds: Lightning – 135

Know the Opponents: Winging it in Motown

If nothing else, the Lightning’s 4-3 win over the Chicago Blackhawks last night stemmed the point-bleeding for at least one night. They picked up two important points, which allowed them to move back above the Wild Card fray for the moment. Now, all they have to do is do it all over again. While they may be a little tired (chances are they didn’t get into Detroit until the wee hours of the frozen morn) they can look forward to, if not a relaxing break, at least a return to a bit of normalcy.

Following the game tonight, the Lightning have two days off before starting a five-game home-stand on Tuesday against Chicago. Games against the Blackhawks and Kings will close out the busiest month of the year, a month that they definitely survived more than thrived. The good news is that the rest of the schedule should roll out fairly normally with just one back-to-back before the majority of the team gets a 4 Nations Face-Off related break in February.

Tonight is another “win by any means necessary” type of affair. All the Lightning should be focused on is getting the two points and getting out of Motown. A win, and they open up a healthy eight-point lead on the Red Wings, which puts quite a bit of distance between them and a team that was on their heels just a couple of weeks ago. Not that the Bolts can breathe too much as there are still more than enough teams in their own division right on their heels.

Last night’s game was a little closer than it needed to be, especially considering the shot domination that the Lightning displayed in the first and third periods. As has been the case for most of the last few seasons, when they did lapse for a little, their opponents took advantage as Chicago struck twice in a span of two minutes. At least they mixed things up a bit in their “two-period” style of play by taking the second period off instead of the first.

There was more good than bad though. The re-aligned power play continues to cook as they tallied three more goals with the extra skater or two. While Chicago is struggling overall, their penalty kill was pretty solid at 81.2%, so to go three-for-three against them is nothing to casually bat aside.

If the Bolts can pull is off tonight, it’s a good, but not great, road trip and they can refocus on getting through this stretch. A team doesn’t want to be playing their best hockey in February, but they do want to be building towards being better. They also don’t want to fumble away a playoff spot. So far the Lightning have done the second part, but they need to start working on the first.

Potential Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning

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Detroit Red Wings

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