Lightning at Red Wings
The Tampa Bay Lightning look to end their road woes Sunday when they visit the Detroit Red Wings, who are going through their own problems at home. The Lightning were blanked 3-0 at New Jersey on Saturday, dropping to 0-5-2 in their last seven on the road after starting with six wins in nine games away from home. The Red Wings have won only five of 18 games at Joe Louis Arena this season and lost 3-2 in overtime to Tampa Bay on Nov. 9 – the Lightning’s first win at Detroit since 1994.
The Red Wings suffered a 4-1 setback to Pittsburgh on Saturday to fall to 1-3-2 in their last six games overall, managing only 11 goals in that stretch with leading scorer Henrik Zetterberg sidelined. The Lightning have also struggled offensively, getting shut out in four of the last 10 games. Ben Bishop, who beat Detroit 2-1 in a shootout last Thursday, is expected back in net for Tampa Bay.
TV: 5 p.m. ET, SunSports (Tampa Bay), FSN Detroit-Plus
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (18-11-3): Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said his team played well while outshooting New Jersey 33-19, but made “colossal errors” that led to a defeat. The Lightning has been good at responding to tough circumstances all season, suffering consecutive losses only twice, and are 6-6-3 since All Star Steven Stamkos went down with a broken leg. Tampa Bay will need more from its second line of Alex Killorn, Valtteri Filppula and Teddy Purcell.
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (15-10-9): Forward Justin Abdelkader added his name to the Red Wings’ long injury list after taking a shot to the head from Pittsburgh’s Deryk Engelland on Saturday. Zetterberg, Darren Helm and Stephen Weiss are already out up front, goalie Jimmy Howard has a knee injury and defenseman Dan DeKeyser (shoulder) is still on the injured list. The Red Wings will lean on veterans Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, Daniel Alfredsson and talented rookie Tomas Tatar to provide offense.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay is 3-of-36 on the power play in the last 11 games and has dropped to 22nd in the league at 15.9 percent.
2. Alfredsson, who has been held to one point in the last four games, is one assist shy of 700 for his career in 1,207 games.
3. Lightning D Victor Hedman, who has a career-best six goals, is expected to miss his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury.