Red Wings at Lightning
The Detroit Red Wings can draw plenty of positives from the series opener and hope to build off them to avoid a 2-0 hole when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday. Detroit rallied to take the lead in the second period, drew five power plays and produced 36 shots on goal in a 3-2 loss in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round series Wednesday.
“I thought we did a good job in a lot of areas,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill told reporters. “I don’t like the result, but from a process standpoint, we did good things. I was happy with most of our guys, but I also think there’s another level.” Detroit will have to find an answer for the line of Alex Killorn, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov, who combined for three goals and four assists with captain Steven Stamkos (blood clot) and top-pair defenseman Anton Stralman out indefinitely. “You can’t sulk in it,” Johnson, who suffered an upper-body injury in the final regular-season game, told reporters. “Detroit isn’t doing us any favors. We’ve got to play our game, and guys have to step up like they did (Wednesday).” The Lightning won Game 2 in all four series last season, including the first round against the Red Wings.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CNBC, CBC, TVAS, FSN Detroit, FSN Florida (Tampa Bay)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS: Detroit still needs to get captain Henrik Zetterberg going after he was held to one shot on goal in Game 1 and has managed one goal in his last 25 games. His linemates Pavel Datsyuk (seven shots) and Justin Abdelkader (goal) each contributed and defenseman Mike Green had the other goal for the Red Wings. Rookie forward Dylan Larkin, who primarily played with Darren Helm and Brad Richards, did not have a shot on goal in his playoff debut.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING: Jonathan Drouin, who had asked for a trade before leaving the team and getting suspended for almost two months, played 18:09 in the series opener - second-most among forwards. Drouin had three shots, two hits, two takeaways and teamed with linemates Valtteri Filppula and Ondrej Palat to create several opportunities while helping shut out Zetterberg and Datsyuk. Defenseman Victor Hedman led all players in ice time with 28:56.
OVERTIME
1. The Lightning won the battle in the faceoff circle 36-29 on Wednesday, led by Filppula (17-10)
2. Detroit rookie F Andreas Athanasiou had four shots on goal and three hits in 8:45 on Wednesday in his first playoff game.
3. Killorn, who had nine goals and 18 points in 26 playoff games in 2014-15, has a plus-12 rating in his last 16 games overall.