I’m not going to lie, I kind of forgot the Red Wings played today which is why this is so late.

I don’t think it was so much I forgot they played, but that I wish they weren’t because I’m terrified they are going to be taken to the slaughterhouse by the Lightning.

The first time we played the Lightning, we actually played pretty well and could have even walked away with the ‘W’. But, that was at Little Caesars Arena, not Amalie Arena. They way Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov are going right now, this doesn’t look good for the Red Wings. Let’s see how these two squads match-up and how they will line-up:

The Red Wings did not announce a line for tonight’s game, but it’s believed that Andreas Athanasiou will make his season debut on a line with Frans Nielsen and Darren Helm. Unfortunately it does not look like Danny DeKeyser is ready to play despite taking part in the morning skate.

The Red Wings were shutout in Buffalo on Tuesday and have now scored just one goal in their last two contests. Despite head coach Jeff Blashill calling them out after a brutal performance on Sunday, the Red Wings didn’t look like an inspired team on Tuesday. They need a much better performance tonight or they will get blown out of the building.

If you take a look at the NHL.com League Leaders page, the Lightning own it right now. Stamkos leads the NHL in points (20) and assists (17) while Kucherov is first in goals (11), Anton Stralman leads in plus/minus (+11) and Andrei Vasilevskiy has the most wins (8).

Their top line has a 50.41 CF%, 4.22 relative Corsi and have scored eight goals at 5v5 while giving up five. They have done a lot of damage on the power-play, combining for six PPG’s and 19 PPA’s.

Rookie Mikhail Sergachev, who they acquired from Montreal for Jonathan Drouin has had an excellent star to his career. He often anchors their second PP unit and enters play tonight with nine points (4G / 5A) in 10 games—four (1G / 3A) of those points coming on the power-play. Surprisingly, given their hot-start, Victor Hedman has not had the greatest statistical start, picking up just one goal and four assists.

Jimmy Howard gets the nod for Detroit. Howie allowed just one goal on 32 shots in Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat and has now lost four straight starts after starting the year with three consecutive wins. In seven starts, he carries a 2.54 GAA and .924 SV%, which includes a 23-save performance in their first meeting with the Lightning.

Vasilevskiy is coming off of a 31-save performance in the Lighting’s win in Carolina on Tuesday. He comes into tonight on a seven-game winning streak and has posted a 1.71 GAA, .948 SV% and one shutout over that stretch. The 23-year-old stopped 29 of 31 shots in their win in Detroit 10 days ago.

The Red Wings and Lightning will go to battle on Fox Sports-Detroit; puck-drop is at 7:30p.m. ET. Also, make sure to follow us on Twitter; we’ll have live tweets, GIFS, and all the fun stuff that a topical social media platform has.