The Red Wings have been on a mean streak lately with a couple of brawls in their last two games. In a week where they’re playing four of the league’s top teams, they’ve made out pretty well for themselves. They beat Boston in regulation on Saturday and lost in a close game to Colorado on Sunday. Now, the Lightning are on deck their first place 20-7-1 record.

With Tyler Bertuzzi sitting for a two game suspension and Anthony Mantha out 4-6 weeks with a hand injury, the Red Wings forward lines are starting to thin. This isn’t great news for the kind of match-up they’ll face tonight. They really could have used Bertuzzi’s grit and pestiness to get under the Lightning’s skin.

So Nyquist will move up to the top line and Christoffer Ehn will slot in as the fourth line center between Witkowski and Frk. Yikes.

The only line I really like here is the 2nd one. Glendening playing 3rd line winger is a downgrade from Bertuzzi and Abdelkader on the top line won’t capitalize on the favourable opportunities that someone like Nyquist can create.

On the blue line, Daley is still out with injury so no changes to those lines.

The Lightning only seem to have gotten better. Brayden Point is on pace for 59 goals and 108 points. He’s playing with Kucherov who has points in his last 10 games.

The Lightning have three players with more than 10 goals and four players with more than 20 points. They have the 5th best powerplay in the league. They are going to have to shut down both Kucherov an Steven Stamkos.

They also have so much defensive depth with Hedman, McDonagh, and Sergachev each anchoring their own pairing. They are going to be a tough one to solve for a Red Wings team without one of its best scorers.

Jimmy Howard vs. Louis Domingue

You want your best goalie in net when you’re facing the best team in the league and, while Jonathan Bernier performed admirably against the Avalanche, the Wings need the stability of Howard between the pipes tonight.

As for Tampa, Andrei Vasilevskiy is still sidelined with an injury, so look to Louis Domingue to get the start tonight. Domingue is 4-1-0 in his last five starts and has a .900 save percentage on the season. He’s certainly no Vasilevskiy so hopefully the Wings can get a couple dirty ones tonight.

Puck drop is at 7:30 P.M. ET and you’ll be able to catch the game on Fox Sports Detroit, SUN, or NHL.TV.

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