WGD: GAME 7: Red Wings @ Lightning
5 years ago
Still searching for their first win of the season, the Red Wings are in Tampa Bay to face the Lightning in a very heavily favored one-sided matchup.
It has been a disastrous start for the Wings this season, just getting absolutely demolished by their competition and it has not been pretty. Two blowouts in a row now after suffering an 8-2 loss to the Bruins, then a 7-3 loss to the Canadiens, things can not look much better.
Last in the entire league right now, they have to face a team that is a Stanley Cup favorite.
This ought to go well.
The Red Wings
Detroit Red Wings lines via DailyFaceoff
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 GUSTAV NYQUIST |  DYLAN LARKIN |  ANTHONY MANTHA |
 TYLER BERTUZZI |  ANDREAS ATHANASIOU |  THOMAS VANEK |
 JUSTIN ABDELKADER |  FRANS NIELSEN |  MARTIN FRK |
 DARREN HELM |  CHRISTOFFER EHN |  LUKE GLENDENING |
| LD | RD |
 DENNIS CHOLOWSKI |  LIBOR SULAK |
 JOE HICKETTS |  FILIP HRONEK |
 NIKLAS KRONWALL |  NICK JENSEN |
I think our Nick Seguin said everything that is need to be said about these lines, here:
The Lightning
Tampa Bay Lightning lines via DailyFaceoff
| LW | C | RW |
 YANNI GOURDE |  BRAYDEN POINT |  STEVEN STAMKOS |
 ONDREJ PALAT |  TYLER JOHNSON |  NIKITA KUCHEROV |
 ALEX KILLORN |  ANTHONY CIRELLI |  MATHIEU JOSEPH |
 RYAN CALLAHAN |  CEDRIC PAQUETTE |  J.T. MILLER |
| LD | RD |
 VICTOR HEDMAN |  DAN GIRARDI |
 RYAN MCDONAGH |  ANTON STRALMAN |
 BRAYDON COBURN |  MIKHAIL SERGACHEV |
The golden example of how to build a team in the modern NHL, the Lightning have been able to keep their core of elite talent and add some secondary pieces that complement them well. Still having young players that they drafted, like Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point, and Mathieu Joseph be NHLers is extremely important for them to keep their status as a contender.
On the blueline, there is certainly one giant hole in the 1RD spot, but with players surrounding him to counteract his terribleness, it doesn’t seem to make a difference for the Lightning. The ability to have one of the best 1LD and have Ryan McDonagh as a second-pairing guy for long-term is astounding. Again, like the forwards, Mikhail Sergachev is able to make the NHL still on his Entry-Level deal and provide some offensive punch.
Between the Pipes
Jimmy Howard vs. Andrei Vasilevskiy
Howard has been the Wings’ go-to guy for a while now and will continue that for the rest of the year; assuming that Bernier will continue his awful play. Two absolutely awful outings against the Leafs and Canadiens recently, so maybe Howard is going to randomly bounceback and have an outstanding game against another division rival. But probably not.
Vasilevskiy is one of the most exciting young goalkeepers the league has seen in a while. Able to make insane saves but be completely sound in important moments, is a skill to envy. In three games so far, Vasilevskiy has a .950 sv%, 1.64 GAA, and a 100% Quality Start rate. I’m sure that’s not sustainable but he won’t be far off of that when the season is finished.
How to Watch
This game will be on SUN and Fox Sports-Detroit. Puck drop is at 7:30pm EST.
As always, follow us on Twitter to get instant reactions and all the hilarious jokes that we will be making throughout the night.
Recent articles from Thomas Williams
