The Red Wings head into Tampa with a chance to keep climbing in a tight race, and they’ll do it against a Lightning team that has had a long layoff since Halloween.
Detroit is 7-5-3 and sits one point behind Tampa Bay, which holds one of the two wildcard spots with 18 points. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
ET, with the game on DSN and 97.1 FM. Detroit is listed at +1.5 (-115), while Tampa Bay is -1.5 (+105).
The Wings have been getting important contributions from a few different places, and Emmitt Finnie has been one of the brighter spots. He has three goals in his past four games and has piled up 10 points, with six goals and four assists, in 10 games since Oct. 6 against Ottawa.
At the same time, Keegan Kolesar’s offense has yet to show up the way Detroit hoped. The Wings didn’t bring him in for scoring, but they did want more from the bottom two lines.
So far, he has one goal and no assists in 15 games. He is on pace for roughly 230 hits, which would fit right in with his track record of 230 hits or more in each of the past five seasons.
Detroit’s leadership group has also been a major part of the team’s response to everything swirling around it. Moritz Seider, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond and others have helped steady the group through the negativity around the franchise.
Even with Dylan Larkin asking for a trade and then leaving the team, plus Simon Edvinsson’s absence because of a contract dispute, the Wings have earned at least one point in nine of their last 11 games. They are 6-2-3 over that stretch.
The Wings are also coming off Monday’s win over Florida, and that game produced a couple of firsts. Carter Mazur scored his first NHL goal, and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard scored his first NHL career game-winning goal.
Brandsegg-Nygard became the sixth Norwegian player in NHL history with a game-winning goal, joining Mats Zuccarello (40), Emil Lilleberg (three), Patrick Thoresen (two), Espen Knutsen (two) and Andreas Martinsen (one). At 21, he is the youngest of that group to score a winning goal.
Because Detroit is on the second night of a back-to-back, John Gibson is the likely starter in net, with Daniil Tarasov as the backup. The club also has Jacob Bernard-Docker and Nate Danielson as subs.
The injury list includes Marco Kasper and Mason Appleton, both dealing with upper-body injuries and both potentially back in just over a week. Albert Johansson is also out with an undisclosed injury and is not expected to play tonight.
Detroit’s projected forward groups have Alex DeBrincat with Emmitt Finnie and Victor Arvidsson on the top line, followed by Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Andrew Copp and Lucas Raymond. Michael Rasmussen, J.T. Compher and John Leonard form the third unit, while Carter Mazur, Sheldon Dries and Keegan Kolesar are listed on the fourth.
The defense pairs are Ben Chiarot with Moritz Seider, Andreas Englund with Anton Johansson, and William Wallinder with Justin Faulk.
Tampa Bay has not played since a 5-4 shootout loss to Nashville on Halloween, but the Lightning’s recent defensive numbers have been rough. They’ve allowed 20 goals over their last four games. Andre Vasilevskiy has a 3.00 goals-against average and an .884 save percentage so far this season.
The Lightning are also dealing with injuries to Zemgus Girgensons, who has a lower-body injury, and Yanni Gourde, who is out with a hip injury. Coach Todd McLellan doesn’t mind using seven defensemen and 11 forwards, and Tampa Bay’s projected lineup reflects that approach.
Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov are listed together on the top line, with Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Pontus Holmberg behind them. Ilya Mikheyev, Dominic James and Gage Goncalves make up the third line, while Jeffrey Viel and Conor Geekie are listed on the fourth.
On the blue line, Tampa Bay’s pairings are J.J. Moser with John Carlson, Ryan McDonagh with Erik Cernak, and Victor Hedman with Emil Lilleberg, with Charle-Edouard D’Astous also listed. Vasilevskiy is the expected starter, with Dennis Hildeby backing him up.
In Other News...
Division Rival Just Took Detroits Side In The Dylan Larkin Drama
Dylan Larkins trade request has already become one of the more uncomfortable storylines in Detroit, and now it has drawn an unexpected comparison from a division rival. Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel weighed in after a similar situation involving teammate Nikita Kucherov, offering a perspective that put Larkins case in a different light and added another layer to a saga that has already unsettled the Red Wings.
Detroit, meanwhile, has tried to keep moving. The team responded to Larkins suspension without pay by winning a game and making it clear his absence will not linger in the room as players focus on the next stretch of the season. Even so, the fact that a rival player felt compelled to speak up only underscores how much attention this situation is drawing around the league. [Read more 🡒]
Dylan Larkin Trade Talks Just Hit A Massive Red Wings Roadblock
Dylan Larkins name has been circling in trade chatter, but the latest wrinkle is less about what another team wants and more about where the Red Wings captain is willing to go. According to NHL insider Chris Johnston, Buffalo put forward a significant offer for Larkin, only for Detroit to run into the wall created by his no-trade clause, which gives him control over where any deal can land.
The clause matters because Larkin can approve a move only to a limited group of teams, and Buffalo is not on that list. Montreal is also among the clubs with interest, and the situation is still fluid enough that his approved destinations could change soon, leaving Detroit in a holding pattern until there is clarity on whether the list gets updated. [Read more 🡒]
Sabres Are Chasing A Star As The NHL Trade Market Shifts
The NHL trade market has started to tilt toward star power, and Detroits Dylan Larkin is right in the middle of the conversation. Buffalo has shown interest in the Red Wings captain, but for now the idea of him landing there remains a nonstarter, which keeps the focus on how much leverage Detroit actually has if the market keeps heating up around top-line centers.
Elsewhere, Nikita Kucherov has put his own situation into the open after explaining why he asked out of Tampa Bay, adding another major name to a market already drawing attention from teams like Toronto and Montreal. He still has not identified preferred destinations, which leaves plenty of room for speculation and keeps the ripple effects moving for clubs trying to gauge what kind of trade landscape they are really dealing with. [Read more 🡒]