According to the Toronto Star's Kevin McGran, the 2014 Winter Classic is likely to be the matchup that was cancelled by the NHL lockout, featuring two Original Six teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings.

The report indicates that "the NHL is closing in on final talks with officials at the University of Michigan for use of its football stadium, and with the Detroit Tigers for use of Comerica Park in what would be a weeklong festival of hockey capped of by the NHL game."

This is by no means any great shock, as the logistics and plans for this event were all in place and the league is looking for a unique their signature event, which holding the game at the "Big House" in Ann Arbor before more than 100,000 fans would be.

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The Maple Leafs struggled in the second of back to back games in the state of Florida, as Steven Stamkos scored early in the second period and two additional goals in the third period chased Leafs goalie Ben Scrivens and gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-2 victory at the Tampa Bay Times Forum, ending Toronto’s two game winning streak.

Vincent Lecavalier, Stamkos, Alexander Killorn and Matt Carle scored, Benoit Pouliot had three assists and Anders Lindback made 23 saves for his seventh win of the season, as Tampa Bay improves to 8-6-1 with the victory.

Mikhail Grabovski and Phil Kessel scored for the Leafs, who move to 10-7-0 with the loss.

Goaltender Ben Scrivens, who came into the game with a shutout streak of 144:51, had an off night as he allowed four goals on 13 shots and was pulled at 6:58 of the third period in favor of backup Jussi Rynnas.

Tampa jumped out to the lead midway through the first, as a James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak turnover in the defensive zone led to Lecavalier’s sixth of the season. Toronto tied the game late in the period, as a Nikolai Kulemin shot was mishandled by Lindback and the resulting rebound was cashed in by Grabovski for his fourth goal of the season, breaking a streak of 11 games without a goal.

The Lightning took the lead for good early in the middle frame, as Tampa forwards Benoit Pouliot and Cory Conacher outfought the pairing of Dion Phaneuf and Korbinian Holzer behind the net and found a wide open Stamkos in front of the net for his club leading 10th goal of the season.

Any hopes of tying the game were dashed early in the third, as Holzer made an errant pass from behind his own goal that ended up on the stick of Killorn, whose soft shot dribbled through Scrivens pads. Tampa padded their lead just over four minutes later, as Carle scored his third of the season on the power play that prompted Coach Randy Carlyle to pull his goaltender, who was playing his third game in four nights.

The game had some haymaker highlights, as Mike Brown and BJ Crombeen tussled in the opening period and things got chippy late in the third, as Nazem Kadri and Swedish skyscraper Victor Hedman traded blows and Mark Fraser bested former Leaf Keith “Muhammad” Aulie.

Toronto narrowed the gap to 4-2, as Kessel’s shot deflected off of van Riemsdyk for his club leading ninth goal of the campaign, but the Leafs were unable to get any closer, in spite of going with six attackers for almost the last three minutes of regulation.

Toronto face the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday at the Air Canada Center.

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