GAME DAY: Red Wings (15-9-8) @ Lightning (17-10-3)

The Wings take on the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at 7:30 and they will do so without Stephen Weiss or Jimmy Howard. Both players join the list of Wings sidelined due to injury.

The Wings are coming off two consecutive losses to the Florida Panthers, the most recent being a shootout loss on Tuesday night in Florida. In the Bolts’ last game, they fell victim to a four goal offensive outburst from Alex Ovechkin and blew an early three-goal lead to lose 6-5 in a shootout.

TROUBLES IN MIAMI

The Wings gave up two third period goals the let the Panthers back into the game and ultimately win in a shootout on Tuesday night. Tim Thomas played well for the Panthers and prevented the Wings from putting the game away when they had the opportunity.

After going ahead 2-0 and maintaining that lead through 45 minutes of play, the Panthers put two past Jimmy Howard to tie the game. Sean Bergenheim tipped a wrist shot from the point by Dmitry Kulikov from way out to beat Howard. Nick Bjugstad followed that up with a nice short side shot to the top corner after out working Pavel Datsyuk.

The goals the Wings allowed were both preventable but both were also good plays by the Panthers. Bergenheim’s goal, maybe less so, but redirections are tough to stop so I’ll give him credit for getting his stick on that change-up from the point.

Bjugstad’s goal was nice. He dodged a check from one of the best defensive players in the game and then picked the short side corner on Howard. Was Howard cheating? Maybe a little, but that’s a tough shot for a shooter to make and Howard can’t cover everything so he does the right thing and tries to limit Bjugstad’s options. Sometimes the shooter makes a nice shot, it happens.

The point isn’t to pump the Panthers’ tires or justify the circumstances that lead to the goals against. The point is that not every goal is preventable, sometimes the other team makes a nice play and in the third period, when the Panthers started turning the game around, the Wings needed a goal and they couldn’t get the puck past Tim Thomas.

Weiss missed a prime opportunity on the powerplay with the game at 2-1, and on the same powerplay Tomas Tatar missed a chance when Thomas came out to challenge and cut off the angle.

Aside from those two chances on the powerplay the Wings only managed 5 other shots the entire period, and none in overtime.
After the game Jimmy Howard said, “You're up two goals on the road, you're in a good situation, and being up two after two, we would have taken that, But we've got to either find a way to score the next one or have the ability to shut them down.”

In the third, the Panthers were getting the best of the Winged Wheel and the Wings were certainly not shutting the Panthers down. They needed a goal and they couldn’t get one.

TONIGHT’S GAME

Thursday’s game against Tampa is a big one. The Bolts sit just one point back of the Red Wings with two games in hand. Both teams are coming off of shootout losses in games they had in their grasp, and both teams are looking for wins while missing key players due to injury.

Stephen Weiss won’t be playing in Tampa due to a reoccurring groin issue that he’s already missed time with this year. Jimmy Howard is suffering from an undisclosed injury that isn’t expected to be serious but nevertheless Jonas Gustavsson will get the start and Petr Mrazek has been recalled from Grand Rapids.

The big story for the Lightning this year is the injury to Steven Stamkos. The sniper broke his right tibia against Boston on November 11th and despite missing the last 13 games, Stamkos still remains second in team scoring. Stamkos isn’t expected to be back any time soon and in his absence the Lightning have a 5-5-3 record.

In addition to being without Stamkos, top D-Man Victor Hedman has missed the last two games due to a lower body injury. Hedman isn’t expected to in the lineup against the Wings.

The Wings need a win tonight. They need a win to keep their spot in the standings and they need a win to avoid dropping three straight. Other than Pittsburgh on Saturday and Nashville on the 30th, the Wings play only teams below them in the standings for the rest of December.

There are a lot of points that the Wings should earn this month. January’s schedule is significantly tougher, starting with a Western road trip right after the holidays. No games in the NHL are gimme’s but the Wings are likely the favorite in the majority of the games left in December and they need these wins as they are a lot harder to come by against teams a the top of the standings.

PROJECT LINES (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

RED WINGS

Abdelkader – Datsyuk – Alfredsson
Nyquist – Franzen – Bertuzzi
Miller – Andersson – Tatar
Cleary – Emmerton – Samuelsson

Kronwall – Ericsson
Quincey – Smith
Kindl – Lashoff

Jonas Gustavsson (starting)
Petr Mrazek

Injuries: Zetterberg, Helm, Dekeyser, Weiss, Howard

LIGHTNING

Palat – Johnson – St Louis
Killorn – Filppula – Purcell
Brown – Thompson – Kucherov
Crombeen – Tyrell – Barberio

Salo – Brewer
Taormina – Gudas
Carle – Sustr

Ben Bishop (starting)
Anders Lindback

Injuries: Stamkos, Hedman, Lee, Ohlund, Aulie, Malone, Labrie, Pyatt
Richard Panik is suspended for his hit on Karl Alzner in Tuesday’s game against the Capitals.

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