The Tampa Bay Lightning were playing the second game of back-to-back nights.
Midway through the first period, they lost their best player, captain Steven Stamkos, to an apparent right knee injury.
They should have proven easy pickings for the Detroit Red Wings, right?
Uh, no.
“Those are the games you’re supposed to win, that’s what every coach thinks, every organization, that you’re supposed to win (when the other team is playing) on back-to-back nights,” Detroit forward Steve Ott said. “But the parity in the league is so tight every single night.”
A couple of flukey bounces proved the difference on the scoreboard in Tampa Bay’s 4-3 victory Tuesday at Joe Louis Arena but in point of fact, the Lightning simply took advantage of Detroit’s sloppiness to hand the Wings their second straight loss and seventh in nine games.
We got it close, but we need the points,” captain Henrik Zetterberg said after the Wings rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits. “You can’t keep losing games if you want to be a team battling for the playoffs.”
Right off the bat, the Wings, 5-0 losers on Saturday in Montreal, dug a hole when goalie Petr Mrazek went behind his net to play a shoot-in, only to have the puck take an odd hop and bounce right out in front of his vacated net on the stick of Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for the empty netter.
“I was going behind the net for the puck,” Mrazek said. “It hit the boards, and a bad bounce straight on Kucherov’s stick.”
It was 2-0 Tampa Bay by the 6:09 mark of the opening frame and it appeared as if the Wings were in for another long night.
“That first goal was a tough one,” Zetterberg said. “I don’t know, you can’t work on that in practice.
“I thought after that we came on and battled through. I think after 5-6 minutes of the first we started doing good stuff.”
In fact, the Wings roared back from 3-1 down early in the third period to knot the count at 3-3 but the Lightning struck last on another weird one. Detroit forward Drew Miller blocked Braydon Coburn’s point shot but it bounced directly to Kucherov, who hammered home the winner with 1:10 left in regulation.
“I just didn’t see the puck coming from the blue line,” Mrazek explained. “I tried to find it, looking over the shoulder, slide a little bit there.
“We made a nice block but it went straight on to Kucherov’s stick.”
Helm Out
The Wings lost the game and appear to have lost forward Darren Helm for a long time. He looked to have injured his left arm or shoulder when he was flipped head over heels by a bodycheck from Tampa Bay defenseman Nikita Nesterov.
“We’ll know more tomorrow,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. It looks like it’s going to be a little while on him but I want to give you more specifics so I’ll know more tomorrow.
“(It’s an) upper-body injury and he’ll be out for a little bit here.
Sproul Shines
Blashill has challenged his young players to slap him in the face and show him they deserve to be here.
Ryan Sproul and Anthony Mantha certainly stated their cases on Tuesday.
Sproul scored his first NHL goal and collected an assist, helping the Detroit power play end a 0-for-14 skid.
“He can really shoot it,” Blashill said of Sproul. “It’s one of those shots that creates chaos because you don’t know where it’s going to go because it’s so hard.
“When it hits people it doesn’t just fall down. It goes lots of places. He’s got a real good shot-first mentality.
“I thought he handled himself pretty well tonight.”
Meanwhile, Mantha made a spectacular behind-the-back pass while in the slot and engaged with a Lightning defender to a wide-open Zetterberg for a tap-in goal to make it 3-3.
“He’s got that kind of hands around the net so a real good play by him,” Blashill said. “I thought Anthony played pretty well.”
Centennial Classic
The Wings announced their roster for the Dec. 31 Centennial Classic Alumni Game at BMO Field against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Curiously, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan will suit up for Detroit against his current employers.
Goal: Kevin Hodson; Manny Legace.
Defense: Chris Chelios; Paul Coffey; Mathieu Dandenault; Jiri Fischer; Nicklas Lidstrom; Larry Murphy.
Forwards: Doug Brown; Dino Ciccarelli; Kris Draper; Sergei Fedorov; Tomas Holmstrom; Joe Kocur; Slava Kozlov; Martin Lapointe; Igor Larionov; Kirk Maltby; Darren McCarty; Mickey Redmond; Brendan Shanahan.
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