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Goaltender Ben Bishop and the Tampa Bay Lightning had just about everything working for them in their Game 1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Amalie Arena on Wednesday night.
The Tampa Bay offense really came at the Detroit defense with a hard, aggressive forecheck, and the de facto top-line of Tyler Johnson (the stud of last year’s first-round tilt with the Wings), Nikita Kucherov, and versatile left-winger Alex Killorn ate Red Wings netminder Jimmy Howard up all game long. Kucherov had the game’s first two goals, while it was the hand-eye coordination of Killorn on the doorstep for a deflection that came through with the third.
But the Bolts’ success went beyond that of the Johnson line. Jonathan Drouin, in just his third NHL game overall since Dec. 30, was the sparkplug the Lightning needed, and finished the game with the second-most time-on-ice among Lightning forwards (only Ondrej Palat had more), but was also victimized by two bad penalties against and was offside on a would-have-been Victor Hedman goal.
You take the good with the bad with Drouin, of course, and with perhaps the quickest wheels and finish on those Lightning wings aside from Kucherov, Jon Cooper has to know there’s more good than bad.
The Red Wings will try a little bit of defense-pairing tinkering to spark their backend in attempt to lessen that stress on Howard, as Mike Green, who scored one of Detroit’s two goals in the loss, looks paired up with Kyle Quincey for this game, while Jonathan Ericsson skates with Danny DeKeyser. The top-four pairing of Niklas Kronwall and Alexey Marchenko looks to remain intact, at least for now.
For all the Red Wing tinkering, though, the toughest task for the Detroit group remains solving Bishop.
The 6-foot-7 ace in the Tampa crease was sensational in Game 1, finishing the night with 34 saves on 36 shots against, and stoned the Red Wings again and again with the game on the line.
It’s hard to say that right now is desperation time, but given the way that Bishop has played at home (or anywhere for that matter) this season, Game 2 is a near must-win for the Red Wings, and it’s up to the Bolts to weather that storm from Detroit’s best, like a Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.
Held off the board in a seemingly quiet Game 1, Datsyuk finished the game with a team-high seven shots on goal, while Zetterberg chimed in with just one shot in 19:31 of time on ice. They are still a lethal combo, though, and you cannot forget that line’s jam, Justin Abdelkader, who was exactly the pain-in-the-behind presence the Bolts figured he would be heading into that series.
If Abdelkader does his job well, he’ll either create space for the Datsyuk-Zetterberg combo or put the Wings on the power play. Two things the Bolts have to limit if they’re to take a 2-0 series lead. And I think you can expect an extra-chippy Abdelkader -- and entire Wings team for that matter -- especially when you look at how the Bolts were able to get under the skin of certain Lightning skaters and either even up calls or put them on the power play.
This is where you look for your leaders, a Brian Boyle for example (a player that was essentially goaded into a needless penalty by finishing a hit on Abdelkader with Tampa on the power play), to step up and turn the other cheek. Something entirely easier said than done this time of year.
Bishop, of course, gets the start for Tampa Bay for this game, while the Wings will stick with Howard, who played strong in spite of the loss behind a 31-of-34 effort.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.