The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to avoid a second straight loss to start the 2015 playoffs when they take to the ice tomorrow afternoon for a rematch with the Detroit Red Wings at Amalie Arena.
After the crushing defeat, in which they outshot the Wings by a 46-14 margin, the Bolts know that they can’t afford to lose their second straight home game to start a series like they did last season. While not mathematically so, Game Two is essentially a must-win for Tampa Bay.
While that Game One loss certainly hurt, the Lightning’s performance was generally solid. As that aforementioned shot differential indicates, the Bolts controlled the play, dominated in the offensive zone, and stopped the Red Wings from generating much. The difference in the game was an embarrassingly bad Tampa power play (it went 0-for-7) and a stellar night from Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek.
So, the moral of the story there is that the Bolts really don’t have to change much heading into game two. A few tweaks on the power play and a rebound performance from Ben Bishop *should* give Tampa Bay a decent enough chance to win. Based on Friday’s practice, it looks like Jon Cooper is set on tackling the former issue:
New PP units: Hedman-Stralman-Filppula-Stamkos-Killorn
Nesterov-Kucherov-Johnson-Palat-Callahan
— Erik Erlendsson (@erlendssonTBO) April 17, 2015Perhaps a little bit surprising, given the unit’s lack of success in Game One, is the continued absence of Jonathan Drouin. Drouin, the third overall pick in the 2013 draft, was a healthy scratch for the first game of the series. As of writing time, there has been no indication as to whether he will get in for Game Two. We’ll have a better picture of the lineup as puck drop approaches.
In conclusion, there’s not a whole lot to dissect with regards to the first game of the series as we get set for the second. Tampa has to expect that Detroit will be better, but at the same time Tampa shouldn’t change its plan of action. We’ll have to see how it all plays out.
Don't forget that it's a 3:00PM start! As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.