Wednesday, the Lightning’s quest for a Cup begins the same place it started a year ago, with a first-round date against the pesky Detroit Red Wings. But the playoffs are a new season and even though the Bolts are decimated by injury anything can happen.
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“Dormant” would be the last word used to describe the Detroit Red Wings, a franchise preparing for its 25th consecutive playoff appearance.
“It would probably have a chance”, Datsyuk said. It jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the Canadiens and then had to win another road game to close that scary series out in six games.
With two huge contributors out for the Lightning, Tampa is going to have to turn to a reunited Triplets line featuring 30-goal scorer Nikita Kucherov for much of their offense and, in a delicious twist of fate, Jonathan Drouin.
The Lightning hosts the Red Wings in Game 1 of Stanley Cup playoff Round 1 action. The Lightning won’t be at full strength as they are not going to have Stamkos so it’s going to be interesting to see where the goals are going to come from if he isn’t in the lineup. It could have been worse for the Lightning but defenseman Victor Hedman and winger Ryan Callahan are expected to play after missing several games due to injury. As a matter of fact, Steve Yzerman was known as “The Captain”, serving as captain of the Red Wings for over 1,300 games, retiring as the longest-serving captain in North American sports history when he finally hung up the skates. Seguin and Benn (89 points) are the NHL’s highest-scoring teammates over the past two seasons. Once that happens, Stralman may return and the team gets a whole lot better defensively.
Detroit is in the postseason for the record 25th straight season, this time under first-year coach Jeff Blashill, who will be trying to outsmart defending Eastern Conference champion bench boss, his good friend Jon Cooper. The biggest change they would like to make from last season is the ending after a game 7 loss in round 1 against the same Lightning team they will faceoff against tomorrow night.
Detroit Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk, left, and Columbus Blue Jackets’ Alexander Wennberg chase a loose puck during an National Hockey League game in Columbus, Ohio on March 17, 2016. However much of the attention has been on the hometown kid Dylan Larkin (ranked fifth in the Hockey OT Calder Rankings http://sb.gg/145ZI).
He indicated that this would be the last time he’d speak on the subject until the season concluded.
Milstein said Datsyuk’s plans will not be final, though, until after the postseason when he meets with Red Wings general manager Ken Holland along with owners Mike and Marian Ilitch. His heart and his head unfortunately are no longer in Detroit, and as they say all good things must come to an end. Unfortunately for the Wings, they are going to face the goalie who had the best save percentage in Bishop, who finished at 2.06. It’s kind of nice to accomplish the first goal – to make the playoffs.
X-Factor: Riley Sheahan. Sheahan was picked by many as a potential breakout player with Datsyuk out to start the season. He suited up for the final two games, where he notched a goal in each. You try to figure into helping the team win any way you can. Guys are playing in different positions, and they’re able to have success in different areas.
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The talk of this series is all circling around questions in the net.
