Detroit Red Wings at Tampa Bay Lightning
With a win in this game, the Wings can go into the break with a wild card playoff spot in hand and that’s pretty miraculous considering the injuries this team has gone through.
The team is starting to get healthy now – even though they are still without Johan Franzen – and that gives the Wings scoring depth that they’ve been lacking at times this year. In Pavel Datsyuk’s first game back from injury on Thursday, the team was able to go into Florida and handle the Panthers, which doesn’t necessarily say a whole lot but Florida is a team that Detroit has struggled with beating all year. Of late, the power play has seen a resurgence with four goals in their last three games.
Tampa Bay has lost four of their last five and with a loss tonight (and a couple other teams winning), they could go from second in the division into a wild card spot. It’s a little bit of puck luck right now as the team has the team has averaged 37 shots per game in their last five games but have shot just 4.9-percent as a team and that’s led to just nine goals in five games. It’s tough to predict when these slumps will break and with this being the last game before the break, I’m not sure I want to bet on that tonight.
Tampa has managed to take all three prior meetings this year from Detroit but two of those three games went past regulation so it’s not like either team is dominating. Keep an eye on who starts in net for Tampa – goalie Ben Bishop left the last game with injury and his status is uncertain for tonight. If he can’t go, this could be a walk for Detroit (and I’d have Jimmy Howard as my GPP goalie either way, I think).
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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Daniel Alfredsson $8796 |
Ondrej Palat $8871 |
Pavel Datsyuk (DET) $10,984 |
Niklas Kronwall $8911 |
(DET) $4618 |
