NHL Red Wings vs. Lightning Picks & Predictions for February 3
In the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Detroit held a two-games-to-one advantage and a 2-0 lead late in Game 4 before the Lightning rallied to win the game, even the series and eventually move on to the Second Round after seven intense, back-and-forth games.
MONTREAL (AP) – The All-Star break did nothing to cool the surging Tampa Bay Lightning.
The key factor for the Red Wings will be the play of goalie Petr Mrazek, who has been nothing short of incredible this season with a. 932 save percentage in 30 appearances this year. The Lightning solidified their grip on second place in the Atlantic Division. Veteran Pavel Datsyuk is starting to warm up after starting the season on injured reserve, registering nine points in his last nine games with a plus-6 rating in that span. Detroit will need more supplementary scoring from Tomas Tatar (one point in his last five games) and Gustav Nyquist (points in two of his last 10 contests).ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (27-18-4): Nikita Kucherov has recorded at least one point in 16 of his last 18 games to take over the team lead with 41 – three better than Stamkos.
“Beside a few mocking text messages that come back and forth between us, we haven’t talked a whole lot”, Cooper said.
Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Jason Garrison (5) controls the puck in front of Detroit Red Wings left wing Henrik Zetterberg (40), of Sweden, during the second period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. Both remain in pursuit of the Florida Panthers for first, but the jockeying for position amongst themselves remains important, too, especially with Florida pulling away again. “They had quite a long break, a little longer than ours”.
“…We can’t really change the way we’ve been playing”. As for tonight, I look for this one to be a battle as both teams are jockeying for playoff positioning and they each have a world class goaltender. For us, it’s going to be a big test. You don’t get these two points, it kind of puts you back quite a bit in the big scheme of things. “And they beat us there [Wednesday]”.
The Red Wings outshot Tampa Bay 10-4 during the scoreless first period.
The Lightning has won 9 of 10 games since losing to Calgary 3-1.
“I was surprised there was a shot on net”, Cooper said. “If that number is not very high, it probably means you’re not scoring”.