TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning host the Detroit Red Wings in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series Saturday afternoon (3 p.m. ET) at Amalie Arena. Here’s what to watch for:
No repeat performances: Since the Red Wings gained the early series lead with a 3-2 win over the Lightning in Game 1, it’s easy to think about what happened to Tampa during its first-round series last season when the Montreal Canadiens swept the Lightning in four games. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper is not concerned with what happened last season; his focus in on Game 2 Saturday.
“We learned a lot from last year,” Cooper said. “We can’t sit here and say, ‘Oh, well we don’t know how to react in this situation.’ I guess we’ll see [in Game 2] but I have complete confidence that our guys are going to bring it tomorrow. These guys have done a lot of winning together and it hasn’t been a fluke.”
With the exception of losing Game 1 Thursday, Tampa played well and had plenty of opportunities to win. After Cooper watched the game film he didn’t feel any differently about the loss.
“It’s still brutal because when I finished the game we still lost 3-2,” he said.
Cooper understands his team played well in a lot of areas in the first game. They generated 46 shots (12 on the power play) and the one concern for Cooper was the Lightning allowed Detroit goaltender Petr Mrazek to see the puck cleanly.
“We’ve got to do a better job of making it harder for him to find pucks,” Cooper said.
Even though the Red Wings won, Detroit coach Mike Babcock was not pleased with the team’s overall game. He was happy with the end result, but he expects a better effort in Game 2.
“We’re a team that didn’t play nearly as well as we could,” Babcock said.
Masked men: Mrazek was spectacular in Game 1 and finished with 44 saves in his postseason debut. Tampa took a pair of goaltender interference penalties in the first game and Mrazek should expect more of the same in Game 2. Tampa will attempt to create more havoc in front in hopes of scoring some dirty goals. Lightning goalie Ben Bishop, who also made his Stanley Cup playoff debut in Game 1, wasn’t as sharp as he wanted to be. Bishop had no chance of stopping two of the three goals Detroit scored. The game-winning goal, however, an unassisted, backhanded tally by Luke Glendening, should have been stopped by Bishop.
“He’s probably got no chance on the first two. The third one, we could debate all day if he’d want to have that one back, and you only say that because it went through him,” Cooper said.
Overall, the Red Wings generated only 14 shots on net, so Detroit will look to challenge Bishop more. The last thing Tampa wants is to be down 0-2 when this series shifts to Detroit for Games 3 and 4, so expect Bishop to have a better game Saturday.
In or out? It’s likely both teams will stay with the same lineups as Game 1. The only difference for Tampa could be rookie forward Jonathan Drouin. He was a healthy scratch for Game 1 and Cooper said after Friday’s practice he hadn’t made a decision whether Drouin would play. If he does, it will be his first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs. During his first season in the league, the 20-year-old forward had four goals and 28 assists for 32 points in 70 games.
Health care: With the exception of defenseman Jason Garrison, everyone is healthy and available for the Lightning. Garrison (upper body) is progressing and practiced again with the team Friday, but he will not play in Game 2, according to Cooper. Tampa forward J.T. Brown, who took a puck to the face Thursday and missed a portion of the game to be stitched up before returning, is fine. For Detroit, Babcock said Friday there would be no lineup changes. Forward Justin Abdelkader, who missed Game 1 with a hand injury, practiced again with the team Friday but will not be available to play in Game 2.
Special teams: There was a glaring statistic that stood out on the score sheet from Game 1. The Lightning went 0-for-7 on the power play, which should be a bit of a concern for Tampa.
“We put ourselves in good spots to have success, and then probably didn’t make the wisest decision,” Cooper said, adding it was a case of when they should’ve shot, they passed, and when they should’ve passed, they shot.
For Detroit, its penalty-killing unit was strong and tireless in Game 1. Still, the Red Wings can’t take bad penalties like they did in Game 1.
“We got short-handed way too many times [in Game 1] and anytime you’re short-handed seven times, their best players are getting to feel the puck and they’re getting momentum out of it whether they score or not, and you’re wearing out your people. We’ve got to stay out of the box,” Babcock said.
Here are the projected line combinations and defensive pairings for Tampa:
Alex Killorn-Steven Stamkos-Ryan Callahan
Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Nikita Kucherov
Vladislav Namestnikov-Valtteri Filppula-Cedric Paquette
Brenden Morrow-Brian Boyle-J.T. Brown/Jonathan Drouin
Nikita Nesterov-Anton Stralman
Ben Bishop
Here are the projected line combinations and defensive pairings for Detroit:
Darren Helm-Pavel Datsyuk-Henrik Zetterberg
Gustav Nyquist-Riley Sheahan-Tomas Tatar
Stephen Weiss-Joakim Andersson-Tomas Jurco
Drew Miller-Luke Glendening-Landon Ferraro
Niklas Kronwall-Jonathan Ericsson
Danny DeKeyser-Alexei Marchenko
Petr Mrazek