Staring at a 2-0 deficit as their series heads back to Detroit, it’s not exactly shocking that the Red Wings are making changes for Game 3.
The most immediately apparent change will be in net as Petr Mrazek takes the reins from Jimmy Howard.
Whether you put a lot or very little blame on Howard’s shoulders, changing goalies was one of the most natural tweaks, especially since Mrazek carried the ball for most of the 2015-16 season. Howard finished the season strong to wrestle the starting job back, but now that’s in flux.
Blashill said Mrazek has a history of success against Tampa Bay and has the chance the get away and work on his game...
— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) April 17, 2016
The other significant change is that the Red Wings are tweaking just about everything as far as their lines go, including splitting up Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, according to MLive.com’s Ansar Khan.
#RedWings lines at skate:
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) April 17, 2016
Nyquist-Zetterberg-Larkin
Helm-Datsyuk-Richards
More ....
Justin Abdelkader gets a demotion, though it could make for a nice depth line:
Bottom two lines for #RedWings at skate:
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) April 17, 2016
Tatar-Andersson-Athanasiou
Abdelkader-Glendening-Sheahan
It also looks like Brendan Smith will take Kyle Quincey’s spot alongside Danny DeKeyser.
"He could give us a little spark" - said Blashill of Smith
— Ted Kulfan (@tkulfan) April 17, 2016
(Keep in mind that lines can fluctuate, especially during the playoffs.)
With home-ice advantage shifting and some pretty big lineup changes, things will look different for Detroit, yet it remains to be seen if they’ll yield the right sort of results.
Stopping the Lightning’s red-hot line would be a good place to start ...
Call them Triplets 2.0. On #TBLightning hottest line @Akillorn19, @tjohnny09 + Kucherov, which is taking over series https://t.co/2czeXauvFt
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) April 17, 2016