TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning have had the Red Wings’ number for a long time, especially at Amalie Arena.
And Detroit might have caught Tampa Bay at the wrong time again, because it is beginning to look like a team that’s coming together. It was expected — with the short training camp and no preseason games — that teams would need time to jell this season.
But three weeks in — finally playing regularly after opening the season with just four games in their first 15 days — the Lightning appear to be finding their groove.
Tampa Bay’s one-sided 5-1 win Wednesday, in which it scored three goals on its first five shots in the opening four minutes, offered the latest example.
Yes, the Lightning feasted on an outmanned Red Wings team that is former Lightning GM Steve Yzerman’s current rebuilding project. And a Detroit team getting four players back from the COVID-19 protocol list was feeling its way through reshuffled lines.
But the Lightning’s dominance of the Red Wings is nothing new. Wednesday’s win was their 17th in their last 18 meetings, and they won 15 straight at home, a stretch that dates to 2011, when Tampa Bay rookie Cal Foote was just 13.
The Lightning (6-1-1) have earned points in seven of their first eight games this season, and on Wednesday 12 different skaters produced points.
The scoring started quickly on goals by Victor Hedman, Anthony Cirelli and Ryan McDonagh, as Tampa Bay took advantage of some sloppy Detroit play.
Hedman had a lot of open ice in front of him as he entered the offensive zone — Red Wings defenseman Patrik Nemeth slipped on his way off the ice, leaving Detroit outnumbered getting back — and Hedman swooped into the slot from the top of the right circle and unleashed a straight-on wrister that beat Detroit goaltender Thomas Greiss.
Anthony Cirelli put the Lightning up 2-0 just 3:57 into the game, finishing off some great transition hockey when the puck bounced back to him from traffic in front of the net, and Cirelli sent the puck inside the near post.
Blake Coleman won a puck along the left boards in the neutral zone and found McDonagh all alone skating through the right circle, and McDonagh beat Greiss far post over his right shoulder for his first goal of the season.
The early onslaught had the Red Wings’ heads spinning, and Greiss was pulled from the game in favor of backup Calvin Pickard.
Brayden Point benefitted from a fortuitous bounce in the second period, as Steven Stamkos’ wrister from the left circle deflected off a defender’s skate in the crease and right to Point on the near post. He lifted the puck over Pickard’s right pad and into the net.
Detroit (2-7-2) avoided a shutout when Anthony Mantha scored a breakaway goal when a puck back to Mikhail Sergachev skipped over his stick and into the neutral zone. Mantha collected the puck, got behind the Lightning defense and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy top shelf.
Tampa Bay answered when Alex Killorn deflected a Sergachev wrist shot into the net, a goal that was reviewed for a potential high-sticking call but upheld, with 8:28 left in the second period.
