Bolts By The Bay Mailbag: Which Team From Each Division Will Give The Tampa Bay Lightning The Biggest Challenge?

2 of 5

With upgrades made to both the forward unit and the defensive blue line, the Detroit Red Wings will challenge the Tampa Bay Lightning for the Atlantic Division title.

Last year, the Tampa Bay Lightning eliminated the Detroit Red Wings in a thrilling seven game series during the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The series saw Detroit close to a date with the Montreal Canadians in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but the Lightning led by goaltender Ben Bishop staged a comeback that saw the team take game six in Detroit and game seven at home to advance to the next round.

The Red Wings realized that their scheme to put their best defensive line on the triplet line led by Tyler Johnson was working to an extent, but their inability to put the puck past Bishop in the final two games of the series was their ultimate downfall.

You can’t keep the triplets out of the game for too long, and even with captain Steven Stamkos struggling to put the puck in the back of the net, the Lightning were able to solve Petr Mrazek and slip a few pucks past the Czech netminder.

Going into the offseason, the Red Wings knew they still had plenty of star power to make another Stanley Cup run. With Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg still playing at an elite level and new up and coming stars Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist taking on much more of the load during the season, the Red Wings are still a dangerous offensive team. The addition of Brad Richards in free agency to go along with young scorers Landon Ferraro, Teemu Pulkkinen, Anthony Mantha, and Dylan Larkin will also add to the offensive threat.

Back on the blueline, the addition of Mike Green to the group will make the back-end deadlier than it was last season. With Jonathan Ericsson having a fantastic series against the Lightning and Danny DeKeyser molding into a fantastic top pair defenseman, the Red Wings blue line has a solid group of top-4 defenseman with Green and Niklas Kronwall rounding out the group.

In goal, Jimmy Howard has had his ups and downs with the team, but is still a former Olympian that was apart of Team USA just a few seasons ago. Though Howard is still the team’s number one option between the pipes, Czech netminder Petr Mrazek had his coming out party against the Lightning in their first round playoff series.

His 2.11 GAA and .925 SV% in his first ever NHL playoff series is absolutely amazing. Just like the Lightning, the Wings have a solid option as the team’s backup and can go into the second game of a back-to-back with confidence knowing they have a goaltender that can help what could be a tired team come away with at least a point.

The Lightning were 7-4 against the Red Wings last season and outscored Detroit 29-24 during those 11 match ups (including playoffs). The Lightning seem to match up really well against the Red Wings on paper due to their impressive speed, but players like Luke Glendening were able to help shut down some of the team’s big stars. With the additions they’ve made, the Red Wings will challenge the Bolts for the top spot in the Atlantic Division.

Next: Next, the Metropolitan Division

More from Bolts by the Bay

Home/Editorial