Playoff Hockey Is Here: Wings vs Lightning Series Prediction
#Mrazek4Playoffs is upon us. Tonight the Red Wings begin their playoff journey for the 24th consecutive year in Florida, as they face the pesky Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Puck drops at 730.
Nobody is giving the Red Wings a chance and for good reason. They backdoor’ed their way into the playoffs with almost zero scoring and terrible goaltending. There is a realistic possibility that Babcock flipped a toonie to pick his Game 1 starter and our defenseman arent the brightest.
They are facing the leagues highest scoring team who is deep up front, as well as at the blue line. Steven Stamkos is one of the top scorers in the NHL and being paired with Ryan Callahan makes for a scary 1st line, while their second line of Tyler Johnson, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat racked up 200 total points of their own this season.
Not a single analyst (out of 15) took the Wings to beat the Lightning in the series. Even NHL.com’s Shawn Rourke took the Penguins over the Rangers, making the Red Wings the only team unanimously picked to lose.
Steve Yzerman feels differently.
Is it because he played his entire career here, or is he a bit nervous to face an experienced playoff squad?
"There are other teams I'd rather be playing," he said today, "but I figured at some point in my managerial career, if I can survive, we'd probably face one another."
I think he’s scared. I think he knows that the Red Wings could turn it on at any minute and pull a 2013 miracle where out of nowhere they were within 1 game of the Conference finals, only to blow 3 in a row to the Hawks and lose in 7. The point is, according to these analysts we shouldnt of escaped the first round vs the Ducks to get that far to begin with.
Abdelkader is out with a hand, and Brendan Smith is benched for being a dumbass. Insert Landon Ferarro, son of NHL’er Ray Ferarro, for Abs, and Alexey Marchenko on defense for Smith. Both will be making their playoff debuts against 6′7 Lightning goalie Ben Bishop, who has been very consistent, which I cant imagine being hard for such a large person covering such a small space. Easily beatable.
Overall, I think people are counting out the Red Wings way to easily here. I am by far the furthest thing away from a Red Wing’s “homer”, but can’t overlook coaching, experience, and the fact we cant lose to a team that resides in Florida.
YOU DONT PLAY ICE HOCKEY IN THE SUN
The link connected to the tweet is this list of why Tampa Bay is better than Detroit. If you want a good laugh I strongly suggest checking it out. Its not funny in a comical way, its more of an “I feel bad for them”/pathetic kind of funny. Their PR people need to take some notes from the LA Kings media team on comedy. These are two inserts I just couldnt let go unseen:
To say Detroit doesn’t produce cars and that paddling next to an alligator is a good thing, is the most insane thing I’ve ever heard of. How can you let people run social media accounts and not do a single thread of research? The Detroit River runs beside/below Detroit, not through it, as the caption says (the Rouge River runs through Detroit and I’d take any river on earth above that mess. This should of been the comparison here but the Rouge is as nameless as the Hillsbrough River sp?). Also, the Detroit River was responsible for over 75% of the alcohol brought to this country during prohibition, which was taken by Al Capone down to Port Orange, Florida, via automobile, while visiting his side piece. Port Orange is only 3 hours away from Tampa Bay, so that literally means without Detroit there wouldnt even be a Tampa Bay.
Also, this time with zero research, I believe that if Calgary would of beaten the Lightning for the 2006 Stanley cup, there would not of been a lockout. The lockout proved teams winning from down south are bad for business so most likely this series will be fixed in Detroit’s favor.
With all that being said, some researched, mostly being a blind guess, I’m taking your Detroit Red Wings in seven. I’m sticking with my guns and predicting Petr Mrazek is the second coming of Mike Vernon and Zetterberg shakes off the cobwebs to pull this one out. I am very alone in this but the Islanders shutting down the Capitals last night gives me hope. Taking this first one is most important. Go Wings.