The Detroit Red Wings find themselves on the wrong end of a 2-0 series lead in their opening round match-up against the Tampa Bay Lightning. In an effort to get the momentum back on their side, they’re turning to last year’s playoff starting goaltender – Petr Mrazek.
Number 34 will be between the pipes tonight as the Red Wings host the Lightning in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal. While Jimmy Howard hasn’t played poorly, coach Jeff Blashill is looking for a spark that will get his team back into this best of seven series.
In addition to Mrazek, defenseman Brendan Smith will also be in the lineup for the first time since March 26. No official word on who will sit for Smith, but it appears that it could be Kyle Quincey.
“We’ll make all those decisions after warm-ups, but Smith is in,” Blashill said.
The lineup was completely shuffled at the morning skate. Here are the line combinations from the skate and likely what we’ll see to start tonight’s game.
Forward lines:
Gus Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Dylan Larkin
Darren Helm-Pavel Datsyuk-Brad Richards
Tomas Tatar-Joakim Andersson-Andreas Athanasiou
Justin Abdelkader-Luke Glendening-Riley Sheahan
Defensive parings:
Danny DeKeyser-Alexey Marchenko
Niklas Kronwall-JonathanEricsson
Brendan Smith-Mike Green
Healthy scratches:
Kyle Quincey, Tomas Jurco, Teemu Pulkkinen
