| Detroit Free Press
The defending Stanley Cup champions pummeled the Detroit Red Wings in the first five minutes, then kept piling on the pain.
As tough as it was going to be to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday at Amalie Arena, the Wings made it harder on themselves with sloppy defensive coverage and continued struggles on the power play. The result was a 5-1 loss that extended the winless streak to seven and dropped the Wings to 2-7-2.
The Lightning (6-1-1) scored three times in three minutes, 20 seconds in the first period, chasing Thomas Greiss. Anthony Mantha scored his fourth goal of the season two minutes after Brayden Point had tapped in Steven Stamkos’ rebound, but two minutes later, the Wings were behind by four goals again when Alex Killorn tipped Mikhail Sergachev’s shot. Sergachev’s assist was the fourth point of the game for a Lightning defenseman.
After showing signs of improvement on man advantages in their prior games, the Wings looked ineffectual, registering just one shot on net in 6:25 of man-advantage time through two periods.
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The Wingswere without Tyler Bertuzzi, who is expected to miss the next three games as well because of an upper-body injury, but gained four players who had been in COVID-19 protocol.
The Wings play at Tampa Bay again Friday, when Filip Zadina is expected to return after being sidelined with COVID-19.
From protocol to playing
Forwards Robby Fabbri, Adam Erne, Sam Gagner and defensemen Jon Merrill returned to the lineup after being out since the first week of the season because of COVID-19. Fabbri and Erne practiced Tuesday, but Gagner and Merrill were not eligible to be removed from pandemic protocol until the day of the game, so they had not practiced in two weeks. Fabbri played with Dylan Larkin and Bobby Ryan, and Gagner with Frans Nielsen and Valtteri Filppula. Adam Erne played with Luke Glendening and Darren Helm. Merrill replaced Danny DeKeyser, pairing with Christian Djoos.
From starting to sitting
Greiss had zero help from teammates as the Lightning struck early and often. Victor Hedman strode into the slot and sent a wrist shot top shelf at 1:34. Anthony Cirelli made it 2-0 at 3:57, left alone in the right circle to connect on a pass from Luke Schenn. On the third goal, Ryan McDonagh was left alone deep in Detroit’s zone and fired a shot from the right circle. That prompted a change in net, sending Greiss to the bench and Calvin Pickard scrambling. Pickard hadn’t played a game since being recalled in early January from Austria, where he played six games on loan to the Vienna Capitals. Pickard appeared in three games with the Wings in 2019-20, posting a 5.46 goals-against average and .797 save percentage.
From average to amazing
It has been a running storyline with Mantha since he entered the NHL five seasons ago: When he moves his feet, he is a beast. He showed off his power and skillset early in the second period when he hustled to a loose puck in the neutral zone and then rushed up ice, flicking the puck blocker side on Andrei Vasilevskiy. That was Mantha’s third goal in three games. He has looked markedly better than the first eight games, when he scored one goal and had a minus-10 rating.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.