Pregame: Red Wings @ Lightning – 10/13

Well, here we go, the 2016-17 Red Wings season is upon us.

Detroit opens in Tampa tonight against the Lightning team that knocked them out of the playoffs last spring.  Tampa spent most of their summer locking up their core to mostly-reasonable contracts, making the rest of the league look stupid.  The Wings spent their summer swapping talking about how great their fourth line is going to be.

*shrug*

Here are the Wings’ projected lines, courtesy of MLive’s Ansar Khan, who still has me blocked on Twitter…

#Redwings lines at practice:
Tatar-Nielsen-Zetterberg
Abdelkader-Larkin-Sheahan
Nyquist-Helm-Vanek
Ott-Glendening-Miller
Athanasiou (extra)

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 12, 2016

#RedWings defense pairs at practice:
DeKeyser-Marchenko
Smith-Green
Ericsson-Ouellet
Sproul (extra)
Kronwall is not skating.

— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) October 12, 2016

Stupid stat of the day: This is the first time the Red Wings have opened the season at Amalie Arena in Tampa.  It is the 22nd arena that they’ve played in for a season opener.

Game time is 7:30 PM on FSD.