It was a special night at Amalie Arena. For a couple of reasons.
Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde returned to Tampa to face not only his former team, but his predecessor in Jeff Blashill. No doubt, emotions were high. What wasn’t high were expectations, from a fan’s perspective. With Andrei Vasilevskiy starting in net for the Bolts, at home, I felt like the classic “Bolts-on-Wings” violence was bound to unfold.
Holy hell. I was wrong. Newsy outcoached his old team.
1st Period
The Red Wings came out swinging with bare knuckles to start this game.