Four keys to Red Wings vs. Lightning in Game 7

It’s the most interesting coach in hockey (Tampa's Jon Cooper) against the (arguably) smartest coach in hockey (Detroit's Mike Babcock) for Game 7 between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Detroit Red Wings.

The series had mostly been played cleanly and was controversy free … until … Niklas Kronwall got suspended for Game 7 on a brutal hit on Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov in Game 6.

To add more injuries to insult, Red Wings defenseman Marek Zidlicky is out of Game 7 with a  concussion. This is all really bad news for Detroit. Call Nicklas Lidstrom out of retirement perhaps?

So the Red Wings will have most of the issues going against them for the contest. The Lightning seem to be mostly healthy, though Steven Stamkos continues to struggle without a goal this series.

How will it all play out? We look at four keys to the game:

1. Good Mrazek against bad Mrazek

In Detroit’s three wins, Mrazek has allowed two goals total and notched two shutouts. In The Red Wings’ two losses, he has allowed 11 goals. Even if one game included a miraculous OT comeback by Tampa, that’s still not great. Good news for Detroit. Mrazek gave up four goals in the Red Wings’ Game 6 loss. So he’s due for a better performance Wednesday, totally.

2. Stammer needs to score first

Steven Stamkos has no goals and just three assists in six games. He claims he’s not injured, though you have to wonder if this is typical playoff grandstanding. He can’t even score by accident in this series? He’s always around the puck. Regardless, imagine if he gets the first goal of the game. That would be a huge lift for the Lightning. He’s their captain, their leader and early production would help a great deal.

It would be like Tampa's WIllis Reed moment perhaps?

3. Contain Tyler Johnson

Before the series, if I was to tell you a Lightning player would have six goals in six games, would Tyler Johnson be your top choice? He wouldn’t be low on the list – after all he did have 29 goals in 77 games last year. But the small speedster has carried the Lightning in this series. Detroit has no answer for his wheels, but it has to figure out a better way to slow Johnson.

Just look at these wheels. Yikes.

4. Detroit’s old guard needs to step up

The younger Detroit players like Tomas Tatar, Gustav Nyquist and Danny DeKeyser are the team’s future. But the Wings need a boost from their past stars to vanquish the Lightning. Pavel Dastsyuk has done his part with five points in six games played. Henrik Zetterberg has not. He has a very Stamkos-like three assists in six games played. There will be no Kronwall is this game. So really, it’s on Datsyuk and Zetterberg to carry Detroit basically … again.  Sound familiar?

Prediction: Red Wings 2-1 in OT. Good Mrazek shows up and Mike Babcock figures out a way to motivate his group in this one-game winner-take-all effort. Every time we thought Tampa had momentum in this series, Detroit has squashed it. This will happen again.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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