Red Wings vs. Tampa Bay Lightning 11-9-14

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov (86) and defenseman Matthew Carle vie for the puck with Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist.

(The Associated Press)

TAMPA, Fla. - The Detroit Red Wings' move to the Eastern Conference in 2013 rekindled historic rivalries with Toronto, Montreal and Boston.

The Red Wings share no history with the Tampa Bay Lightning, who've been around for only 22 seasons. But this matchup has the potential to develop into good rivalry.

Tampa Bay is a talented, young team that appears well-positioned to be good for many years. The Red Wings believe they have enough young talent to help them remain competitive for the foreseeable future.

Red Wings-Lightning probably won't develop into a heated rivalry until the teams meet at least once in the playoffs. But for a regular season game, Thursday's matchup at Amalie Arena (7:30 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit) certainly is buzzworthy.

The Red Wings have won six in a row to take a one-point lead over the Lightning in the Atlantic Division.

"I think once you start playing them in the playoffs, that's when the rivalry starts," Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg said. "When you go six or seven games against them, that's when you really start playing against them tough. That's when you get the anger. It gets a little more heated."

In one sense, these teams have met in the playoffs - in the 2013 Calder Cup final, when the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit's AHL affiliate, defeated the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa Bay's top farm club.

Ten current Red Wings played in that series: Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Riley Sheahan, Tomas Jurco, Luke Glendening, Joakim Andersson, Danny DeKeyser, Brian Lashoff, Petr Mrazek and Tom McCollum.

Nine current Lightning players participated: Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, Cedric Paquette, Brett Connolly, Radko Gudas, J.T. Brown, Andrej Sustr and Mark Barberio.

"I think that's probably the rivalry, the players that played each other in the Calder Cup," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "I think true rivalries in the NHL don't start until you play each other in a playoff series. If it comes down to it this year, then you're probably going to see something special."

Then he added, "It's funny, the NHL rivalry is based on a bunch of guys who played in the American League against each other."

Johnson, Tampa Bay's leading scorer with 48 points, said, "I think we have a lot more respect for each other because of (the Calder Cup finals). I know those guys. I respect them a lot for their battle. They're fun to play against and obviously they took something from us (the AHL championship)."

Tampa Bay, under fifth-year general manager and long-time Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman, has a lot of good players who weren't in that series, including elite sniper Steven Stamkos, former Red Wing Valtteri Filppula and 6-foot-7 goaltender Ben Bishop.

"They play with a lot of speed. Their first two lines are real dangerous," Nyquist said. "We want to play with speed, too. It's going to be a fast-paced game. We're excited to play."

The Red Wings haven't won seven in a row since Jan. 12-23, 2012. Filppula isn't surprised by their success.

"Guys are really fast, a lot of skill and I think that's normally how the Wings are playing, good with the puck," Filppula said. "New guys always bring something different to the table, but they're looking like the team to beat right now."

The coaches were effusive in their praise for each other's team.

"Good speed, good goaltending; active, mobile back end, really talented and deep up front, really skate well," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said of the Lightning. "Lots of high-end skill. As skilled a team as we got in the Eastern Conference."

Cooper said the Red Wings are "deep in all areas."

"They've done a great job with their D corps," Cooper said. "They've got a good veteran mix with the (Pavel) Datsyuks and the Zetterbergs and the (Johan) Franzens (who's out indefinitely due to headaches). (Stephen) Weiss has come back from his injury and seemed to give them a bump, and then you mix in all these young guys. It's very much the same as to what's gone on in the room right down the hall. Two, what I consider, fairly similar teams."

That's where Babcock disagreed.

"We're a team that's been good for a long time and trying to regain being good," Babcock said. "They're a team that's built on young kids going in the right direction and obviously they've done a real good job drafting. They look like they got a good team for a long period of time."

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