J.T. Brown, Tomas Tatar

J.T. Brown (left) suffered an upper-body injury Friday and is out for the remainder of the playoff series with the Red Wings.

(AP Photo)

DETROIT - When the Tampa Bay Lightning resume their first-round playoff series with the Detroit Red Wings Sunday at Joe Louis Arena, they'll be without forward J.T. Brown.

Brown suffered an upper-body injury early in Game 2 Friday night and will miss the remainder of the series.

"If you're going to pull that unsung hero tag, he's definitely at the top of that list,'' Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said in a story on TBO.com. "You're not going to find too many bigger gamers than J.T. Brown. That's a tough loss for us.''

In 78 regular-season games, Brown had eight goals, 14 assists and 59 penalty minutes. His plus-16 rating was the tied for third-best on the team.

He had no points in the first two playoff games vs. the Red Wings.

More of the rough stuff: The Red Wings said they don't expect any of the hostilities that erupted at the end of Game 2 to carry over to tonight, when the series shifts to Detroit. The Lightning, however, aren't so sure. "It's going to be an intense game, like it was (Friday) or two nights ago," forward Cedric Paquette told the Tampa Bay Times. "I don't expect any different." Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader was hit with a fighting major and game misconduct for pummeling Tampa Bay's Mike Blunden in the final minute, when 94 PIM were handed out. That didn't sit well with Paquette, who said "I think that's not smart for their guy. When there's a guy lying on the ice like that, you respect the opponent. I don't think he did."

End it already: Tampa Bay Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly, who doesn't think very highly of the Red Wings, is urging the Lightning to end the series as soon as possible now that they've got a 2-0 lead. "Now finish this series," Fennelly wrote. "Five games. Heck, four games. Brooms. The Lightning played a record-tying 26 Stanley Cup playoff games last season. Do they really need to do that all over again? A short series, any short series, could only help save on wear and tear, especially for a club that wasn't exactly healthy to start the postseason. Make short work of this series and get some rest. The Red Wings aren't as good. They just aren't. Detroit, 25-year playoff streak or no, is among the weakest entries in the playoff field. The Lightning are better than the Wings even without Steve Stamkos and Anton Stralman. So end it."

Abdelkader a zero? Writer Scott Cullen of TSN.ca picked his heroes and zeroes after Friday's games and he put Abdelkader into the second category. "The Red Wings disturber had a hard night in Game Two," Cullen wrote. "He was in the penalty box for Tampa Bay's first goal then was on the ice for three more Lightning goals in a 5-2 loss. The cherry on top of the sundae was the five and ten he received in the final minute of play for attacking Lightning winger Michael Blunden."

Embarrassing finish: Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp didn't like what he saw in the final minute of Game 2, when the officials handed out four minor penalties, three fighting majors, six misconducts and a game misconduct to cap a bad night for the Red Wings. "If this is the byproduct of The Streak - 25 consecutive years in the playoffs - then the Wings are better off missing the playoffs next season and hoping for a little lottery luck that might produce that high-end, multi-faceted defensive force that they've lacked since Father Time finally forced out Nicklas Lidstrom four years ago," Sharp wrote. "They've perpetrated a charade, conning the public into believing that anything's possible in the postseason because of the relative evenness of the bulk of the playoff participants. But there's nothing even about this series following the first two games. The Lightning are younger, faster, deeper and hungrier. The Wings couldn't handle that and their response in the final minute of the game was an embarrassment."

Suspend Abdelkader: Sportsnet.ca took a poll asking if Abdelkader should be suspended for what it called an "attack" on Bluden. As of Saturday night, more than 21,000 people had voted and 52 percent answered yes. "Justin Abdelkader was the most animated player involved in the fracas," Sportsnet's Mike Johnston wrote. "The Red Wings forward lost his temper and bloodied up Lightning winger Mike Blunden with damaging ground-and-pound punches that Mark 'The Hammer' Coleman could be proud of."

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