Tampa Bay Lightning vs Detroit Red Wings Prediction - 10/17/2025


The Tampa Bay Lightning (1-2-1) will take on the Detroit Red Wings (3-1-0) in the NHL on Friday night. The Lightning are off to a slow start this season, but they are favored on the road against a Red Wings team that is playing well early on. Here, I take a closer look at this Atlantic Division matchup in the NHL and give you my Lightning vs Red Wings prediction.
Detroit’s Cam Talbot has been outstanding early. He is 3–0 with a 1.78 GAA and a .932 save percentage. He’s been a major reason Detroit is off to this hot start. Talbot will be expected to go again for the Wings here as he looks for a fourth straight win to start his season.
Andrei Vasilevskiy is 0–2–1 with a 4.08 GAA and a .870 save percentage for the Lightning. When Vasilevskiy is at his best, he is one of the best netminders in the NHL. But he has not been at his best yet this season and the Lightning have paid dearly for that thus far.
Player | Prop |
|---|---|
Nikita Kucherov | Over 1.5 points |
Brayden Point | Over 0.5 assists |
Alex DeBrincat | Over 1.5 assists |
Puckline trends: Detroit is 3-1 on the puckline so far this season. Tampa Bay is 1-3 on the puckline going into this game.
Over/Under trends: Tampa Bay's games have gone over their totals three times through four games. The Red Wings are 1-2-1 on their totals for the season.
Score Projection: Tampa Bay 3 – Detroit 4
Win Probability: Tampa Bay 42%, Detroit 58%
The Lightning are favored in this game but I think the Red Wings are a great underdog selection today. Detroit is on a hot streak and should continue their winning ways against a Tampa team that has struggled on defense and in net of late.
Jay Sanin is the GM and Head of Sports at ATS.io. He has been writing about sports gambling since 2013, handicapping tens of thousands of sporting events. He plays sides and totals aggressively across most sports and is more selective in player prop markets. He does his own modeling across most sports, and his family is jealous of how much time he spends on his precious spreadsheets.
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