The set-up: The Tampa Bay lightning will travel to Detroit to face the Red Wings in Monday' lone NHL contest. Both teams are off to 4-1-0 starts but the clear standout in this opening stretch has been Tampa Bay's Nikita Kuchero, who has become the sixth player in the last 17 years and first since 2012, to score in each of his team's first five games of the season (he netted the game-winner Saturday, as Tampa Bay beat St. Louis 3-2). Detroit has made it clear that it is not the same team that missed the playoffs for the first time in 26 seasons in 2016-17, sprinting to a 4-1-0 start. The Red Wings and Lightning aren't accustomed to what befell them last season. As noted, Detroit missed the playoffs for the first time since the 1989-90 season, while Tampa Bay missed the playoffs by one point, after reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2015 and the Eastern Conference final in 2016.


Tampa Bay: Kucherov scored a career-high 40 goals last season and has five, along with three assists in Tampa's first five games. He's playing on a line with captain Steven Stamkos and Vladislav Namestnikov. Brayden Point, who is in his second season in the NHL, has matched Kucherov with eight points in the first five games and has been a key figure in all corners of the rink while skating with Ondrej Palat and Yanni Gourde. Netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy has played better than his .911 save percentage and has been in goal for all five games

Detroit: The Red Wings got four points from captain Henrik Zetterberg in Friday's 6-3 win at Vegas with forward Gustav Nyquist telling reporters of the 37-year-old Zetterberg, "He's an unbelievable player and has been that for many, many years. It's impressive what he still does." Zetterberg (three goal & four assists) and veteran defenseman Mike Green (eight assists) are off to strong starts but young forwards Anthony Mantha and Dylan Larkin also have played major roles. Mantha has recorded three goals and four assists, Larkin has collected six points and the duo leads the team with 15 shots apiece while rookie Martin Frk has added some punch with three goals and an assist. The Red Wings have alternated both Jimmy Howard (three games) and Petr Mrazek (two) in goal thus far but note that Howard's .955 save percentage is second in the NHL.

The pick: The Lightning swept the five-game series last season, extending their winning streak to seven in a row over the Red Wings, including the 2016 postseason. However, it's a "new day" in Detroit in the early going of this season and maybe the move to Little Caesars Arena (from Joe Louis Arena) will give the Wings a fresh approach to this rivalry. Then again, maybe not? What I do expect is a low-scoring game as Vasilevskiy and Howard square off. Make the Under a 10*!