If the Detroit Red Wings were seeking to discover what a winning culture looks like, all they needed to do was look at the visitors to Little Caesars Arena on Friday afternoon.

The Tampa Bay Lightning showed up to Hockeytown and gave the Wings a lesson in how you play hockey. And the Lightning did so minus high-scoring forward Brayden Point, and without three of the club’s top-six defensemen – former Norris Trophy winner Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, and Erik Cernak.

Tampa Bay’s 6-3 victory over Detroit was the sixth win in a row for the Atlantic Division leaders. The Red Wings lost for the third game in succession, and for the fourth time in five games.

Let’s go! pic.twitter.com/oQEgmb3stw

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 28, 2025

“The consistency is not there,” Detroit center JT Compher said. “The good teams do it every single night.”

And those good teams seem to be able to do it no matter who is wearing the uniform.

“I think that they have won enough that they can plug and play,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said of the Lightning. “They’ve been together long enough, so they can bring young defensemen up and plug them in, and they can play because they all understand how they’re going to play certain situations.

“We don’t quite have that yet.”

Lightning Show Red Wings How It’s Done

Leading 4-3 in the third period, veteran Tampa Bay forwards Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel gave their Detroit counterparts a subtle lesson in why they win.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have won 6 straight games⚡️

The Lightning are in 1st place in the Atlantic division with a 15-7-2 record 👀

Kucherov is on an 8 game point streak🔥
15 points (4G + 11A) in his last 8 games pic.twitter.com/ljyifmQukk

— Maietta Sports Media (@MaiettaSports) November 28, 2025

“You know what I noticed from their team tonight?” McLellan said. “That once they got the lead, Cirelli and Hagel could come out, and they were just happy to check. They were okay with, you know, there’s (Lucas) Raymond and (Dylan) Larkin. We’re going to shut these two down, and we’ll let the rest of the guys go and try and score Goal 5, Goal 6.

“That’s part of learning how to win and how to do it.”

McLellan Remembers A Team That Did It Right

McLellan was an assistant coach in Detroit during the last great era of Red Wings hockey. He was part of winning the club’s most recent Stanley Cup in 2007-08. That, he recalled, was a team that was comfortable in its own skin. They knew how to win, how to close out games, how to get the job done.

All lessons the current Red Wings still need to learn.

“When it went sideways, it was a little calmer,” McLellan remembered about those teams. “There was more confidence.

“We had that wealth, that reservoir (of success to draw upon).”