Game: 5
Opponent: Dallas
Did I watch Live?: Nope
Why Not?: Work
Did I watch on replay?: Yup
Three Stars: 3.
Brian Boyle 2. Jonathan Drouin 1. Jason Spezza
Worst Play:
Fifteen minutes
into the second period and the Lightning were looking pretty good.
They were in a stretch were they were dominating play and racking up
shots. Victor Hedman had the puck along the boards and looked down
for a few seconds before making his pass. It was just long enough
for Jamie Benn to put his shoulder into Hedman's chest. Unfortunately
that led to the big Swede's head snapping into the glass. He did not
return.
Thoughts:
It's weird. When
you see a team give up five goals you think they had a bad game. I
won't say that Thursday night's 5-3 loss to the Stars was a great
game, but the Lightning didn't play horribly. They got off to a
great start with Steven Stamkos scoring two minutes into the game and
Tyler Johnson ringing one off the post a few minutes later.
Throughout most of the game they dictated play at even strength.
However, their
special teams let them down again. They had two power plays and
weren't able to get a shot off on either one of them. Heck on the
second power play they didn't even get in position to attempt a shot.
The good news on the penalty kill is that they actually spent two
minutes shorthanded without giving up a goal. Unfortunately they
were trying to kill a five-minute major and the Stars scored about
halfway through it.
Ben Bishop didn't
have his strongest game in net. For the first time all season he
seemed to be fighting the puck and leaving rebounds around his net.
On the other end Kari Lehtonen came through when his team needed him
most – stopping all fifteen shots the Lightning threw at him in the
second period. He let in a couple of soft ones in the third that
allowed Tampa to get back into the game, but came up with a
game-saving stop on Ryan Callahan right at the goal line.
If Hedman is out
of any significant time it will be interesting to see what the
organization does. Do they roll with Andrej Sustr and Nikita
Nesterov in the line up or do they make their first call up from
Syracuse?
Speaking of
Nesterov – I have no problem with the refs giving him the boot in
the game. Yes McKenzie was turning as Nesterov approached him, but
even if he wasn't, it would have been a dangerous his along the
boards. Brian Boyle picked up the third star with his strong play as
an emergency defenseman for a period and a half. I'm sure you'll see
some Boyle > Sustr comments on Twitter over the next few days.
The Lightning have
dropped their last two games to potential playoff bound teams. Not
quite a long enough stretch to panic, but they do need to make a good
showing against Nashville next Tuesday. The good news is that the
team has a pretty light schedule over the next week (Buffalo on
Saturday, Nashville and then the Jets on Friday). Hopefully that will
give their walking wounded a chance to heal up a bit and some
practice time to fix whatever is broken on the penalty kill.
Jo or Johnny:
Johnathan Drouin
had a heck of a game against Dallas. He set up both of Stamkos' goals
and was a force in the offensive zone all night long. He is really
gaining confidence on the ice. The two helpers put him at a
team-leading 6 points (1 goal and 5 assists). Meanwhile in Alberta,
Johnny Hockey has still only played 3 games so he still sits at 5
points (1 goal and 4 assists).
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