Once again, life is conspiring to take away time and space, so I won’t have an opportunity to do my standard game recap. Instead, I’m tossing out some loose leaf impressions of our scintillating 4-3 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
- First off, my word what an entertaining game! Jam-packed with end-to-end action and riveting intensity, much like a Game 7 of a playoff series.
- Tristan Jarry (37 saves) had himself a GAME. He was simply magnificent. Honestly, Tampa Bay could’ve scored at least 7 or 8 goals with all the glorious chances they had.
- Along those lines, the Lightning are incredibly impressive. Ultra-quick on the transition, they went through our watery team defense like a knife through hot butter. And they did it without several front-line players, including Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, Ryan McDonagh and Erik Cernak.
- Nikita Kucherov doesn’t get the ink some other high-profile megastars receive, but my goodness what a force. He isn’t a three-time Art Ross Trophy winner for no reason.
- The Penguins were spirited and energetic but oh-so-sloppy. Undisciplined to boot, handing the Bolts six power plays. None of the penalties more egregious than the ones taken by Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin in the third period.
- Geno more than made amends, scoring the last two black-and-gold goals, including the game winner with 2:43 left in the third period. Tanger? Not so much, although he did set up Ville Koivunen’s first NHL goal.
- Our league-best power-play scored twice in four tries, with Koivunen and fellow rookie Ben Kindel doing the honors. Embracing a bend-but-don’t-break approach, our fourth-ranked PK only yielded one. Blake Lizotte was once again terrific in a short-handed role.
- Tommy Novak registered two assists. He has five points (1+4) in his past four games.
- Anthony Mantha picked up an assist in his second-straight game.
- The “Kid Line” of Kindel centering for Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty combined for eight shots on goal, five by Ben.
- Sidney Crosby had a quiet night, at least as far as the score sheet was concerned (no points). However, he played with a chip on his shoulder, especially after tangling with J.J. Moser.
- Brandon Hagel scored two goals for the Bolts. Jake Guentzel picked up an assist against his ex-mates and was surprisingly feisty to boot.
- Boko Imama dropped the gloves with towering Tampa Bay rookie Curtis Douglas at 2:36 of the first period and scored a unanimous decision against his much taller foe, dislodging the rookie’s helmet with a stiff right before hammering him to the ice.
In the immortal words of Porky Pig, “T-h-h-at’s all, folks!”
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Rick
Couple of quick observations:
1) Hayes has to go!! The only thing I can figure is Dubas is hopeful he can move him at the deadline
2) Imama's promotion was way over due.
3) I love Lizotte, but he has to cash in every now and then.
4) I just keep thinking - when Rakell & Brazeau come back our lines aren't looking to bad.
5) I like the kid line - it has potential.
6) I'm still not feeling Shea - I know he's played a little better than expected but when he and Letang
are on the ice it seems like an eternity before we're able to get the puck out of our end. He just hangs
on to the puck way to long for my liking.
7) Time to get Pickering back up with the big boys.
Hey Mike,
Great to hear from you! Agree with a lot of what you say, including how our lines shape up when we get everyone back and healthy. In particular, I’ll be interested to see if the “Big Line” picks up where it left off.
I’m with you on Imama. To my eye, he can skate and play the game. He scored an incredible goal on a penalty shot for the Baby Pens a little while back and his goal for us last season was a sniper’s goal. As far as enforcing goes, he’s smart about knowing when to drop the gloves and when a bump or a glare will suffice. Unfortunately, I fear he’ll be sent back to Wilkes when we get healthy.
I don’t mind Shea and think he’s been light years better than the past couple of seasons. Letang on the other hand? Maybe it’s just bad timing, but I swear every time I focus on him he makes a bad play or poor decision. Easily my most frustrating player. I just didn’t expect him to fade as quickly as he has.
If I didn’t mention it, you were absolutely, positively spot-on about Karlsson. My goodness, has he re-emerged this season! Really points the finger at Sullivan, or at the very least, his system.
Graves, too. He’s been at least serviceable.
I hear ya’ about Hayes, dear Lord is he slooow, but he does do some things right and somehow I can’t bring myself to hate him. Don’t know if I agree about Pickering. He seemed to wilt on a big stage earlier this season, although in hindsight pairing him with Brunicke probably wasn’t the smartest of moves. Still think he has some work to do before he's NHL-ready.
Speaking of rookies, what do you think about Kindel? Other Rick hates that we bypassed a chance to take Kashawn Aitcheson (I was right there with him initially) but Kindel’s quickly changed my mind. I’ve been so impressed with his quickness, smarts and skill, not to mention compete level, especially for a smaller guy.
Again great to hear from you. Hope you are well!
Rick