Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers (3/2/12)

[Bolts_26]

BUGSY!!

[Hoek]

What a game. These guys don't know when to quit. Still looking doable.

[Bolts_131]

Have to give the Bolts some credit for gutting that one out and getting the 2 points. I thought we played an overall very good game. Aulie didn't exactly wow me in his first game as a Bolt. Good effort by everyone tonight.

[YungBolt]

Just left the game. Teddy purcell is getting crazy... He might have been the best player on the ice. Guy is unbeleivable right now.

[mustang]

Purcell does so well when he's the secondary winger on a scoring line. I don't know if it's because the other team is keyed in on the other two forwards or what, but his production really spikes when he plays with more established guys. It'd be amazing if this was more than just a hot streak, and he gave us a full year of close to this level of play next year.

Great to see Connolly getting more and more confident.

[BurnTHalO]

My analysis:

Purcell is becoming a monster.

Stamkos is the best player in the nhl at this time.

I still think brewer sucks.

Connolly has started to look great since getting more ice time.

Why dress 7 dmen when you only play one like 4 minutes,(at least that seeems all aulie played).

Comodore/lee are by far our best dmen. As of right now, bring comodore back, guy has looked great.

HUGE win. Let's bring it to tomorrow

[BurnTHalO]

Oh, and question. Is that black eye on Malone from the habs cheap shot?

[gatsby]

Originally Posted by Sotnos

I was worried about even looking competitive in this one, but they look 10x better than against Montreal.

We always play the Rags well and especially Lundqvist. I'm worried about them crapping the bed against the Canes.

Great game tonight. Connolly played one of his best games in a while. Lee and Commodore look good and steady. Teddy is on fire. Please no more Clark. And it'll be nice to get Vinny back sometime.

Originally Posted by NoSpin

Marty.....just falls down.

Marty had one of the worst games I have ever seen him play. It had to be him with a touch of the flu as he made on bad play after another tonight.

I am taking that Roli is in net against Carolina. I am looking forward to see him play with a much better defense in front of him.

Connolly had a very good game.

Purcell has taken his game to that place we all knew he had. No if we could only get Vinny back.

I am just loving this new defense. You can sense the change in the air at the Forum. This is a team that may very well get in the final 8. If they do they will be scary.

This was only the 4th time this season that Henri had 4 goals get past him, and the 1st since mid January.

[pete]

Brian Lee is going to be a stallion for this team. Skates like the wind. Not afraid to stand guys up. And, what I've seen through 2 games and really am happy about, this guy is uber-calm with the puck in the offensive zone. This guy slows the game down when he's got the puck at the point. If you're wondering what I mean by how Barberio plays in the offensive zone, he plays like that. Like a shark quietly circling for his prey.

A lot of d-men crap their pants when they get the puck in the offensive zone and either try to shoot it or dump it deep immediately when they get it. Even a guy like Gilroy, who has decent offensive instincts, had a problem with being too frenetic, and trying to make plays that simply weren't there. On the Stamkos goal, there was a play on that shift where Lee got the puck and got cut off by a Rangers defender, and rather than panicking, he circled very calmly with the puck and made a different play on a cross-ice pass. Nothing forced. Very smart. Very poised.

Yzerman said he thinks Lee will be more of a defensive guy, but I'm telling you, there's more there. He's going to be a 2-way guy and he's got the ability to chip in offensively. I'm interested to see if they pair him with Hedman when Hedy gets healthy or if they have him anchor the second pair. Hedman/Lee has a sick amount of combined mobility.