Lightning Vs. Rangers- 2/2/13

[Hoek]

Garon let in a couple softies. We miss a few chances. I knew this game would be tough to win but still sucks. Hope Vinny will be okay.

[ChaseSpace]

Upset we lost but they fought hard and mounted a charge at the end. Refs seemed to not want to call a penalty on anyone in the third which might have cost us the game, never know for sure.

Hope Vinny just got bruised and nothing more serious.

[BurnTHalO]

Chief was much higher on Hedman than I was tonight. I thought he was bad, and Carle was putrid. I thought Hedman was starting to use his size. He took a huge step back tonight. Carle had a ton of bad turnovers. What I could not figure out (and this is back to last year) is this switching d pairings during the game. It is really important to know exactly where your partner is going to be on defense, and that is tough when you have 3 different partners in a single game. Furthermore, I though Aulie has been really good this year, so benching him to double up Carle and Hedman was just making no sense to me.

But, I'll chalk this up to a tired team and hope we move on get better.

[njbolt12]

Shame Honey Badger hit the post in the second, would have been a different game.

Think we were a little tired but the Rags played well. We got chances, not as many PPs as the last few games, but at the end you knew the big 3 was going to get one.

Hope Vinny's okay. That didn't look good...

[pete]

Goaltending was subpar. Garon was rusty.

Hedman was great offensively, so-so defensively. Same for Carle.

I thought they started to run out of gas late in the Second Period against the fresher team. That's when that Haggelin line started coming on and then in the Third Period the Richards/Gaborik line was excellent.

Might've been a different outcome if the guys were on even footing as far as having fresh legs.

[ChaseSpace]

Really hope Lee sits the next game or two.

[gatsby]

I thought they played alright for the second of a back to back. Rags played uptempo almost the whole game. We missed some opportunities and that 3rd goal was a play that shouldn't have happened but also a soft goal to let in. The roadtrip will tell you exactly what kind of team the Bolts really are.

[RSchmitz]

Originally Posted by NoSpin

HORRIBLE officiating,

Our greatest strength neutered today. Some consistent calls would be nice

[Donnie D]

You certainly can't blame that loss on the officials. Stamkos hit his hands with the stick and that's a routine hooking call. Brewer waited too long to check his man and got called under the new rules for interference. Last year - good play. This year - penalty.

The game demonstrates that the Lightning can play a wide open game, but is going to have to learn to play a more physical, grinding style when necessary.

I didn't hear chief tonight, but I thought this was Hedman's worst game of the season. Skating along side Nash like an escort instead of knocking him off the puck was the game changer. If that was the Chief's comments, he was spot on. Carle looked really tired. Passes were not sharp at all. Give the Rangers some credit. They came into the year as the favorite and they played like it They kept the Lightning bottled up all night.

We've had some favorable scheduling with a number of teams coming here on the second night of back to backs. Tonight it was our turn and we didn't look sharp. 5-1 on the homestand with 10 points. They need to win in Philly. Without a win on Tuesday, they could be coming home 6-6.

[Hoek]

Garon should have put his stick out on the Nash move. That was an easy poke check with how close he brought it through the crease. That was Chief's take anyway, not that Hedman wasn't at fault of course.