NHL Game Night 3/7: Lightning at Devils

Another quality start by the kid wasted.

TB-1
NJ-2 (OT)

Karri Ramo stopped 31 of 33 shots in the overtime loss.

First Period
New Jersey 12:16, Zach Parise 28 (Patrik Elias, Brian Gionta)

Second Period
Tampa Bay 17:30, Michel Ouellet 12 (power play) (Dan Boyle, Alexandre Picard)

Third Period
NO SCORING

Overtime
New Jersey 4:02, Patrik Elias 18 (Sheldon Brookbank)

That's three straight quality starts by Ramo, even despite the fact he's had some long layoffs between starts. Ramo now has 15 decisions on the season, and looking through his starts this year there were only about three games where he didn't play well enough to give the Lightning a chance to win games. Ramo is part of the reason I'm optimistic about next season if the Lightning can get Steve Stamkos in the draft or another quality second line center. At just 21 years old Ramo is showing he can consistently give this team quality starts. Mike Smith, at 25 years old, also shows he can give this team quality starts. I feel like this tandem gives the Lightning the most stability they have had, by far, between the pipes since 2003-2004. I also still believe Ramo needs to get more starts. I have a pretty good idea what Mike Smith is and what he's going to do for this organization, but Ramo is just a pup and every start you get him now gives him more experience toward reaching his monster potential.

Alexandre Picard continues to get big minutes in his extended debut for the organization: 28:59 tonight.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.