3
0
Not enough silver linings to make loss to Avs palatable.
TB-1
COL-4
Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed three goals on 22 shots for the loss. Not a great stat line, but you can hardly complain about goaltending when you only get one goal of support.
First Period
7:12 COL Johansen (8), (unassisted)
Second Period
1:48 COL Johansen (9), (Tate, Makar)
3:36 COL Makar (6), (Rantanen, MacKinnon)(PP)
19:29 TB Cirelli (3), (Hedman, Kucherov)
Third Period
16:46 COL Nichushkin (10), (MacKinnon)(EN)
This was a measuring stick game, for me, against a team I loathe for obvious reasons. The score line’s ugly, but there were silver linings. Too few to make losing easy to digest though. However, two years ago in the SCF it appeared Colorado had a mammoth speed and athleticism advantage against the Lightning. In this game, that advantage was nullified as the team’s played a pretty even game at 5v5. Where the game tilted, in my opinion, was that Colorado’s PP delivered where the Lightning’s did not. Rare is the time that the Lightning will get beaten steel on steel on special teams, but Colorado’s that rare team that’s the Lightning’s equal, seemingly, both at PP and PK. So, on balance, there’s some good thing’s there to build off of. Where I was more disappointed was the lack of serious push outside of one flurry in the Third Period when it was a two goal affair. Colorado closed out that game the way the Lightning used to close out games. That’s an area where the Lightning need to focus the rest of this regular season. Ultimately, I still view Colorado and Tampa Bay as having the strongest cores in the league, so they are the default SC finalists in my mind and Julien BriseBois and Jon Cooper should be scheming and planning to beat the Avalanche. They didn’t do it tonight, but they looked closer to it than they did in the Finals two years ago in many areas.
It’s not the reason they lost, but I feel Lightning fans who are openly wondering why the Avs get the Pittsburgh Penguins-esque white glove treatment by the officials.
Darren Raddysh was -1 with 1 shot in 14:51. I didn’t think this was a good matchup for him.
Cole Koepke had 4 shots and 2 hits in 9:30. Had a turnaround shot opportunity that could’ve really changed the game that he couldn’t pot.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.
