One down, 3 to go.

by John Fontana on May 8, 2004 7:29 PM EDT in Playoffs

8 Days off and the Lightning were a little flat.

How flat? Perchance they missed pitching their 5tn shutout of the playoffs in front of a Times Palace record crowd of 21,452... The Lightning bested the Flyers 3-1 in the first game of the best of seven Eastern Conference Finals.

Dave Andreychuk notched his first goal of the playoffs to open scoring, Brad Richards and Chris Dingman rounded out scoring for Tampa Ba---

Wait a second here... Chris Dingman?! CHRIS DINGMAN?!?! The same Chris Dingman I have seen routinely miss an open net?! Egad! What is this world coming to?!?!

Honestly though, the Flyers played very physically -- as was to be expected -- and stayed toe to toe with the Lightning who again had problems on the Power Play. Keith Primeau ran Nikolai Khabibulin in the first period which negated a goal scored on an odd man breakaway by the Flyers.

Of course ABC, not to be out done, heaped praise on the Flyers and made you think that we were watching a closed circuit telecast of the Flyers home network. This along with closed captioning flubs of the hilarious kind (Robert Esche was re-dubbed "Khabibulin" no less than twice, Vincent Lecavalier was deemed to need to play with "more sexual resolve" if the Lightning were to win, and Eric Perrin and Martin St. Louis became graduates of the University of Montana) made this telecast of the game unbearable, at best.

Game 2 is Monday at 7 PM... And I pray that the ESPN broadcast is a sight better than todays.

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First Roy opens up the scoring of the playoffs, and now Dingman? I am in the process of ordering space heaters for Hell.

by Alex on May 8, 2004 7:29 PM EDT reply actions

Roy has shown he can play but he’s had to work his way through Torts doghouse to get the chance.

I’m not saying this guy is ever going to be a Richard trophy candidate but he’s better than a 4th line grinder… Just IMHO.

by John F. on May 8, 2004 7:29 PM EDT reply actions

During the ‘03 playoffs it was a sturdy doghouse, indeed. I did think that Torts was just a skosh too harsh on the guy. Glad to see the end of Roy’s stupid penalties. After the first Isles game, Roy’s skate-around after being named a star of the game was a thing of beauty. No doubt that he loves this game and enjoys every minute out on the ice.

by Alex on May 8, 2004 7:29 PM EDT reply actions