The Tampa Bay Lightning won their fifth game in a row beating the New York Rangers 5-3.
The score of the game doesn’t tell you how much of a blowout this really was. It was 5-0 Lightning going into the third when Tampa Bay let the Rangers back into the game. One of those three goals was a shorthanded tally, yet again. That’s perhaps something that ought to be addressed, I think. Thankfully, it didn’t get out of hand by the end.
Ryan Malone scored two goals in the first – his fourth and fifth on the season – both were what’s considered garbage goals. (A garbage goal is one where people are camped out in front of the opposing team’s net, and they just shove the puck into the goal in any way possible – off a rebound, off another player, off the goalie, whatever.) But that’s Malone’s job; camping out in front of the net and scoring any way he can. It’s too bad that he couldn’t get the hat trick, though.
Steven Stamkos continued on his tear through the NHL goal scoring race but scoring his 21st goal. Stamkos now leads the NHL in scoring by six goals. Sidney Crosby is the closest to him, and Crosby’s got 15 so far. He also assisted on both Malone goals as well.
Brett Clark scored his fifth goal of the season, and Victor Hedman got his first. Steve Downie had two assists, as did Martin St. Louis and Teddy Purcell. So the scoring was spread out a bit, and that was a good thing.
The crazy stat of the night goes to Dominic Moore. He won 12 of 17 total faceoffs. That’s a winning percentage of 71%. Just to put that in perspective, most season averages tend to fall in the mid-50s.
It was a good game. The Lightning dominated a mediocre (at the moment) team, as they should. The skated well, and executed well. It’s hard to say that this is what we should expect from this team, but I suppose that it is.
The next Lightning game is Friday, 26 November, at the Washington Capitals. It’s an early start – 5 pm Eastern – so hopefully no on will miss it. It ought to be a good game. The Raw Charge game thread will open up at 4:30 pm for a little hockey conversation. Join us!
Rangers vs Lightning recap [TSN]
Rangers vs Lightning boxscore [TSN]
Rangers vs Lightning coverage [SB Nation]
Blueshirt Banter [SB Nation]
