x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

Lightning Round: The Lightning are saying the right things, now they have to back up their words

Posted on by Justin G.

On Tuesday the Tampa Bay Lightning started their practice with a video session and then worked on special teams. Afterwards, they spoke to the media and were saying all of things you would expect from a team that didn’t have their best night on the ice.

“We gotta be the ones to push the pace” – Nick Paul

“We know what we need to do to be a good hockey team” – Pat Maroon

“Forget about that game, there’s nothing we can do about it” Pierre Eduoard-Bellemare

Head coach Jon Cooper referred to the game as an “aberration” and pointed out that things weren’t THAT bad at 5v5 (they weren’t that great either). Like he has following losses in the previous two postseasons he’s banging the “turn the page” drum. That rhythm has been a good one for the Lightning as they’ve done pretty well after suffering a defeat in the playoffs:

Unfortunately, resting on past laurels rarely leads to future success. This year’s Lightning have to show, not just tell, that they can fix the problems that led to the Game One loss. Saying that they need to pressure the Maple Leafs is one thing, actually doing it is something else.

Much of went wrong on Monday was self-inflicted (the visual of the slow pass from Maroon to Mikhail Sergachev that led to a Sergachev penalty is dancing through my head right now) and, in theory, those problems should be easy to fix. Just stop making the mistakes, right? The only problem I see is that a lot of the problems they had on Monday (bad passes, poor puck management, bad zone coverage, dumb penalties), they’ve had all season long and haven’t fixed them yet.

We know that the Lightning have better in them. They can pressure the Maple Leafs. They have the talent to overwhelm Jack Campbell with shots. We even saw flashes of it on Monday, just not early enough in the game.

The spectacular failure of the five-minute power play seemed to throw them off their game for most of the night. With Toronto feeding off of the chances that early in the match, it felt like the Lightning were off-kilter for the rest of the night. Based on their comments, they know that, now, hopefully they can do something about it.

Lightning / NHL News

Morning After Thoughts [Raw Charge]

There was plenty of blame to go around in the loss a Matt breaks down Game One.

Fines and a suspension [Raw Charge]

You get a fine! You get a fine! Kyle Clifford – you get to sit in the press box for a night.

Three adjustments the Lightning should make [The Athletic]

It’s pretty simple advice that can be boiled down to Joe Smith’s final point :

“Top Players Must Lead the Way”

The best players have to be the best players for the Lightning. That means Kucherov, Stamkos, Vasilevskiy, and Hedman.

Lightning have shown ability to bounce back [Tampa Bay Times]

The Bolts are 7-3 in series where they have lost Game One. That’s a pretty good stat. I like that stat. More stats like that please.

The post-practice interviews from yesterday:

Nick Paul

Pat Maroon

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

The lines at practice were the same, but there was a small change on the second power play unit:

Rob Dimaio named Assistant GM in Anaheim [Orange County Register]

Old friend, and Original Bolt, Rob DiMaio was named the Assistant General Manager for the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday where he joins  his former Dallas Stars teammate Pat Verbeek’s executive team. Prior to this position, DiMaio spent 12 seasons in the St. Louis Blues organization.

Last Night’s Games:

Washington Capitals 4-2 over Florida Panthers – WSH up 1-0

Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 (3 OT) over New York Rangers – PIT up 1-0

Colorado Avalanche 7-2 over Nashville Predators – COL up 1-0

Calgary Flames 1-0 over Dallas Stars – CAL up 1-0

Tonight’s Other Games:

Boston Bruins @ Carolina Hurricanes

Series: 1-0 Carolina, 7:00pm, ESPN, SN360

St. Louis Blues @ Minnesota Wild

Series: 1-0 St. Louis, 9:30pm, ESPN, SN360

Los Angeles Kings @ Edmonton Oilers

Series: 1-0 L.A., 10:00pm, ESPN2, CBC

Some Highlights from around the league:

Evgeni Malkin ends the longest game of this year’s postseason (so far)

The Rangers thought they had won it in overtime, but I’m not sure you get more of a clear cut case of goaltender interference. The goal was overturned and the teams get going until Malkin’s goal.

Cale Makar doing Cale Makar things

Dave Rittich with the aggressive play

If you enjoyed this article please consider supporting RawCharge by subscribing here, or purchasing our merchandise here.

Support RawCharge by using our Affiliate Link when Shopping Hockey Apparel !

Talking Points