Game 44 - Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay

The Tampa lost tonight to the Pittsburgh Penguins by 4-1 - although, empty net goals always make games look worse than they are. In this case, there was only one, but even still.

Honestly, other than the score, I don't have much to complain about. The one thing that I've appreciated about the Lightning is that they never quit at the end of the game, no matter how badly they're losing. And they don't do stupid things at the end of games during blowouts, either. That kind of drive and discipline is pretty admirable, frankly. Most teams just let the game go and start settling up scores instead. That might be emotionally satisfying, but it doesn't really get you very far when it's all said and done.

From what I could tell, the Lightning outshot the Penguins, won the majority of faceoffs, and took fewer penalties. There wasn't much lag in this game, despite having come back after being on the road for a week. The energy was up, the tempo was up - it was a pretty well-played game as a whole. It's just that Pittsburgh was luckier around the net is all. And, as in most situations, it's almost always better to be lucky than good. It's best to be both, really, but you can't have everything.

As for the highly touted Lecavalier-Crosby matchup, I'd have to say that I think Lecavalier totally won that. Crosby didn't really stand out in this game. To me, it was obviously man versus boy - with Crosby being the boy, of course.

I have to admit, tho, that Crosby doesn't impress me much. I think he's a very good hockey player, and will probably only get better as he goes along, but I just can't stand his cocky attitude - even tho I know he's earned it. He's also sort of a one-dimensional player at this point, anyway. That'll probably change as he matures, tho. And, I don't think anyone under the age of 25 should be named captain of an NHL team. I think it's just wrong in so many ways.

Yes, I realize that Lecavalier was captain of the Lightning at 20 years old. I was saying the exact same thing about him then as I am now about Crosby in regards to the captaincy. And I think Lecavalier would make an excellent captain now - no question about that. It's both an age and maturity thing for me, and I don't think it's fair to either the younger guy or to the rest of the team to put someone in the position. A lot of people get short-changed with that.

To be fair, I should probably mention - for all of you Crosby fans - that I've never like Gretzky much as a player, either. He was, no doubt, the greatest offensive player to have ever played the game of hockey (even tho he was pretty much just a sniper hanging out around the net for half the time). I won't argue with anyone about that. However, Gretzky couldn't play defensively to save his life. I think that in order to be considered the "greatest hockey player of all time," they should probably be a well-rounded player. But, I know that I'm so in the minority with that kind of thinking.

As for the Lightning's loss, well, even very good teams have to lose sometimes. The point is that they're definitely getting back on track, and it shows. The wins will come again, and probably fairly soon, too.

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