Game 49 - Edmonton at Tampa Bay

The Tampa Bay Lightning are now the proud owners of a 3-game winning streak. (Congratulations - I hope they'll be very happy together.) They beat the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-3 game that came right down to the end. Of course, it didn't have to come right down to the end, since the Lightning were up 4-1 at one point, but that's the way it goes when you're turning things around sometimes.

The first period was something of a yawner. Both teams were playing cautiously and trying to feel the other team out. It was well played defensively, tho, by both teams. And it was much the same for the second period, although things started picking up towards the end. The Lightning seemed to have figured out their passing problem, for this game at least. That seems to come and go, tho.

It got interesting in the third, tho. I felt that the Lightning had control of the game, for the most part. There was a bit of a collapse at the end, but nothing nearly as bad as has been happening in recent games. It's as if they're slowly purging themselves of the poor play they've been having. They still do the occasional unfortunate thing, but they're becoming less and less as we go on. I find that to be very encouraging.

Frankly, after Holmqvist's shutout streak came to an end, I didn't really care what the score ended up being - so long as the Lightning won. Ultimately, it's that bottom line that matters most. The manner in which it happens is very helpful, but it's the results that count. And that's fairly true for most things in life, really, if you think about it.

But they did win tonight, while Carolina & Atlanta lost. So they're again only 7 points out of first in the Southeast Division standings, and out of playoffs, with 33 games left in the season. Unfortunately, Florida won, but you can't have everything - at least not in one night.

I would just like to remind everyone who either got down on Tampa Bay, or started panicking, that this is the exact same team that lost all of those games in the past few weeks. There have been no firings, no trades - as well as no real serious threat of trades, and yet they've managed to turn things around all on their own. Sure, it's still early in the turnaround, but you've got to have a little bit more faith and trust in people, you know?

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