Preseason game 5: Tampa Bay at Berlin

I'm going to try to write a blog purely based upon statistics. Isn't that exciting? Let's see if I can make this work. If someone can tell me how close I got to this game, I'd really appreciate it.

The Tampa Bay Lighting played Eisbären Berlin in Berlin, Germany, today. They won by a score of 4-1. However, the game was a lot closer than it appears. Eisbären scored the first goal in the first period, and the Lightning scored two goals apiece in the second and third periods.

There were a few penalties in the game, although, they were mostly holding calls. Malone racked up some penalty minutes in the third, tho. He got a double-minor for roughing, and a 10-minute misconduct.

And that made me think - Berlin isn't all German players, you know. There are 5 Canadians and 4 Americans listed on their roster. You know that those guys had to feel like they had something to prove. I mean, they're playing in Europe and not the NHL - but they were playing an NHL team. Makes me wonder how much smack was being said in English on the ice, and if Malone - after Tampa was safely ahead - decided to put someone in their place. At least two of those guys had played in the NHL before: Steve Walker and Denis Pederson.

The two big stories going into this game were that Lecavalier played his first game since dislocating his shoulder in April at Washington, and that Kolzig made his return to his old team. Kolzig, who is German by nationality, played for Berlin during the most recent NHL lockout.

Individual shots on goal were not available, so I can't tell you how Lecavalier did. He played a quiet game statistically in that he took no penalties and scored no points. Other than that, I have no idea how he played or how his shoulder held up. But since they were playing on international-sized ice, I suspect that there wasn't a lot of hitting going on anyways. I expect that the Tampa Bay area newspapers ought to have more on that tomorrow.

Kolzig did well. Although, from what I can tell, what ended up deciding this game were the shots on goal. Berlin and Tampa Bay were even through two periods of play, and the Lightning were only up by a score of 2-1. In the third period, however, the Lightning outshot Eisbären 21-5, as well as scoring two more goals.

Next up is HC Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday. Again, this game is totally blacked out here in the US. Going to the European team's website was far more helpful than the NHL's. It doesn't take a lot to figure out what certain words mean, and there's always the online dictionaries if you're really curious.

It's not that I'm such a diehard fan as it is that I'm impatient. I don't want to wait for the scores to come out hours later or even the next day, so I went hunting them down on my own. Patience has never been a strength of mine.

If you're interested, HC Slovan Bratislava's website is http://www.hcslovan.sk/. If you start clicking on links, you'll eventually find what you're looking for. Good luck.

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