Game 12: Tampa Bay at New York Rangers

The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the New York Rangers 5-2. They were doing so well, and then they hit this stretch this week. Let’s hope they can snap out of it sooner rather than later.

The first period was pretty generic, but the game got better the longer it went on. The end of the game was great. Right up until they got themselves into penalty trouble.

I don’t know if anyone else had seen this, but Lecavalier was playing defense at the beginning of the second. I saw Ranger, and I think Meszaros just got caught up ice, so being the good centerman that he is, he covered for the defense. Lecavalier did the whole bit from skating backwards from the blue line back to Smith to stick checking guys. It was pretty impressive.

You could tell that Lecavalier wasn’t entirely comfortable skating backwards for so long – probably because he isn’t used to doing that – but he was just as good as Ranger in that particular situation. He has some pretty good defensive instincts, really, and could probably play defense (as in, for an entire game) in a pinch if guys get injured. Most forwards can’t say that. Towards the end of his career, I can see him transitioning to defense, sort of like Fedorov has been doing with the Caps. It does make me wonder why he’s not playing the point on the power play, though, because of that.

Speaking of playing the point on the power play, St. Louis had a great game. I think he was probably the best player on the ice for the Lightning. His goal was very pretty. Prospal also had a very good game as well.

The most underrated guy on the Lightning has to be Chris Gratton. He is such a good player. And he’s so great at winning face offs, too. He definitely doesn’t get nearly enough credit for all of the things that he does.

Malone got into a fight, so the Lady Byng watch is reset back to zero. It was totally understandable, though. The team needed a little spark, and Malone tried to provide it. It didn’t really work out that way, however.

Smith, again, wasn’t having his best game. It’s interesting how the Lightning seem to struggle a lot more when Smith isn’t at his best. Still, he was just as good as any other goaltender. He was rather chippy in this game, and I wonder if that distracted him from his play. Personally, I think he might’ve gone a little too far with the hacking on the people in front of his net.

The Rangers had eight power plays last night. The Lightning had only three. Discipline seems to be something of an issue, and I’m not sure why that is. There’s a fine line between passion and recklessness, and it’s one that much of Tampa Bay hasn’t quite figured out yet. At least, not very consistently. If Artyukhin, who’s had a history of being undisciplined, can have only 6 PIM on the season – yes, you saw that right; only 6 PIM, including the 2 PIM from last night, in 12 games – then the rest of the team ought to be able to figure it out.

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