Game 38: Carolina at Tampa Bay

The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2.

This was a weird game - and I wasn't even there. The first fifteen minutes of this game was great. After that, not so much. Being up 2-0 and then letting in three unanswered goals isn't exactly a winning strategy, you know?

The defense has become a problem. Not because they're relatively young, but because they're getting younger with all of the injuries. Malone, St. Louis, and Recchi were great defensively. They were really giving the defensemen some great support. Which was good because the defense needed it - as did Smith. But it still made things more of a struggle than they needed to be.

Losing Meszaros to a puck in the face, even for just the third period of this game, wasn't what this team needed. Personally, I would've put Lecavalier back on defense to fill in for Meszaros. There are plenty of other forwards that can score, but not many forwards can play defense. And with only five defensemen available - three of which were newbs brought up for injuries - they definitely needed the help, as well as a steady presence back there, that Lecavalier could've provided. Besides, Lecavalier takes a lot of his shots out on the top of the face off circles, so he's usually playing in that general area in the offensive zone, anyways.

Smith had a decent game, but now I'm beginning to wonder if he's injured. During warmups at the game in Washington, I'd noticed that Smith had taken off his blocker and was flexing his right hand as he was bent over. His right hand would be his stick hand, which would help explain some of the puck handling goofs he's made the last game and this game. Luckily, he had the good sense to stay in his net most of the game after getting caught out of position that one time in the first.

Malone made a wonderful toe save on Smith's behalf during the first period, tho. And later, when the net was empty at the end of the third, St. Louis made a great glove save. Although, St. Louis' save looked more like a popfly catch than anything else to me. Still, it stopped a goal. Too bad they won't get statistical credit for the saves.

The number of shots taken were, again, low. And having some complete rookies on the blue line did not help at all. Everyone pulled themselves out of position to cover for them. Which was good defensively, but not offensively since some of the forwards would get stuck deep in the defensive zone.

But what really did them in was their inability to control the puck. It was like a game of hot potato where everyone kept passing the puck away as quickly as possible. Or trying to dump and chase into the offensive zone, where their passes would get picked off by the Hurricanes. They need to control the puck in order to control the game and make the other team play their way.

I think what made them jumpy were the lineup changes from injuries. They probably still haven't quite gotten over the whole trading/waiving thing from earlier this season. Despite their flashes of brilliance, they're still a rather fragile team that desperately needs some calm and stability away from the ice.

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