Game 52: Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh
The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins with 16 seconds left in overtime by a score of 4-3.
The Lightning had a shutout going up until 2:25 of the third period. Going into the third, they were ahead 3-0. The Pittsburgh scored four unanswered goals. Crosby was pretty much invisible, but Malkin was pretty much unstoppable - particularly in the third period and overtime.
I felt bad for McKenna. He should've had a shutout in his NHL debut. But he didn't.
Despite getting four goals scored on him, I was very impressed with McKenna's poise in goal. This was his first NHL start against two of the league's leading scorers, and he played like a 10-year veteran. His calm demeanor really reminded me a lot of Martin Brodeur, actually. Sure, he had his defensemen dropping like flies to stop pucks in front him, but he did very well on his own, too. If this is how he normally plays, the Lightning might have quite the goaltending tandem.
There is just one glaring stat that stands out above the rest. The Lightning had a total of ten shots on goal for the second, third, and overtime periods - altogether. That's it. Just ten shots on Fleury for the last 45 minutes of the game.
4 comments:
I agree McKenna looked great out there. I actually thought for once it would be our AHL goalie that a team could not beat. Instead of some other teams AHL goalie stoning us.
They really quit skating in the 3rd. They got some bad bounces but no excuse for how they kept backing off in the third period giving Pittsburg all that room.
Except for that 5 on 3 call I thought the game was fairly called for this one. Even though the PP chances were no where near even. Not sure if the hit on Mez was a penalty or not - he was kinda driven into the boards but he was also in an awkward position and feel strangely. It kinda reminded me of when Vinny hurt his shoulder last year. I hope its nothing near that serious for Mez.
None of the calls struck me as being terribly unfair on the Lightning side, but Pittsburgh did get away with more than Tampa Bay did. However, I don't think it was that the officials were out to get the Lightning so much as Pittsburgh is Crosby's team, and he's the darling of the NHL brass right now. Not sure if it was a conscious thing or not, but the officials seemed to be more inclined to give the Penguins the benefit of the doubt.
Meszaros left the game like it was probably a shoulder - but it was nothing like Lecavalier's injury. Even thru the gear, you could tell that Vinny's arm was not in its socket. I was at that game and saw it for myself. Meszaros might have a separation, but it likely isn't a dislocation, poor guy. But like with Lecavalier last season, I don't think it was a dirty hit.
I was not at the Vinny game last year but saw it on tv! I could see the pain by Vinny's reaction and it was not pretty. I could not tell it was not in the socket from tv but boy did it look like it hurt.
Mez did not look that bad but still looked like he was in a great deal of pain. His looked like maybe some elbow pain and then he was reaching under his arm. So I am not sure what he hurt.
One issue for me on the Stamkos goalie interference call was it looked like Fluery butterflied and when he kicked he actually tripped Stamkos and he fell on top of the goalie. Now if Stamkos was in the crease I think that a penalty but he was just outside the crease so in my mind should not have been called. Just like if your own defense man checks someone into your own goalie its not goalie interference. But the night before the Islanders run over Ramo and its no call.
It's sad when to me a good game is one where we only had a couple unfair or non-calls against us as opposed to a whole bunch.
If a guy is holding his wrist, then he's injured his wrist. If a guy is holding his forearm, then he's injured his elbow. If a guy is holding his elbow or his upper arm, then it's his shoulder. If a guy is holding his shoulder, it's his shoulder or the collarbone.
Meszaros was holding his upper arm when he went off. So that tells me that he's either separated his shoulder, or he did something to his collarbone. Either way, it's not good. Still, he got up on his own power and left on his own power, so it probably isn't too severe.
I completely agree with the defenseman pushing the offensive guy into his own goalie to not be a penalty. You'd think that with 4 guys on the ice that they'd be calling things a bit better, you know?
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