GDT: 10/6/17 - 7:30PM EDT - Florida vs Tampa Bay

[The Macho King]

He had a lot of nice little moments on D, I thought. Blocked a few shots.

It's all going to come down to what is asked of him. I didn't like him going down on the first goal - both Dmen should never sprawl and Hedman was chasing. I think he took himself out of the play there.

But other than that (and frankly about four things went wrong that play so it's not all on him), he was solid back there. Good blocks and good physically.

 

[Leonardo87]

He did look like he had his blazing speed back. His line just had absolutely no chemistry together.

Would swap Cally with Gourde. Like Coop did in the last min last night, it paid off.

 

[Todd1a]

So tonight, the other Girardi is getting blasted by social media. Lol.

Girardi takes alot of heat but he had like 6 blocked shots he plays a tough game which will help our kids I think in the past the lightning could be known as a soft team not hard to play against and wanted to use nothing but skill and speed to beat teams.

 

[haohmaru]

Girardi's going to show you all year long why the Rangers should've bought out Staal. He's a good fit for your team if he's not slotted in a 1RD role and he's definitely a leader/leader by example. Caught a little bit of him and Coburn out there last night and he looked fine to me. I'll always root for that guy.

 

[MattM92]

Sloppy game, but 2 points is 2 points. Would really like to see the coaching staff clean up some of these mistakes. It's spanning 3 years now.

Stammer looked really slow. I was expecting him to be at about 70% speed, but his decision making looked slow too. Still, not terrible.

Kuch had a terrible game (relative to what I know he's normally like), but superstars have a knack for getting on the board anyway. I feel like he always starts slow though. Didn't it take him like 4 games to score last year and we were all wondering what was going on? Then he exploded all in one game.

Vasilevskiy had a fantastic game. 2-3 great saves in the first period saved us. If even one of those goes in then we probably lose. Only goals against were complete defensive breakdowns and then that ridiculous tip by Huberdeau. If he plays like that for most of the season then we will always have a chance to win.

Honestly, my favorite player to watch tonight was Sergachev. He looks really lackadaisical at times, but he also made some really savvy plays. Slight bumps to create separation, great breakout passes, very good skating, and he finds a way to get the puck on net. Great first impression, now he needs to build on it.

 

[JoVel]

Girardi's going to show you all year long why the Rangers should've bought out Staal. He's a good fit for your team if he's not slotted in a 1RD role and he's definitely a leader/leader by example. Caught a little bit of him and Coburn out there last night and he looked fine to me. I'll always root for that guy.

Well, that's exactly where he played the first game but surprisingly he didn't look bad at all. Still, I'd much rather have him on the 3rd with Coburn and Dotchin with Hedman. If he can just keep his play simple he will be fine with limited minutes. If Dotchin will eventually play with Hedman, Girardi's competition will he Sustr. And well, that's not the hardest competition.

 

[RDTBay4]

 

[Leonardo87]

Girardi's going to show you all year long why the Rangers should've bought out Staal. He's a good fit for your team if he's not slotted in a 1RD role and he's definitely a leader/leader by example. Caught a little bit of him and Coburn out there last night and he looked fine to me. I'll always root for that guy.

Yeah Staal is just not good anymore. Girardi looked good last night, and think with less mins he is going to be very effective.

 

[haohmaru]

Well, that's exactly where he played the first game but surprisingly he didn't look bad at all. Still, I'd much rather have him on the 3rd with Coburn and Dotchin with Hedman. If he can just keep his play simple he will be fine with limited minutes. If Dotchin will eventually play with Hedman, Girardi's competition will he Sustr. And well, that's not the hardest competition.

I only caught a little of the third period with him on the PK and paired with Coburn. He played 1RD? Just goes to show what a dearth of 1RD's are out there. Hopefully TB uses him as a 3rd pair guy.

 

[RDTBay4]

Really liked what Stamkos did on this play and others. He is like a magnet and opens up everyone else on the ice.



Also lol at that shot by Kuch. Deadly accuracy.

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

I only caught a little of the third period with him on the PK and paired with Coburn. He played 1RD? Just goes to show what a dearth of 1RD's are out there. Hopefully TB uses him as a 3rd pair guy.

Actually, though the released pairings pregame said Hedman-Girardi, Sergachev-Strålman, Coburn-Sustr and they practiced that way, after the first few shifts, the pairings changed up considerably. Hedman and Strålman were actually paired for several shifts throughout the game, Girardi was with Coburn (they made a pretty dang effective PK), Sergachev was sometimes with Girardi, Sustr was actually with Hedman for a bit and then with Coburn for some shifts. The pregame pairings did sometimes reoccur but Coop was definitely doing the D-men shuffle.

Considering TOI, Hedman and Strålman still carried "top pairing" minutes. Heddy was in his usual beast mode with the team high 24:01 and ended up a +1. Stråls was second highest with 21:56 and ended up a wicked +4.

 

[Byrddog]

It is easy to be more critical of the team you follow for sure. Last night this team looked far better than most others in there opening game. While there was some sloppy play the passing and speed was better than most other games I have seen this season. The weakness I noticed was one most here think was a strength Vasi while makes some great saves did scramble a number of times and allowed three goals. Now when you can score 5 as this team can that is not an issue but we are noit scoring 5 every night. I hope Vasi can clean up some things we need him to be at 2.3 GPG. Many have issues with Girardi well he is one of the best shot blockers in the league and this going forward will be a positive unless he gets hurt. Good first win especially responding to the Panthers scores coming back getting one of our own.

 

[Todd1a]

Dan Girardi MVP !!!!!!!!!!!