GDT: 10/24/18 - 9:30PM EDT - Tampa Bay @ Colorado

[LonLon Lei]

 

[Stormbreaker]

 

[Steazy Doo]

I have no idea whether or not to be happy about this. That damn cross ice pass is the bane of our existence. Stammer finally got his fix and is probably not gonna be in as much of a shooting mode now

It's different when a guy slides himself out of position like that. It forces another guy to move somewhere he's not supposed to be. Great read by Stamkos.

 

[Stammertime91]

The guy that missed Gourde and drilled himself to the boards at the end was hilarious.

 

[Steazy Doo]

The guy that missed Gourde and drilled himself to the boards at the end was hilarious.

It was actually a future-hit. The hit didn't knock Gourde down until he was behind the empty net with the puck. Savvy play.

 

[Todd1a]

Huh? They said he's lost a step and almost washed up, kind of what he was in the playoffs getting beat in the crease all the time.

This McDonagh is out playing Hedman.

Not the ranger fans I talked to said he would be a better fit for us then karlsson and can play left or the right side

 

[DFC]

It's different when a guy slides himself out of position like that. It forces another guy to move somewhere he's not supposed to be. Great read by Stamkos.

Yeah. It's also different when the lane is wide open. Stamkos making the move froze everybody, and then there was a wide open lane to Kuch, with everybody frozen.

 

[DFC]

The guy that missed Gourde and drilled himself to the boards at the end was hilarious.

I think Gourde might have made that happen a little bit. I think he was so surprised not to get a penalty he fell down.

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

Huh? They said he's lost a step and almost washed up, kind of what he was in the playoffs getting beat in the crease all the time.

This McDonagh is out playing Hedman.​

Yup, he is.

It's really, really weird, but our top pairing at ES right now isn't Hedman/Girardi, it's McDonagh/Strålman.

But Hedman DID have a really great game tonight so hopefully he's starting to get back into his usual Viking God mode.

Glad I stayed up late even if it means a very short sleep and an early morning tomorrow. ​

 

[DFC]

It's not that Hedman's been bad. He hasn't gone beastmode or anything, but he's played well. McDonagh's just shutting down monsters though. Nate MacKinnon is putting himself in the conversation for best player in the world, and he played like it tonight, and he got held off the scoresheet. Vasy made one or two big saves, but McDonagh was breaking up everything. The play on the breakaway and the sprawling poking check were just ridiculous.

Hard not to walk away from that game feeling confident in how we match up against top lines moving forward. That was a pretty big test to our shutdown pair, and they passed bigtime.

 

[LonLon Lei]

Hope it won't be a trap game next.
Vegas is kinda mediocre now, no?

 

[missionAvs]

Hell of a game tonight boys. Bolts are my eastern seem so this loss was a little easier to stomach haha. Better team won tonight.

 

[Master P]

Didn't realize how many bolts fans were at that game, you can see them and hear them.

Not surprised nbc didn't show them. If it was the other way around they would be going out of their way to show how many avs fans they could find. Oh well.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[T REX]

What a tough road win. Hats off!

 

[LightningStrikes]

Joseph had a hell of a game. Miller splitting the D was awesome too. Sick pass by Stammer!

McD is a boss in our zone and Vasy with the SO. The Bolts are back?

#DontFireCooperJustYet

 

[Stormbreaker]

 

[RegularSznAllStars]

Good stamkos makes an appearance.

 

[Rschmitz]

The goal tonight looked beautiful, and Stamkos set up an A+ scoring chance, but I think that is the type of play we all have actually wanted to see less of from Stammer because he passed out of an A scoring chance. A lot of tiny things can go wrong on that pass, where as he already had a clear shooting lane with the goalie moving.

 

[BeingTheThunder]

McDonagh...boy, I can't say anything here that hasn't been said already. He is proving to be worth everything we gave up to get him and then some. What a solid D man he is! So impressed.

Joseph ... Man, is that guy fast, or what?

Strals ... outside of that bonehead penalty late in the third, rock-solid again.

Stammer ... a little shaky but finally found the appropriate time to pass the puck back to Kuch on the PP.

Coburn ... I've really been impressed with his play this year for the most part. He must've trained extra hard in the offseason because he looks SO MUCH BETTER than he has in the past couple of years to me.

The Lightning, combined with having the fastest third line in hockey (which includes Killorn HAHAHAHA), the stout D of McDonagh and Strals, and the improved play of Coburn is going to make for a great season for the Bolts.

Oh, throw the brains of Paquette in there and that makes for the perfect cup raising recipe, without a doubt!!

 

[The Macho King]

Brains of Paquette... I didn't know wtf he was talking about.

 

[FinnLightning26]

Watching this team defensively and on the PK so far this season makes you wonder what could've been if Bowness was shown the door sooner. No doubt McD playing to his full potential is a big part of that but especially the PK is from a different universe this year from what it has been. It's not a small feat to shut out an offense like Colorado's.

 

[Rschmitz]

Our PK was excellent a third of the way through last season tons of confidence and looked to be a major strength....and then the Pittsburgh game happened....and then Vasy started looking not so sharp...and it all unraveled.

 

[DFC]

Watching this team defensively and on the PK so far this season makes you wonder what could've been if Bowness was shown the door sooner. No doubt McD playing to his full potential is a big part of that but especially the PK is from a different universe this year from what it has been. It's not a small feat to shut out an offense like Colorado's.

Stralman hasn't been too shabby either. I mean, Girardi is obviously playing over his head, so it's hard to say he's been "bad" rather than just miss-slotted. So the only D who's under-performed this season is Sergachev, and he's coming around game by game. I don't think it's a coincidence that our D went from a hold-your-breath gongshow (at times at ES but ALWAYS on the PK) to suddenly being able to clamp down on teams for long stretches without any major mistakes. Bowness was a problem we let go on too long, IMO.

 

[DFC]

Our PK was excellent a third of the way through last season tons of confidence and looked to be a major strength....and then the Pittsburgh game happened....and then Vasy started looking not so sharp...and it all unraveled.

Vasy was bailing us out a lot though last year on the PK. I mean, he is this year too, but not more than you would expect from a star goalie. It doesn't feel to me like we're "dependent" on him like we were last year; this year it's more like, we need him to come up big to help us get and/or keep the ball rolling. Like, the daily Sustr **** up is just gone. But really it wasn't just Sustr having those moments. He just had a lot of them.