GDT: 3/19/22 - 8:00PM EDT - New York Rangers vs Tampa Bay

[JTBF81]

Would be nice to get some in return, "game management" and all that, but #4 made sure that's never going to happen

I mean, there was 1 I thought for sure not called on them, and one was on an iffy challenge on their 1st goal, but aside from that it was 4-3 until a easy to call high stick against Cernak. The penalty kill was great until 20 seconds left, and even then, it was a shot Vasi handles almost every time.

 

[JTBF81]

Tampa had plenty of chances and couldn't convert basically any. You give the league's 2nd best PP 6 chances and well... Vasi also let in one there that he usually handles with ease. When your defense and G give up 2 total goals and you don't even get a point, the problem in that game wasn't really defense or goaltending.

 

[Lightning1995]

0-3, twice at home. Embarrassing against little brother but guess we will see when it matters

 

[Lightning1995]

This seams problematic

 

[LightningStorm]

We played with fire and finally lost in the end with those 6 penalties taken. If this trend of taking penalties tonight and on our last road trip continues on this upcoming one, it'll be long nights ahead in Carolina and Boston.

 

[ccman68]

joseph kills the offense of every line he is on so stick him on the 4th line. with perry the 3rd line can maybe do something.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[Antiramie]

Joseph needs to be sent down. Palat needs needs to be given less ice time.

Kuch and Point need to get their rope a dope play in check. I don’t know if this is some non-playoff mode BS, but outside of a few forwards, they’re all playing one period of hard nosed, fire the puck on net hockey and two of making the dumbest passes ive ever seen in my life hockey.

And it’s not like that’s the exception to the rule of SC-winning years past where we still end up blowing the doors off teams playing like this. We’ve legitimately looked like shit for weeks now.

 

[AlmostThere242]

Can Kuch shoot more? Or is that too much to ask?

 

[Bob and 200 others]

This seams problematic

View attachment 518614

Any idea what our record was last year against top 10 teams?

 

[Hoek]

Any idea what our record was last year against top 10 teams?

Well last year the only top 10 teams we played in the regular season were Carolina and Florida I think. So probably have to look to the season before that.

 

[Bob and 200 others]

Well last year the only top 10 teams we played in the regular season were Carolina and Florida I think. So probably have to look to the season before that.

Good point, forgot that. The point I was trying to make was that we were not favored last year going into the playoffs, both Carolina and Florida were ahead of us (along with Col and maybe Vegas). Do you know what out record against those two were?

 

[Bob and 200 others]

Anyway, maybe I'm spoiled but I really (really, really) f*cking want a third straight cup! This Bolts team seems like it was too early to seriously compete against the Blackhawks/Kings/Pens but (hopefully not) too late for the Kittycats/Canes/Avs (though last year that's on those teams not ours, as I said they were all favored over the Bolts going into the playoffs).

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Well last year the only top 10 teams we played in the regular season were Carolina and Florida I think. So probably have to look to the season before that.

I'm not sure it's relevant regardless. There's so many caveats you can come up with when looking at that stuff.

*Who were we missing from our lineup among key players? Kucherov missed over 30 games. Point's missed 14, all concurrent with Kucherov. We played several of those games in that window, no wonder we didn't fare greatly vs. top teams.
*Who were the opponents missing among key players?
*Did we play Vasi or Elliott?
*Did they play their starter or backup?
*Either team on a back-to-back?
*When was the game played? Early season games especially are useless for evaluating for future matchups.
*What trades have occurred since then? Nobody (except NYR last night) has played us with Hagel, we haven't played Florida with Giroux, etc.

I'm sure there's others as well I didn't think of.

And despite all of that, how many times have we alone had a playoff meeting against a team who we lost the regular season series with but won the playoff series, and then vice versa for good measure? We only won two games in regulation vs. Florida last year vs. five for them. We went 1-3 in the games in Sunrise. So much good that did them once the playoffs began. We obliterated the Jackets in '18-'19, whole lotta good that did for us in the postseason.

It's not worth worrying about on any kind of big scale.

---

For whatever it's worth, the top 9 teams (aside from us) in 2019-'20:

1. Boston (100 points) -- 2-1-1 (regulation wins-regulation losses-overtime decisions)
2. St. Louis (94) -- 0-2-0
3. Colorado (92) -- 0-1-1
5. Washington (90) -- 0-2-1
6. Philadelphia (89) -- 2-0-0
7. Las Vegas (86) -- 1-1-0
7. Pittsburgh (86) -- 2-0-1
9. Edmonton (83) -- 1-0-0
10. Dallas (82) -- 0-0-2

That's 8-7-6, so eight regulation wins in 21 games, against the rest of the top 10. How relevant did that end up being? We only played #1 and #10 in the playoffs.

Good point, forgot that. The point I was trying to make was that we were not favored last year going into the playoffs, both Carolina and Florida were ahead of us (along with Col and maybe Vegas). Do you know what out record against those two were?

We were 2-5-1 against Florida and 3-3-2 vs. Carolina.