GDT: 8/11/20 - 3:00PM EDT - #7 Columbus vs #2 Tampa Bay [ECQF Game 1]

[DFC]

Columbus clearly had the physically stronger group of forwards.

My concern becomes the toll of constantly having to skate through players where we aren't going to win a lot of those strength battles.

I don't know about that, honestly. We were doing a lot of damage to them along the boards. We forced turnovers through physical play a lot. It felt like goodrow and Coleman were hitting all night, and Bogosian was a wrecking ball on defense. I really feel like everybody is sore today, but CBJ took the worst of it.

 

[Felonious Python]

I don't know about that, honestly. We were doing a lot of damage to them along the boards. We forced turnovers through physical play a lot. It felt like goodrow and Coleman were hitting all night, and Bogosian was a wrecking ball on defense. I really feel like everybody is sore today, but CBJ took the worst of it.

Everybody can check, but in a wrestling match I think CBJ's guys come out with the win.

 

[DFC]

Everybody can check, but in a wrestling match I think CBJ's guys come out with the win.

Yeah, that I would agree with. I just felt like we gave more than we got in total. Every time they got the puck in their own zone, we were instantly on them, and physical. We fought for every inch.

I think cbj was tired. They played five games against the leafs while we warmed up in the round robin. That helps us. It's the one thing in the back of my head that makes me wonder if we can repeat that type of performance tomorrow.

 

[Antiramie]

That was the best defensive game I’ve seen from this team in a long time. We played fantastic on the boards in their zone to keep pucks in and barely gave up any odd man rushes or dangerous scoring chances.

Granted, our offense still needs some adjustments. Still over passing and letting CBJ push our game to the perimeter. And the dumb penalties have to stop.

But what an amazing start after the series last year.

 

[Master P]

Another huge thing imo was that nobody looked like an individual out there. Everyone was doing the same thing and working just as hard as the next guy. Thats the type of effort we've been waiting to see for so long. Hopefully this finally sticks with them going forward.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

Regardless of having to play Columbus' game, we should still be able to exploit our superior top end talent and pot in some more goals than them.

 

[Peacefool]

Another huge thing imo was that nobody looked like an individual out there. Everyone was doing the same thing and working just as hard as the next guy. Thats the type of effort we've been waiting to see for so long. Hopefully this finally sticks with them going forward.

I also like that Kucherov actually battled on the ice,he hit players,played hard,almost never showed frustration,dumped puck in,and hit opponents,he played hard,not whole game,but still i was surprised to see that from him and i liked it

 

[BoltsOfAnarchy]

Obviously happy we were able to pull that game out. But does it concern anyone else that it’s the first time we took the lead against CLB in 18 periods of hockey?? 18 periods! All the way back to game 1 last year 1st period. That’s the equivalent of 6 games without holding a lead....

Instead of having to play Columbus’ style of game, why haven’t we made them play ours?

And when should we have a real debate on Kucherov? His careless turnovers & disappearing act during clutch time is becoming more problematic. I don’t care if he pots 100 points in the reg season. He needs to be better, & grow up. Enough with the frustrated childish attitude. And don’t say he assisted on the game winner... both shots were blocked & wide of the net. And a player with his skill set doesn’t need to miss the net entirely on that great chance he had earlier in OT. He gets paid too much to not even get it on goal.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

Obviously happy we were able to pull that game out. But does it concern anyone else that it’s the first time we took the lead against CLB in 18 periods of hockey?? 18 periods! All the way back to game 1 last year 1st period. That’s the equivalent of 6 games without holding a lead....

Instead of having to play Columbus’ style of game, why haven’t we made them play ours?

And when should we have a real debate on Kucherov? His careless turnovers & disappearing act during clutch time is becoming more problematic. I don’t care if he pots 100 points in the reg season. He needs to be better, & grow up. Enough with the frustrated childish attitude. And don’t say he assisted on the game winner... both shots were blocked & wide of the net. And a player with his skill set doesn’t need to miss the net entirely on that great chance he had earlier in OT. He gets paid too much to not even get it on goal.

It would concern me if the way that Columbus scored wasn't flukey. The first goal came off a dumbass penalty from Killorn and the goal bounced off two people. The second goal was a ludacris shot that just so happen to go in the perfect spot. We shut them down most all the time that mattered.

 

[Outl4w]

I don't know about that, honestly. We were doing a lot of damage to them along the boards. We forced turnovers through physical play a lot. It felt like goodrow and Coleman were hitting all night, and Bogosian was a wrecking ball on defense. I really feel like everybody is sore today, but CBJ took the worst of it.

I feel like Goodrow, Maroon, BOGO, and Coleman each earned their spot for that game. The faster more skilled players will take advantage of the fatigue of Columbus hopefully if the new Big 4 can keep banging their weight around. We have a lot tougher and bigger team than last year.

 

[Outl4w]

It would concern me if the way that Columbus scored wasn't flukey. The first goal came off a dumbass penalty from Killorn and the goal bounced off two people. The second goal was a ludacris shot that just so happen to go in the perfect spot. We shut them down most all the time that mattered.

The 2nd goal is what I like to call the beer league special. I use it a lot of on weaker goalies in beer league and it works.

 

[Outl4w]

Obviously happy we were able to pull that game out. But does it concern anyone else that it’s the first time we took the lead against CLB in 18 periods of hockey?? 18 periods! All the way back to game 1 last year 1st period. That’s the equivalent of 6 games without holding a lead....

Instead of having to play Columbus’ style of game, why haven’t we made them play ours?

And when should we have a real debate on Kucherov? His careless turnovers & disappearing act during clutch time is becoming more problematic. I don’t care if he pots 100 points in the reg season. He needs to be better, & grow up. Enough with the frustrated childish attitude. And don’t say he assisted on the game winner... both shots were blocked & wide of the net. And a player with his skill set doesn’t need to miss the net entirely on that great chance he had earlier in OT. He gets paid too much to not even get it on goal.

That is is the past if we can close out the series. WE are 1-0 this year and last year sucked. We most support the bolts and stay strong. CBJ will be ready to hit and bang some bodies next game. Rest up and be ready to bring the THUNDER and let the bodies hit the floor. This is playoff hockey and what the game is all about when it comes to winning a cup. It is a mix of will, skill, and toughness. No one said it would come easy or we would have been champions last year. We added some bangers and toughness to address this with Bogo, Goodrow,Coleman, and Maroon.

 

[The Macho King]

Mitchell Stephen's was good too.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

They played a double header today? Thought only baseball did that.

 

[DFC]

Obviously happy we were able to pull that game out. But does it concern anyone else that it’s the first time we took the lead against CLB in 18 periods of hockey?? 18 periods! All the way back to game 1 last year 1st period. That’s the equivalent of 6 games without holding a lead....

Instead of having to play Columbus’ style of game, why haven’t we made them play ours?

And when should we have a real debate on Kucherov? His careless turnovers & disappearing act during clutch time is becoming more problematic. I don’t care if he pots 100 points in the reg season. He needs to be better, & grow up. Enough with the frustrated childish attitude. And don’t say he assisted on the game winner... both shots were blocked & wide of the net. And a player with his skill set doesn’t need to miss the net entirely on that great chance he had earlier in OT. He gets paid too much to not even get it on goal.

I think Kucherov has been good. CbJ is really on him, but that's opening up space for his linemates.

Doesn't concern me about the lead because it felt like we thoroughly outplayed them. They got a great pair of bounces on one play and a once in a lifetime shot on the other. But we basically shut them down for 8 periods. Vasy had to make a handful of big saves, which he did, but nothing spectacular. Meanwhile we had something like 170 shot attempts and had the jackets in trouble a lot.

It wasn't domination, although sometimes it was. It felt more like we turned the tables on them and played an excellent workmanlike game. We just kept plugging away.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Obviously we won the game. Eventually. It felt good in the moment. But what did we learn? We can’t have each game against them drain our battery like that unless we want to get swept next round - if we reach it.

We were the better team for most of the game objectively: We limited them to just a handful of quality chances - if at all. In a game that went to 5OT that is. We kept up in physicality, had the puck more and won more puck battles.

But Columbus is tough as nails to play against. And we couldn’t beat their D and G. We shelled them with pucks but they stood tall for almost 150 minutes.

 

[Zwui21]

Nobody talking about Big Rig Patty Maroon? He didn't lose one single puck battle to the boards, gained possession of the puck so many times as well.
Think these things might go under the radar, but make a ton of difference on the outcome of a series

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

The question going forward I think has to be how many times can Korpisalo do that?

 

[Vasilevskiy]

Mitchell Stephen's was good too.

Very good

 

[Hoek]

The only way to make Columbus play our game is to make the refs call the game properly, and that's not happening. Doesn't matter. We utterly dominated them at "their" game so if we can keep doing it we'll be good.

 

[CupsOverCash]

I think Columbus is still going to be a very tough opponent to beat but I think their offense is going to have to find offense where they don't usually have so much to beat us. I think defensively they have a great shot. They have a few guys who can score and make some plays. Tampa needs to be able to get in front on the score board and have them chase us for change. That will force a little more open play from them where we can thrive from.

I do feel better now seeing we were able to generate some good scoring chances even when behind. This isn't quite the same cbj team from last year and this isn't the tb from last year either. This game proved that.

Its definitely not going to be an easy series to win but I feel better about it after this game. Which I think the win helps the most take that pressure off is the biggest thing imo.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

From OTs 1-5, when it's sudden death and everyone's spent, you're only as good as your weakest link. You don't want to battle so hard and sacrifice so much for 4 full OTs and then be the guy who makes the mistake that ends the game.

So a takeaway I have from last night was there were no weak links in the lineup. I don't know if we could have went 5 OTs with Verhaeghe, Joseph/Volkov, and Schenn/Coburn instead of Coleman, Goodrow, and Bogosian. We said it back in February this was the strongest lineup we've had in a while, but I think it wasn't until last night where that was really put to the test. Forwards 1 through 12, dmen 1 through 6, the team was solid top to bottom to keep that 3rd Columbus goal off the board.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

The only way to make Columbus play our game is to make the refs call the game properly, and that's not happening. Doesn't matter. We utterly dominated them at "their" game so if we can keep doing it we'll be good.

Or we just get the lead early. We get the lead and they have to try to score. Get them out of their trap. Get the damn lead.

 

[Sky04]

From OTs 1-5, when it's sudden death and everyone's spent, you're only as good as your weakest link. You don't want to battle so hard and sacrifice so much for 4 full OTs and then be the guy who makes the mistake that ends the game.

So a takeaway I have from last night was there were no weak links in the lineup. I don't know if we could have went 5 OTs with Verhaeghe, Joseph/Volkov, and Schenn/Coburn instead of Coleman, Goodrow, and Bogosian. We said it back in February this was the strongest lineup we've had in a while, but I think it wasn't until last night where that was really put to the test. Forwards 1 through 12, dmen 1 through 6, the team was solid top to bottom to keep that 3rd Columbus goal off the board.

There was one giant gaff off of Kucherov's stick, while on the PP none the less. He cannot make stupid passes like that to kill what would've been 150mins of hardwork. Do you know how deflating that would've been, to lose from a shorthanded breakaway goal in 5OT? Such a lazy play.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

There was one giant gaff off of Kucherov's stick, while on the PP none the less. He cannot make stupid passes like that to kill what would've been 150mins of hardwork. Do you know how deflating that would've been, to lose from a shorthanded breakaway goal in 5OT? Such a lazy play.

I didn’t see it as a lazy play. My take was by the 5th OT guys were struggling physically to make tape to tape passes, to put something into their shots, and stay on their feet after contact. I chalk that up to the physical and mental fatigue of playing a playoff game that long.