Thoughts from last night, other than "holy shit did that just happen?":
- Bob played his ass off in the final 40. I feel bad that he still gave up 3 the way he played. If he gets that monkey off his back, look out. He made me nervous in the first when he couldn't even glove a puck down from the neutral zone. Need him to keep it up.
- Savard continued his absolutely beastly play from the last month.
- Z looked pretty good I thought for most of the game.
- Jones looked awful in the first half of the game. He made up for it with his goal, but we're going to need him to get his shit together.
- Harrington was as bad as I expected, and should not be getting more than 10 minutes of regulation time. He was far too low in Tampa's zone at least 3 times and does not have the speed to get back in position against Tampa of all teams. Torts needs to tell him to stop pinching.
- I didn't notice Cam once, we need him.
- PLD, Bread, Andy, Boone, and Foligno had the best games amongst the forwards.
- Tex is the real deal man...
- Dubi was good only for stirring things up, other than that he was horrendous. He had 2-3 giveaways by my count, and was out of position defensively at least twice that led to scoring chances for Tampa, and obviously took a 4 minute penalty. I like what he brings and I expect Torts to continue playing him, but I think we might be better served by Hannikainen's speed and forechecking.
- A powerplay goal and 100% PK against the best special teams team in the league? Hot damn!
- Hopefully Hedman continues to play like he did last night.
Keep up the speed, forechecking, and neutral zone lock, and we can win this series. It'll be tough when Tampa actually turns it on and keeps it on, but this game showed the players that they are beatable, and they got that monkey off their back. That should give them confidence going forward, but the pressure is still off which should allow them to continue to play the same way. As long as they don't feel pressure throughout the series, they can win it, but it's still unlikely.
