Saturday, April 28, 2007

Game 2: Devils vs Senators

[11:46]Jamie Langenbrunner got his 2nd of the playoffs, that was the OT winner at 1:55 into the 2nd OT. Yahoo says Travis Zajac got the only assist, but I could have sworn they said it was Zach. Whatever. We won, that's good.

3 STARS:
#1- Marty (43 saves)
#2- Travis (because I said so)
#1- Jamie (game winner)

That was exciting. Well, good night.


[11:28]
Oh joy, double OT. There goes my heart. Yeah, I know, I sound like an old lady. Whatever. I get more nervous than the players when it comes to OTs. So, let's have Gomer be the OT hero again so my heart rate can go down. I really don't care who scores the winner, as long as he's on the Devils. Like I said, pressure emery, and start beating him every time he covers the freaking puck. Seriously. Within 5 minutes, there must have been at least 15 face offsin front of him, because he covered everything. They should set a limit to how many times you can cover a period, and if you go over it, you get a penalty or something. Some of these guys are ridiculous. It's necessary sometimes, but when you're covering the puck just to save yourself from some rebounds, that's just lame. Catching the puck and all that is fine. But covering just gets obnoxious.
But what if they have to cover? Like, if they have no other choice? Simple. The refs can tell if it's necessary or not. I should totally work for the NHL. I'll rewrite the rules and everything. It'll be awesome.


[10:39]MARTY! What was that? Letting them tie it, are you kidding me? Me and your glove are over. UGH. Overtime now. I'm gonna have heart failure. I bet heatley is a child killer. And he threatened to kill Marty's kids if he didn't let them tie it. Yeah. If we don't win, I'm gonna burn Marty's glove. But if we had the EGG or ZZPop line out there, we would have gotten the empty netter. I bet you anything that would have happened. Or they wouldn't score. Either one would have worked. Now, I <3 style="font-style: italic;">cry. He should have gotten a prize for that!! I would have given him a prize. Yeah..our PK was pretty awesome. A SHG would have been nice, but, I'll take a good PK over that any day. Unless we're losing. Then I want the SHG. Eh. Marty was..what's the word? Oh yeah. Freaking awesome. But the ZZPop line was kind of..not bad, but not as awesome as usual. Oh yeah. White was in the box for boarding. Again, that was a nice hit. I would have given him a prize too. But we killed it off. Although I'd rather have White out on the ice hitting stuff, then have everyone else hitting stuff. Not really. I just wanted to say something with the phrase "White out" in it. Let me have my moment.


[9:15]Hey alfredson, guess what? You SUCK. Scoring on Marty is not legal. Next time that happens, you'll be hearing from me. And it won't be a friendly "hello." But I can't blame Jimmy Dowd. If he wasn't from New Jersey, then I could. I probably wouldn't, but I still could. Nice hit, Whitey. Almost as nice as that one Zubrus had on avery last night. That made me happy. And he was first star for that in my books. And jagr yelling at the Sabres' bench while he was on the ice was hysterical. He's a great captain, that's for sure. Every time I look while he's playing, he's making some dumb move. Captain of the year right there. And Marty's save right now just made up for that nasty goal. That's my boy.
And I want some biased announcers for us!! Doc, Chico, and Steve just don't cut it. Everyone else has biased announcers, why can't we?


[9:12]What was funnier: Marty taking his helmet off and yawning, or Zach still controlling the puck while on his knees? Ew, but Jimmy Dowd's in the box for slashing, so uh, they're on the PP.


[8:49]Aaaannnnnddd they score!! Sergei Brylin!! With .2 seconds left in the 1st, Sergei Brylin doubled the lead with an unassisted goal, and Patrik's accent seems to be less heavy or something. He sounds weird. Not weird, but different. Uhh, I had something else to say. Seriously. I'm not trying to waste your time..Oh yeah.Why is Emery covering the puck every freaking time it comes near him? He covered our last 6 shots. I'm not even kidding. Like I said, of course you're gonna be good if all 6' and 200 lbs. of you is covering that little puck. But, really, that doesn't make you good. It makes you seem good to people who only look at the stats, but to the people who watch, it makes you look bad, because it looks like you know you're so horrible that if you put it back out they're gonna score on you.


[8:44]Way to almost take Jamie's eye out, Shafer. Real nice. Are you gonna take Zach's arm off next? Eh, whatever. A double minor to him and with [roughly] 1 1/2 minutes, we'll most likely start the 2nd on the PP. Oh, and now a 5 on 3 to end this one, and start the next one. Let's go, guys!


[8:34]This is, by far, the craziest hockey game all season. I'm not even at CAA and I'm having heart failure over here! The rushes, the shots, the saves, the PK..man..We're "a very well oiled machine," to quote Chico.
So..Gionta should have been called for tripping about a minute before the last commercial. Rass is playing well. I told ya, he's more of a checking/fourth liner. Chico, Matvichuk is not like Scott Stevens. He's a hitting machine, but he's no Scott. I'm rambling now. Looking for anything to say..I can't believe this is still the first period. Yeah, maybe I should just go. No, just kidding. This is true, and not just something to say so I can sit here (my computer chair is much more comfortable than the couch): How many freaking times have we been off sides? I swear, every five seconds, it's like "We get a whistle on the play, and the Devils are off sides." And it's always when the EGG line's on. Eh, I'm gonna go.


[8:22]Barely 7 minutes in, and we've had:
A power play goal from Brian Gionta (Wrist shot from Patrik Elias and Scott Gomez).
A little action after Gomer was called for tripping (roughing and tripping for Gomer and roughing for some other kid).
Rafalski making a new friend.
Marty playing like..well, Marty.
Travis Zajac just missing the net thanks to that nasty post.
Some awesome scoring chances.
And some awesome Devils hockey.

Talk about prepared.

The following Lowell-ers have been called up, and have been practicing with the team for God knows why:
Jordan Parise
Frank Doyle
Grant Marshall (so that wasn't a rumor)
Tuomas Pihlman
Rod Pelley
Barry Tallackson
Mark Fraser
Alex Brooks
Mike Mottau

So..yeah. Clarkson, Oduya, Janssen, Rupp, Elias and all of the above have been practicing with the team. Elias will be playing tonight, and the D should (hopefully) show tonight. And maybe Lou won't let Oduya in the goal like in the first period Thursday.

I'm honestly surprised (or is it disappointed) that Brooks, Mottau and Fraser got the call instead of McGillis. There are a couple others, too, that I would have expected to get called up, that didn't. Whatever. That's it till (post?) game time.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Call me immature of you must, but since this is my 69th post, I have to laugh. *LOLs* OK, back to business. It just occurred to me that my picture in the "Elias is out" post, the X-ed out players made an "L" as if it was warning my as to what was coming. *Note to self- Next time, make it a "W"* And I also need to be reminded to never wear my Brodeur shirt. I had it on in the first, then I changed into my Parise jersey, and Marty's game improved. And Zach's was still awesome, so it worked out. Aside from the 1 goal we couldn't get..

With that said, here's a little something for Lou:
THINGS TO IMPROVE UPON FOR GAME 2:

1- Marty. He sucked tonight. End of story. I love him, but he was just plain bad. Not the Marty I'm used to and enjoy seeing.

2- The Defense. Brian Rafalski, that means you. Again, I love Raffy, but he sucked. He was responsible for about 1/2 of our many turnovers. Which brings me to my next point.

3- The turnovers. Is it just me, or were there more turnovers just in the 1st then there were in the entire regular season? That's gotta stop.

4- The penalties. So four penalties isn't that bad. Unless they're stupid ones, and you let the Sens score on two of them. Not acceptable. Now, you can't blame the Devils, because who knows how this game would have turned out had the refs not missed several calls against Ottawa, but the PK needs improvement.

5- The PP. I'm not expecting them to score 10 PPGs on 3 PPs, but one would have been nice. Almost as nice as setting up an attack would have been. I swear, they, like the Bolts, were nearly setting up an attack on our power play! That was almost as bad as that SHG we gave up.

6- The lines. What were they thinking, putting Rass on the first line? Why not just stick Janssen on there? Or better yet, Clemmensen. Put my fish, a hobo, anyone but Rass! Sarge plays much better with them then Rass does. Next time Elias or Gio isn't there (which, hopefully, is like, uhm, NEVER), put Rass in Sarge's place on the checking line. And leave him there! Putting Sergei on the 4th line would not only create a 4th line that would get more ice time and (possibly) produce more scoring, but give the checking line more..checking! Brylin isn't much of a hitter. Personally, I would be much more (afraid? nervous?) if Rass was coming after me, rather than Sarge.

7- The 2nd line. They need more ice time. They can handle it, and they could do something with it.

8- Patrik. Dead or alive, sick or healthy, we need our captain. One thing I noticed about our games without him is that we don't play as well. So to those of you who don't think he deserves that "C," think again.


Surprisingly, there were some bright sides. Like:

1- The 2nd line. 2 goals and 4 assists for 6 points. The team only had 12 points. That speaks to me. It better speak to Lou too. That line has serious chemistry. How often do you see Zach score without Jamie or Travis getting an assist? And the same goes for Travis. Him and Zach are like connected or something. Jamie plays well with anybody, but he seems to up Zach and Travis's game. Off topic, but isn't it odd, how when ever Zach or Travis scores, not only does the other usually get an assist, you can always find a picture of them together, celebrating, but you rarely see one of Travis and Jamie? It's not too hard to find one of Jamie and Zach, but Jamie and Travis is a whole other story. Of course, you can find a picture of Zach celebrating with anyone. But it's weird that they never seem to take any of T&J.

2- Gomer and Gio. Regardless of how much better they (and the rest of the team) plays with him, they were pretty awesome, with 1 goal and 2 assists.

3- Greene. That kid is too good to be true. He not only can score, but he can hit and block shots. And he has a very fast shot. He can shoot over 95 MPH. I guess that's why all of his goals always come from (around) center ice. He's like Fulton Reed from the Mighty Ducks. They see his shot coming, and they run. Although Andy's yet to break the net. Or somebody.

4-The heart everyone played with after the first. Well, most of them. The 2nd line, as usual, seemed to have most of it, but they didn't quit when it looked like they had no way to win. They didn't win, but they played amazingly. With a few exceptions.

5- The comeback. How they managed to be down 4-0 and make it a one-goal game is just..great (I can't think of another word for awesome, and I've been informed that I over use that. But when you're awesome, you're awesome..). If our offense can keep that up (minus the 10 missed scoring chances) and the D and Marty can do what they did in games 5 and 6 of Round 1, we'd be unbeatable. Maybe not unbeatable. But close to it.


With that being said, someone make sure Louie Lams reads this. In Lou we trust, but sometimes, his decisions are questionable. Not saying I miss Julien, but I can't help but wonder how different some of this would be had he not been fired. Would we have won in 5, or maybe 7, instead of 6? Would we have not even won that series? What about our regular season games without him? Would we have won them? Would Marty have played the last game? Who knows. All I know is
GO DEVILS!

I hate the Senators.

A lot. Notice I said Senators, not Ottawa. Nothing against the place, just the team. Although, I did like seeing them have a 4-0 lead, only to win it 5-4. That was kind of funny. Yeah, prepare for a very biased, angry recap. Don't worry, when the Devils win, it won't be (as) biased or angry.

After Marty gave up 4 first period goals, Travis Zajac got us on the board, with his first ever playoff goal at 17:38, about a minute after Marty gave up goal numero four..0. Jamie Langenbrunner and Zach Parise got the assists. The next two goals were Devils goals as well, from Brian Gionta (2:20, 2nd, from Scott Gomez and Paul Martin) and Andy Greene (4:47, Langenbrunner and Parise). Then the Senators made it 5-3. That sucked. Parise made the game look less embarrassing at 19:30 of the 3rd, when he made it 4-5, with a goal from Gomez and Brian Rafalski. Although I'm not happy at all that we lost, I have to admit, I was kind of laughing at the score. Have the Devils even ever been leading 4-0, and then ended up winning 5-4? Oh, and BTW, I don't like emery, and I take back everything I ever said about him having skill.

3 (Devils) Stars:
#3- Zajac (1st playoff goal)
#2- Langenbrunner (2 assists)
#1- Parise (1g, 2a)



Elias didn't play, as I said about 50 million times before, and, while there was a lot of line switching, Rasmussen took his place, and Clarkson played on the 4th line (for the most part). It seemed like we were on the PK a lot more then 4 times, and it didn't seem like we had 3 PPs either. Whatever. Great game, yeah yeah.

Marty sucked, our defense sucked, and our offense, eh, it wasn't that bad. Hopefully they'll use this as a learing experience and strike on Saturday. I'm not in the mood to rant and rage and complain and bash Ottawa (although there were at least 3 missed calls against them). We sucked, the end. Just pray that not only do we not suck Saturday, but that Patty's back. Peace, and go feed your fish.

Elias Out Tonight

Update: Marshall (apparently) did not get called up, so the lines are (supposedly):
Rass/Clarkson-Gomer-Gio
Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner (who I've officially renamed the "hot line")
Pando-Mad Dog-Sarge
Clarkson/Rass-Dowd-Rupp
Yep, Janssen will miss yet another game. Useless or not, I miss the man.
And on D we'll (most likely) have (if White plays):
Whitey-Raffy
Martin-Matty
Greene-Lukowich
In short,
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket


It's true. Captain Patty will miss the game tonight due to (they say) the flu. So there's a very good chance either Grant Marshall (who doesn't have to pass through waiver, apparently, since Lowell's season is over) or David Clarkson will fill in for him. So bad news, good news..now, it's more bad news. Erik Rasmussen was practicing with Gomer and Gio (yesterday?), so that line will most likely be together tonight. Unfortunately, I can't think of anymore good news, aside from the fact that White is most likely playing, and Oduya looks like the odd man out. I still liked Sarge on the first line and Rass on the third line better, but I'm not Lou, so it's not my choice. I wish I was Lou, though. He's awesome. Huh. I guess that's it. Till tonight, my friends.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

*Rant on*

I think I set a new record. 4 posts in 1 day. Huh. Anyway, my current (anger? problem?): covering the puck. Now, it's very necessary at times, like when you have 4 players from the opposing team waiting for the rebound, but not all the time, like when there are no players within 50 feet of you. I noticed few goalies that actually keep the puck in play as often as possible (Brodeur, Lundqvist (I'm in shock too), Miller, and even Clemmensen, to name a few). The way I see it in my very twisted mind, constantly covering the puck as pretty much a way to win a game is just as bad as dirty play. If you can't win playing normal (clean) hockey, just don't play. At first, I just saw younger, rookie goalies or ones that don't play much doing it, but then I realized that Holmqvist, a kid who was playing in his first playoff series (and now that that's over, I can say he played really, really well), didn't do it half as much as some of the older, more experienced ones. And Clemmer doesn't do it too often eiter, and he only played in 6 games this season.

Why did I suddenly start this? Well, this isn't something new that bothers me. In that game we were shut out by the Pens (I'm still trying to forget about that), Thaibult (sp?) seemed to go out of his way to cover the puck, which prevented us from scoring. That's good for the other team and all, but did he see Marty doing that? No, he didn't. Marty can win without covering the puck unless it's really necessary, so I don't see why all these other goalies can't take the hint from him. *Rant off*



Just another thought: Marty doesn't have the greatest save percentage, or the lowest goals against average. Yes, I know. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Not my point. How bad can our offense be if Marty's SP is 11th out of 19 (in the playoffs) and his GAA is 10th (again, in the playoffs)? We did step it up a little in the 1st round (and hopefully that will be carried over into the 2nd round), but if we can beat a high-scoring team like Tampa, how bad can it be? If you look at the number of goals the Devils, the 2nd lowest scoring team in the regular season, had (19) and compare it to the 14 from the Lightning, who generally don't play a low scoring game, it says something. If you don't look at the shot percentage we have, it really does speak about how much of a difference was made since Lou came in. Yeah, we still play defensive hockey, but our offense is getting pretty hot. If they can keep that up, and Marty doesn't lose his Martyness, as he did in games 2, 3 and (the regulation part of) 4, we can totally win this series, and the cup.

Marshall called up.

It's true. Grant Marshall got the call, and is now on waivers. They're one series behind though..Should have called him up against Tampa. Oh, well. So, since Elias apparently has the flu (and with the Devils, who knows what that really could mean), we might be seeing him or Clarkson tomorrow. As much as I want Clarkson to play, I hope Patty feels good enough to play tomorrow. Uhh..I think I had something else to say too..Huh. Whatever.

Update numero two..o: The Mighty Ducks have increased their lead to 3 goals, thanks to a goal from Ryan Getzlaf at 9:05 (assists: Dustin Penner and Perrey). So..that's it.
Just KIDDING!! Goal numero 3 for Andy McDonald. Yep, a hat trick for him. I bet he's excited. So 5-1 Ducks. I think it's safe to say they won it. As they clean the hats and such off the ice, I'm waiting to hear who got the assists..And they are Kent Huskins and Getzlaf. How ironic would it be if the Canucks scored again? That'd be madd crazy. But with 5 seconds left, that's probably not happening. So, peace till tomorrow. After, or maybe even during the Devils/Senators game. Who knows. I don't.

Side note: Neidermayer is still pretty awesome, and the Ducks' back up's playoff beard is pretty awesome. And the announcers just basically called a certain Mr. Parise awesome. I know, I say awesome too much.

Ducks vs canucks update: No scoring in the 2nd, but quite a few penalties. There was almost a goal. Actually, there were almost a lot of goals. But one goal was reviewed, and ruled as no goal. The assists on McDonald's first goal were changed from Progner and Perrey to Kunitz and Progner.

It just occurred to me how off topic this is. Whatever. I have to vent, so expect a rant to be coming soon.

Ducks are leading the Canucks 3-1 after the first. The Canucks got on the board first, with an unassisted goal at 7:07 from Jeff Cowan, due to a..lack of clearing from ex-Devil Scott Neidermayer. No worries. 2:17 later, Andy McDonald tied it up with a PPG from Chris Progner and Corey Perry. The Ducks then went on to take the lead at 14:56, when Teemu Selanne took the puck from McDonald, who got it from Chris Kunitz (it was bad, but I found a way to reword it). McDonald struck again 4:15 later, this time from Selanne and Kunitz. So now it's 3-1 going into the 2nd. I'll finish this when I feel like it, so it could be a while.

Sabres vs rangers: Game 1

Final Score: 5-2, Sabres. Since the 3rd began, marcel hossa got the rags on the board and made it 3-1. 3:03 later, the Sabres regained their 3 goal lead when Jason Pominville got his 3rd goal of the playoffs from Jochen Hecht and Daniel Briere. Ex-Devil brendan shanahan gave them hope again at 19:12, and they pulled ol' lundo, for some reason thinking that they could score twice on the Sabres in :48. Drew Stafford showed them how wrong they were 32 seconds later, with the empty netter. Dainius Zubrus and Toni Lydman picked up the assists.

I don't care if you called this biased or not, but what was jagr thinking, trying to defend against Stafford after he shot that puck at the empty net, about 3 feet away from it? Common sense would have said to block the shot, instead of going after the guy when the damage was already done.


[Previous Coverage]
As the second period comes to an end , the Sabres are leading 3-0, thanks to Thomas Vanek's PPG from Dmitri Kalinin and Derek Roy at 14:19, and Ales Kotalik's full strenght goal from Adam Mair 2 minutes later. Vanek netted the third goal also, at 18:24 from Henrik Tallinder and Teppo Numminen. Yeah, I'm working on new ways to word that, because it's even starting to bore me. Anyway (yep, that's over used too), more to come. After the game.

^I told you this wouldn't be biased. I didn't write about how much I hate the rags or how much they suck. And this is a side note, so it doesn't count as part of the recap. That is, let me pretend it doesn't.


Oh, and there was a reason I didn't just do this all at the end. I felt the need to comment on the fact that ever since (I believe it was) Dan McGillis got called for "closing his hand on the puck," I've been seeing people get called for that so often, it's driving me crazy. Maybe it's because I really didn't pay too much attention to what every penalty was for up until recently, but I don't recall ever seeing anyone called for that until that one time. Now, like I said, I'm seeing players getting called for it more than not. It's almost as crazy as I am.

I can't believe it.

Are my eyes decieving me, or is this article from a Canadian website actually (somewhat) pro Devils? I never thought I'd see the day. Not saying that all Canadians hate the Devils, but this is one site I would have never expected to see credit the Devils. And they flat out said the Devils are better then the Penguins. I don't know weather I'm more excited about that, or seeing the Sabres beat the rags at 7. And since I have nothing better to do, I'll be doing an (unbiased) recap of that game. Since I don't like either team (although I'm sure you all know which team I dislike more), it won't be (very) biased. But there will be a ton of avery-bashing and unnecessary comments about most of the other players *rags* too, just FYI. But if someone gives avery that nice whooping that he so deserves, they will be praised. A lot. Now, to anger everyone else and make then root against the rags (which I don't think would be too hard to do anyway), he's a quote from the NY Post, by avery:

"I'm going to hurt them, I'm going to hit them, I'm going to be in their face as much as I can."

Yes, that was on the NHL site, and in the paper. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't threatening someone, oh, I don't know, illegal? Here's the rest of the article, if you care.

I never thought I'd hear (see) myself say this, but go Sabres. If anyone of them goes after avery, they'll get cookies.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Lowell's Inaugural Season Moments

So now that Lowell's season is over, they're doing an "inaugural season moments" thing. Not sure how often they're gonna be adding new ones, but I'll keep you posted. The current moment is Andy Greene being in the Planet USA game, as the only player from Lowell. He came in second in the hardest shot competition (now I know why his goals always seem to come from 60 feet away from the net), and a bunch of other stuff. I really don't feel like summarizing it all, so read it yourself.

http://www.lowelldevilshockey.com/theteam/Inaugural/IMGreene0423.php

*Rant off*

Now that I'm cooled down from last night (their win celebration made me sick), I have bad news. Nicklas Bergfors (Lowell) might play in Sweenen next season. Not that bad, since we still like, own him, but I love him. He's awesome. Anyway, luongo, I apologize for that last post (he does read this, you know), but Marty is still better. Yes, I should look into anger management classes. Or yoga. Which ever's cheaper.

No, I didn't delete that one because of an excessive amount of hate mail, but it was being a moron, so yeah.

ROUND 2 SCHEDULE:
Thursday, April 26 7:00 p.m. Ottawa at New Jersey
Saturday, April 28 8:00 p.m. Ottawa at New Jersey (on Versus)
Monday, April 30 7:00 p.m. New Jersey at Ottawa
(on Versus)
Wednesday, May 2 7:00 p.m. New Jersey at Ottawa (on Versus)
* Saturday, May 5 8:00 p.m. Ottawa at New Jersey (on Versus)
* Monday, May 7 7:00 p.m. New Jersey at Ottawa
(on Versus)
* Wednesday, May 9 7:00 p.m. Ottawa at New Jersey

* means if necessary, to those of you who are math challenged like me. And only games 3 and 4 are exclusively on Versus, thankfully.


Matchups:
Eastern Confrence:
Devils vs Senators (to those of you who live under a rock) (I say Devils in 7)
Sabres vs rags (Sabres in 5)

Western Confrence:
Ducks vs Canucks (haha that rhymes!!) (Ducks in 6)
Red Wings vs Sharks (Sharks in 6)

If any of those are right, I want a prize. If you have any predictions you wanna share, email me or leave them as a comment. I'll post them. If you want me to.

Monday, April 23, 2007

You decide.

It was pointed out that at (about) 13:44 of the 3rd period yesterday, Zach scored right before we went on the PP and the refs somehow missed it. It's not too clear in the video, but you can see he did score.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2024399550

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2024407670


And, in other news, the forwards, again, had 13 blocked shots along with Marty's 32 saves. Nothing from the post this time, though.

Aaaaannnnnndddddd the dates for the first two games of round 2 have been decided:
Thursday (home), Start time: 7 or 7:30, Channel(s): TBA
Saturday (home), Start time: 8, Channel(s): TBA
And the rest is TBA as well. And you know the deal. Games 1,2,5*, and 7* are at home, and games 3,4, and 6* are at Ottawa..So yeah..That's it..Till Thursday.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Ottawa, here we come.

Thanks to 2 goals from Gio, 1 from Rafalski, and 32 saves from Marty, the Devils took a 3-2 win in Tampa and are moving on to play the Senators in round 2.

Brian Gionta opened the scoring 14:29 in the 1st with a power play goal from Patrik Elias and Brian Rafalski. There were 9 penalties called in that period, 5 of which were on us, with 1 4 on 4 and a 4 on 3 for us and the bolts.

Rafalski got his 2nd point of the game with a PPG of his own 1:21 into the 2nd. Elias and Gomer picked up the assists. 3:49 later, the lightning struck with a PPG of their own, with Gomez in the box, serving a too many men on the ice penalty. We regained the 2 goal lead :39 later, when Gionta netted his 2nd goal, with Elias getting his 3rd assist, and Gomez his 2nd. So yeah, it was all the EGG line and Rafalski, pretty much. Almost 5 minutes later, though, the lead was again cut in half, when Zach was sent to the box for tripping a player that was no where near him. And I'm not gonna even mention lecavalier taking out Rafalski and Lukowich at exactly the same time Zach was called. What ever. And while I'm on the topic of dumb penalties, what about that 4 on 4 that came when Travis Zajac and a bolt were sent to the box, Travis for diving, and the bolt for tripping Travis. First of all, Travis was on a break away. Why would he dive and screw that up? And if he was getting called for diving, why was the bolt called for tripping him? Again, what ever.

Marty had a classic Marty performance, with 32 saves on 34 shots. So..yeah, that's it. But I have to wonder, how, when tampa's net was empty, and we had 3 players around it, we didn't score. Who cares, though? We won, and we're going on to round 2. All is right with the world.

3 STARS:
#3- Marty
#2- Patrik
#1- Gio

Well..Janssen, Clarkson and White were all at the arena, but none of them played. Stupid lecavalier took out Matvichuk in the 1st, and thankfully got sent to the box, but so did Johnny Madden and st louis for unsportsman-like conduct. I have to say, it was nice seeing tampa's top penalty killers in the box at the same time. So, I guess that's it, until after game 1 of round 2..