It really didn't have to be that difficult. Honestly. But why Galchenyuk gets a pitiful 8 minutes of ice time despite being on fucking fire I have no idea. And wouldn't you know it? Remove Patches from Desharnais and put him with Pleky and he still produces! SHOCKING.
Except for that powerplay. Holy face of palming, coaching staff. The Lightning were literally giving you this game, and you throw out the same unproducing lines you broke up? Does that make any sense? It was a miracle Gionta managed to get that goal with 40-something seconds left in the 3rd. On the 6th powerplay attempt.
Never mind how many breakaways they allowed Stamkos have while on the powerplay.
And the D-zone is still a rather wonky. Whenever Frankie Bou--who I will forever call Bubbles from now on--was just atrocious. And yet, he was out there every time I looked. Price was throwing up the flippers and doing everything possible to keep the puck out and there's Bubbles getting outworked by Pouliot of all people, made worse by watching Markov not cover Lecavalier for his goal. Yep. Markov was equally brutal. You can even fancy it up to brütal.
Other guys who needed this:
- Gionta with the two goals, including the winner.
- Weber smells playoffs. He always plays good in those.
- Price de Nice.
- Price's goalposts responded well to the beating he gave them in yesterday's game.
- Gallager/Eller/Galchenyuk were doing their job but now got to play together. Keep them like this please? Better yet, give them more ice time and powerplay time?
The empty net is still a mystery. What a fucker.