Lightning 6 Maple Leafs 2 (NHL)

[swamprat]

In Toronto, the Bolts got some lucky breaks early, played some solid defense, and ran away with this one.

 

Tyler Johnson had a Ryan McDonagh shot deflect off his skate and past Frederik Andersen to open the scoring in the first period. Later that period, a Mikael Sergachev shot hit Anthony Cirelli's leg and in. Tampa Bay got 42 shots on goal for the game. Johnson ended up with 2 goals on the night, as did Cedric Paquette. Ondrej Palat also scored. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 26 saves.

 

Meanwhile, the Leafs could not seem to get it past the neutral zone, nor could they get any breakaways and Vassy was solid. Andersen was pulled after Palat's goal in the second. Auston Matthew's, who scored to cut the lead to 4-1, was quoted as saying the Maple Leafs just quit in the third.

 

The Bolts, with 110 points, are back to 17 points ahead of Boston in the Atlantic, 21 points ahead of Washington for home ice in the Eastern Conference, and 18 points ahead of San Jose for home ice throughout the playoffs.

 

I have been concerned about the Bolts relaxing down the stretch, having clinched a spot. They may just do it, but they're saying the right stuff.

 

Steven Stamkos stated yesterday on twitter, that the season is to get into the playoffs. Once there, everybody is even and the season doesn't matter. The fun starts in April.

 

Last night after the game Tyler Johnson said, "We've had a good season so far, but we really haven't done anything yet. Our team is a bunch of competitors who work extremely hard. We continue to get better every single day. We don't rely on our wins, our losses, our record, we just want to be better tomorrow than we were today, and I think we've been doing that."

[neilman1234]

The Lightning aren't letting their foot off the gas this year like they did a little bit last year. Maybe they're just that unbeatable this year and it's their time to win the Cup. I was listening to Stellick and Simmer this morning on NHL Network Radio and they likened the Bolts to the Globetrotters on ice. I thought that was a pretty good analogy. How about the supposed homophobic slur that was picked up on the microphones near the ice (which supposedly came from a Leafs player)? That's not good at all.

[swamprat]

The Lightning aren't letting their foot off the gas this year like they did a little bit last year. Maybe they're just that unbeatable this year and it's their time to win the Cup. I was listening to Stellick and Simmer this morning on NHL Network Radio and they likened the Bolts to the Globetrotters on ice. I thought that was a pretty good analogy. How about the supposed homophobic slur that was picked up on the microphones near the ice (which supposedly came from a Leafs player)? That's not good at all.

 

I didn't hear it, but I normally do not watch with the sound up and last night was no exception. I also don't watch the post game and saw nothing about it on NHL.com, early this morning.