The Lightning went into last night’s matchup with what seemed a morale low. Freddie Modin, the balls-to-the-wall Swede was out. Danny “Go shove it, Mike Keenan!” Boyle was to miss his second game. Add Pavel Kubina to the Injury trio and there was doubt going into this game. Lots more than seems to be played by the Friday Morning Puck Antics from the Tribune and Times.
You could even see it was a shaky start to things as well — I commented during the game there was a good deal of dumping-in by the Lightning and sound shots on goal didn’t seem to be happening. There was more action in the neutral zone and the Lightning’s own end to start this game off.
But this game was about overcoming adversity. Overcoming the nipping-at-the-heels Atlanta Thrashers and overcoming doubt. If there was any particular item that cemented this, it was Dmitry Afanasenkov.
Forget defense for a second and the weak power plays, Afanasenkov has had an up and down season this year that remained mostly down. He’s played mostly a grinder role and has failed during his brief stints on the top lines. Last night he was lined up with Brad Richards and Ruslan Fedotenko and found the magic that I had expected of him for two years. The player nicknamed by his detractors as “Cantgetashotov” scored twice.
Paul Ranger netted his first career goal which ultimately became the game winner (after the Lightning allowed 3 unanswered goals in the 3rd) and the Bolts ultimately kept pace with the Habs and Devils by beating the Thrash.
One last question for readership: Where is Vincent Lecavalier and why has his game suddenly changed?
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3 Comments until now
Vinny has a penchant for trying very difficult flashy moves. When they work, we all go “wow!” The problem is they are very low percentage moves and are rarely pulled off. It seems he likes to do this more and more when they are cycling the puck behind the oppositions net. This is the worst time to try ‘em. Good old fashioned hard work is what works when grinding on the boards. More mystifying is why one of the biggest players has givin up on his physical game. Can anyone remember the last time he threw a check?
Yeah, Vinny C (Ole Ole Lecavalier) has been, if not a head case, an odd player of late. True, he hasn’t thrown the kind of hard checks I saw on the Jumbotron last time I was down to Tampa for a game, but remember his recent taste for getting into fights? Seems he gets energized by either going for the finesse shot (and let’s not forget that gorgeous pass to Ruslan on the run Thurs. nite), or throwing off the gloves. My guess is that Brad Richards’s ascendancy may be getting to him. Notice how Brad is the recent go-to guy for media quotes? Maybe that’s hard for Vinny, who has been the face of the team for so long. And isn’t Brad now the A-line center?
Vinny has become mr fancy pants. Looking to pass behind him, etc. the only one I see playing good old time hockey is st. louis and there is a lot of talk about trading him for a better netminder.