Latest / Backchecking the Bolts / Lightning vs Canadiens Game 2 Recap Tampa Wins 3-2 in OT
Transcript
- Jason Linkes: Coming up next on back checking the bolts. mean, Brandon Hager, this is, this is the Brandon Hager game in my opinion. ⁓ the man dragged this team into a fight, ⁓ literally at times and first Gordie Howe hat trick in franchise history. So, which actually should be the Mark. I want to campaign to rename it to Mark Recky hat trick. Cause I think I remember when I looked a couple of years ago, he was the one of all people that well, Mark Recky had the most Gordie Howe hat tricks in. NHL history. to back checking the bolts. Back checking the bolts is your cup of coffee to get you the latest on the Tampa Bay Lightning. Join host Jason link us in the managing editor of raw charge Justin Godfrey as they break down the lightning's most recent games and go beyond the highlights telling you what the box scores didn't. It's time to drop the puck. Well, everybody, we are back for our game two instant recap. And unlike the previous seven lightning playoff overtime games, this one is victorious. JJ Moser about 10 minutes in over the glove of Jacob Dobish. And this series is tied at one. Hi, I'm Jason Lakers. You are on the back checking the bolts podcast. And as always, I am joined by the managing editor of raw charge. who was at the game last night. can read him at www.rawcharge.com. He is Justin Godfrey. Justin, it's about time they were able to pull out one of these overtime games. mean, he had a couple of things we hadn't celebrated in a long time. One, a first period lead and then a home win, an overtime win. I mean, it was Christmas all in one here for Lightning fans who, not gonna lie, but it seems like the... General consensus is confidence was a little bit lacking among the Lightning Nation, especially about midway through this game. But it's funny how the tides can turn. Lightning played a very strong second half of the game. JJ Moser with a subtle little move along the blue line and just risted it through traffic and Dobish never saw it. So it sent the good old benchmark international arena fans into a frenzy. Justin, let's go back to the beginning of the game. The lightning did not have a shot in the first eight and a half minutes, but the first one went in the net. was Brandon Hagel, his third of the playoffs. He had two in game one, a bad angle shot. The initial shot got blocked. Then he got the puck almost at the far wall, threw it on net and there was some traffic there, but I thought that was a bad one that Dobish would want back. Yeah, I was kind of watching the game from a couple different angles. I was up high for the first couple periods, went down low for the last one. Dobish is an interesting goalie to watch. I don't know how well he actually tracks the puck to tell you the truth. And I don't know if it was just a one game thing. I hadn't really been paying attention to it. Like Hegel's shot, even Moses' shot, both of those were kind of, I don't want to say they're stoppable shots. I mean, this is a tough game and it's not easy being a goaltender, but there are also about four or five other shots. that I noticed in the third period where he didn't react to it until he's behind him. mean, the shots, most of those shots went wide. ⁓ but he relies a lot on the team in front of him blocking shots and he relies a lot on his positioning. It feels like, and I think there's times when he loses sight of the puck. ⁓ you know, it's one of those things I kind of want to ask some of the Canadians fans, ⁓ once, you know, they're not quite as grumpy as they are right now. Just, that something that's been noticed noticeable by him? Cause yeah, like Hagel shot. Yeah, it's kind of one those weird shots where he's almost shooting it out of frustration after having yet another shot blocked. ⁓ cause he just kind of turns whips it onto the net. goes in, but I mean, playoff hockey, this is what happens. I mean, you just shoot the puck and it goes in. Sometimes it doesn't have to be the pretty tic-tac-toe passing play. It doesn't have to be 195 mile an hour blast from radish or something like that. Sometimes you just throw the puck on net and let the hockey guys decide it's going to go in or not. And that kind of got him going. mean, Brandon Hager, this is. This is the Brandon Hagel game in my opinion. ⁓ the man dragged this team into a fight, ⁓ literally at times and burst Gordie Howe hat trick in franchise history. which actually should be the Mark. I want a campaign to rename it the Mark Recky hat trick. Cause I think I remember when I looked a couple of years ago, Mark Recky had one of all people. Well, Mark Recky had the most Gordie Howe hat tricks in NHL history. I know Gordie Howe only had, I think three. Yeah, it was only like three. think recce had the most, ⁓ the last time I checked. I never would have guessed the wrecking ball. This is what you do in the summer when you're looking up stuff. I get go down rabbit holes. ⁓ he's about five foot eight from, from good old little cam loops, British Columbia. here's the guy just dropping the gloves. But Hagel had the goal. He had the assist on the Kucherov goal. ⁓ he dropped Slavkovski with a big right hand. There was that big fracas in the first period. He goes out there pumping up the crowd, waving to the crowd. And after he knocks out, knocks down Slawkowski, you know, he's making motions to the crowd. So he dragged this team into the fight, which is what he's been doing the entire series so far. It's supposed to be doing pretty much his entire career in Tampa. I mean, the man's got two speeds. It's either stop still, or he's going a thousand miles an hour. And, know, I really think the team fed off of that tonight. A little too much at times, but yeah, it was great. It was just a fun game to be at. You know, it's good to see the lightning fight back. had mentioned maybe they got a little bit riled up too much at times. Josh Anderson, I think has gotten under their skin a little bit. Now Anderson's out there causing problems, but you had two. I'm going to call them two penalties. One was actually called. They did not call Kucherov late in the first period. for a blatant interference call where he hit Anderson from behind. With less than two minutes left, it was Scott Sabrin who did the exact same thing. This time it got called. The officials actually reviewed it as a possible major only called the two minute minor. Are the lightning letting Josh Anderson get under their skin a little bit? I don't know. I think it's an overall thing. They get into it. They've done it against Buffalo a few times. They've done it against Florida. It's a fine balance between being a physical team and then standing up for yourself and then going over the line after game one. Cooper talked about the penalties they took and somebody asked him if it was a carryover from the regular season. said, no, cause they weren't the overly aggressive penalties. You know, last night they kind of got back into a little bit where they were, you know, they were going out their way to hit people after the whistle. Josh Anderson was target number one. Some of that's what carryover from what he did to this do. in the, in the first game. So yeah, did he have enough, you know, target on his back? Yes. Was Saberins penalty the best to take at the 18 minute mark of the third period of a tie game? No, but it's got Saberins. He's gonna, you know, even Cooper joked about it after the game saying we kept him under wraps for 58 minutes, but, ⁓ I can't control him the entire game. So it was a dumb penalty. I don't like it when the lightning kind of get into that mode where they're trying to be, you know, the Florida Panthers 2.0, because they have enough skill and I think it takes away from that skill that they need to play with. And when the Lightning got back to that kind of, we're gonna go north to south, we're gonna fly through the zone, we're not gonna start a scrum after every whistle. I they were the better team. I would say from the mid second period on, definitely through overtime, they were the better team. But yeah, mean, Josh Anderson is the type of player who's gonna get under your skin, just like Yanni Gordon. go to their defensemen and a jacket and they're taking an extra roughing penalty. And there's players like this. think their roles kind of get elevated a little bit in the, in the post season because you're seeing each other, you know, every other night. Um, so yeah, Anderson's gotten under their skin a little bit. He's played pretty well too. His line's been probably they're at best at five on five. So five on five. That's been the line that's created offense and they got that goal to make it two to one. Justin I want to talk about the game tying goal. It was two to one about seven and a half minutes I believe left in the third period Montreal had their top line out there against the Kutcher off line and It was Slavkowski who you just mentioned a few minutes ago with a horrible turnover I'm not sure what he was thinking. But the last thing you do is throw the puck in your own zone right to the right to the blue line with no one there and it was picked off and it led to the Kucherov wraparound goal. Tell us a little bit about that one. ⁓ honestly, Lightning fans are used to seeing players just kind of fling the puck randomly towards the blue line. It just happens to usually happen in the Lightning zone. So you know, kind of don't register that at first just because you're kind of used to seeing your own team do it for quite a few times. One of the things I noticed is when the Lightning got there for a check on, Montreal did struggle with it a lot. I thought When Kuturov was playing, even when he was playing with Poynton and Gonzalez, they were doing a pretty good job of forechecking. They were doing a good job of breaking up some of these, these passes and Montreal did, you know, struggle a little bit. then midway through the game, ⁓ Kuturov down on that Sorelli and Brandon Hagel line. They played really well. He moved, actually actually moved Nick Paul up to the top line, I believe for most of the game. And they both, both those lines really got their forecheck going. You know, Hagels. camping out at that blue line. picks the pass off. And again, he just puts the shot on net. Well, kind of missed the net, but he got the shot off and it got through the blockers. know, Kutrov kind of gets lost behind the net and makes it really, I don't think the casual fan knows how hard wraparounds are in the NHL. ⁓ just cause you don't have the space to do it. And Kutrov made it look easy. He made it look like it was a, you know, a warm up last shot before heading off the ice kind of goal and it was, I mean, it was beautiful. They got that, they started to get their forecheck going, ⁓ putting a lot of pressure on, on the Canadian's defense and even, ⁓ Marty late say that we kind of mentioned it in the press conference. He thought his team, ⁓ lacked a little poise. ⁓ they'd been pretty good throughout the season at closing out wins, but you know, they, they seemed a little bit rattled, ⁓ late in the game, I think with some of the pressure that lightning were putting on them, Kutrow gets that tying game, tying goal and then overtime was just. All lightning. mean, it was 100%, 11 minutes, 12 minutes or whatever of the lightning throwing pucks at Dobish. overtime, the lightning outshot Montreal by a nine zero margin. But the one thing I want to talk about Justin was the Montreal defense. felt like in the first game in the first two periods of game two, the Montreal defense was dictating what the Tampa offense was going to do. They were meeting them at the blue line. Standing them up, forcing Tampa to make that next move. In the third period, and especially in overtime, I thought the Montreal defense was on their heels. They were backing up. Tampa was able to gain entry into the offensive zone. And by doing that, they had a lot more options. They were coming in with speed. Dobish wasn't able to come out and assist with playing with pucks. And I think that's why you saw Tampa really dominate. Let's call it the last 30 minutes of this hockey game. And I think a lot of it was just the lightning changing their style of play a little bit as well. It started to attack with more speed. You know, as you mentioned, they were backing the defense off a little bit more. And honestly, Dominic James plays a big role in that. I mean, that's his style of game. So he gives them the light in another option of a guy who can carry the puck into the zone with speed, um, a la Braden point, a la Nikita Kucherov, um, guys that can attack that blue line with this little speed and back off those defenders. which then opens up the points for the lightning. They like to curl back and kind of get some of those shots. ⁓ Yeah, I think that the Montreal defense struggled a little bit. Will it carry over into games three and four? We'll see. You know, once we get to the Canadians starting to have a little bit better matchup. But yeah, it was good to see that the lightning forced that. ⁓ I think it's something they hadn't done over the first game. They hadn't really been dictating a play. And even early in the game two, Montreal came out flying. think, think Andre Vasilevsky deserves so much more credit than we're hearing. ⁓ there were three or four chances, I would say within the first five minutes where Vasilevsky makes the save. ⁓ that game could have gotten a lot different if he's not up to par, ⁓ you know, in that first 10 minutes stretch or so for the lightning. So there's going to be swings in each, in each game, there's gonna be swings of play where, you know, a certain unit is going to struggle then and they're going to fix their game, but then something else is going to break down. So. It's how you deal with that is, you know, kind of the barrier or barometer of success for both teams. Justin, I want to talk about two of those swings. The first one happened late. As I mentioned, Sabrin took the penalty late in the third period. I want to say there's about two minutes and 20 seconds left in 207. I believe 207 is what I had written down in my little notebook. 207 left in the third. Montreal's power play has been humming this series. At that point, they had had four power play goals in less than two games. You send them out there tail end of the third period with a chance to win it. I thought it was one of Tampa's best kills of the series so far. Yeah, it was. ⁓ you know, there was a lot of discussion about it after the game as well as the, as that being kind of a a big turning point, a big boost of confidence for the Lightning. But they finally got to the point where they could start clearing pucks. There was a penalty killer earlier in the game was the second, but there were a couple earlier in the game where the Lightning killed them off. And you could see the penalty killers kind of getting their confidence back a little bit. You know, they were, they were starting to break up some of those passes in the zone and getting the puck out, you know, and it wasn't, Hey, I'm going to make the nice play or the fancy play or, you know, try and Bleed off a few seconds before I clear the puck. I'm just going to get the puck. I'm going get it out of zone. want to, I want to focus to make sure I get it past the points, which is kind of what they struggled with in game one and on that first power opportunity where Montreal scored. They try and clear it up to boards, but they're throwing it right to the guy who's stationed there. So a little bit smarter clears, um, and then getting off the ice and getting the new units on. the power play, the penalty kill was a lot better for the lightning. Big energy boost at, know, to kill that one off in a third. Cause I think there was that vibe in the building a little bit like, ⁓ we worked so hard to tie it up and now we're going to blow it because of a dumb penalty. And, ⁓ they killed it off. And a Cooper mentioned it after the game as well. He said the good, he said what he really liked about it. Yes, it was a late penalty. It was a bad penalty, but it didn't carry over and over time. They got to start over time with a clean slate. You know, they killed it off, bled out the last seven, six or seven seconds. And then it was five on five to start over time, which. ⁓ I think kind of helped them out, you know, they're not having to kill the penalty to, you know, they're not on the back foot right away coming out of the break. So, you know, it kind of helped them keep that moment of doing Justin, as you and I had mentioned, the overtime was all Tampa, but there was a very tense moment in that overtime. And you had mentioned, you thought this was the turning point of the game. The lightning had just iced the puck. They had to keep their third unit out there against. Montreal's big boys. us about that. Yeah. So was about the, I think 11 minute marker. So, ⁓ the ice of pocket in that re kind of rejiggered, ⁓ third line, was Yanni Gord, Dominic James engaged, Consolves was out on the ice. And I think Declan Carlisle and Emile de Lilleberg were your defenders. So it's your third pairing. So you got your third line, your third pairing out there. St. Louis does what he does. You he brings the Suzuki line out and There was a little bit of possession early on. ⁓ and you're kind of like gripping the edge of your seat, but they did a good job. think they blocked a shot, got them puck out and then, know, Dominic James almost ended the game. I mean, was probably Dobrish's best game, ⁓ best save of the night. was a tremendous for him to go and be able to get that two on one. Exactly. little two on one with the Consolidus who I thought played a little bit better once he got dropped down to that line. ⁓ And then James, you know, with his speed cuts to the middle of the ice and you know, it's just a really nice pad save. So yeah, that's one of those little subtle things that you may not notice. It's probably doesn't show up in the box sheet. That's it's one of the few times throughout the, first few games where St. Louis was able to get that, that line of matchup that was in their favor. And if you look at the numbers, that line has not done well at five on five. Uh, the Suzuki, Slavkovsky, Caulfield line. Yeah, they've put up the points on the power play. But five on five, I don't think they have a goal. Honestly, I think they've been outscored three or four, nothing at this point by the Surrelly line. That's going to change heading into Montreal. Now that Marty gets last change as far as the lines, it's going be interesting to see who he picks on how quick Cooper can get either, you know, whatever the Gord line looks like, whatever the Surrelly line looks like. So it's going to be really key for the lightning to start winning face-offs up in Montreal to be able to get those line changes on when the matchup dictates Entering the lineup today for Tampa, you had Declan Carlisle and you had Sabrin into the lineup, out of the lineup, Charles Edward de Stou, who was injured. He was out and so was Connor Gickey. What was your impression of Sabrin? Sabrin is Sabrin. I know the reason why Cooper did it and he can talk about, you know, and bringing energy and having a role and Scott Sabrin was in there to hit Josh Anderson as many times as he could on the ice. That's it. played in simple and that's why I sovereign was in, he does have a little bit offensive skills. So it's not like it's a total loss. Um, God blessed the big man when they had Curtis Douglas, um, on the line, know, Douglas had one, one role and that was it. He, he wasn't an offensive player. Um, sovereign plays with that physical edge. You know, you talk about people who get under other players skin. I think sovereign's like that. What I was surprised was honestly, was that sovereign was on the ice at all with. two minutes to go in a tied game. I was just about to ask you that almost a must win game. know, Cooper didn't get away from rolling his lines. Once the lightning kind of got their game going on, he rolled his lines constantly, including late in third period, including overtime. think sovereign had, you know, so would have been Perry, Gurgensons and sovereign, you know, they had regular shifts and overtime. He doesn't shy away from, putting his bottom six out there in, um, in big situations. He trusts his players. Does Sabrin play game three? I don't know. You you still have Oliver Bjorksrand you can bring in too, if you're looking to, you know, boost that offense a little bit on the fourth line. Maybe he does play. He serves a role. I don't think it's a deterrent. I don't think that whole physical deterrent thing works in the NHL. I think it's something fans talk about. If someone's going to make a bad hit, they're going to do it no matter who's in the lineup, right? You know, if, if Sabrin's in, if Arbor Jackage is in, you know, the bad hits are still going to be bad hits. But that being said, know, Sabrin played to his role. He got under the Canadian skin. He laid out Anderson. lot of Montreal fans weren't happy with the hit. I wasn't thrilled with the hit just because of the timing, but it was a dumb hit. The crowd was wondering why it was a major. always call, you're always going to see those called a major from now on, just so that the refs can review it. There was no head contact. know, the puck was. I guess within the same County at one point. they, they reduced it to a minor, much like the Anderson hit on this too. You know, those were minor hits. There should have been minor penalties. That's what they were called. So he did what he had to do. Eight, nine minutes of him a night isn't going to kill this team. So Justin, the other edition was defenseman Declan Carlisle. What was your impression of Carlisle? Who was he paired with the majority of the game? So he was paired with Lillebird for the game. I don't think he stood out either way, get a struggling or. being the next Bobby or, ⁓ one of the nice things that bringing him in is it gives you a pairing where both guys can play either side. They're both left handed shot defensemen, but they've played on the right side a lot this year. So they're comfortable, ⁓ flipping back and forth, which I think sometimes helps the lightening with the way they do their defensive coverage. ⁓ there's a lot of kind of flip flopping in the zone as they're tracking their, their, their men. So I thought he played fine. ⁓ personally, I would have liked to see Max Crozier in, I think. Crozier gives you a little bit more offensive ability, but Cartlisle is fine. He's been what he's been all season long. He's a solid, you know, replacement level player. He's a great, he's a good third pairing defenseman. So he came in, he did well. I think you'll probably see that rotation stay as long as this dude was out. ⁓ which we don't really know how long it's going to be. It's going be day to day for the rest of his life. ⁓ if the Lightning can, can help it. We got the two day break, which is nice, ⁓ for the Lightning kind of helps them reset and get ready. They're actually flying up to Montreal today. So they're going to be up there, kind of get used to the atmosphere a bit and then, um, get comfortable and get this thing started again on Friday. Yeah. Friday game three will be seven o'clock at the bell center in Montreal. As someone who's been to the bell center many times expect an electric atmosphere. They'll pack in well over 20,000 to the bell center. It's Montreal, it's playoff time. It's an atmosphere, honestly, is I've been to over 170 different venues. It's probably one of the top three and I would probably put that right up there with going to a game at Notre Dame Stadium. And I've been to Kansas basketball games. It's as good as anything that you will see. Justin, let's take a real quick look around the NHL five series right now are tied one to one, but there are three series right now with the two nothing league Carolina with two tight wins against the Ottawa senators, the Philadelphia flyers. controlled the penguins for the better part of the first two games. They're up to nothing heading back to Philadelphia and Colorado with a two one overtime win yesterday. They're up to nothing in the series against the Los Angeles Kings. Justin of those three, which team can make a comeback and make that a series? ⁓ If Ottawa could ever stay out there on their blue line, I'd give them a shot. know we kind of talked about this before the podcast. We've sent some texts on it. I know Pittsburgh has looked at like absolute garbage the first two games, but I still think they have a chance. I think with them, it just takes one. And I think the longer it goes, I think the better cross beam probably feels. don't know what kind of injury he's playing with, but he's definitely playing with something. I would be amazed if he's at 50 % right now. He just. doesn't look like Sidney Crosby. He looks invisible. Yeah. He looks invisible out there. I've watched both of those games. The penguins overall, it reminds me of when they lost to Boston in 2013 in the Eastern conference finals, they scored two goals and four games. They're playing in the offensive zone, but they're not getting any quality chances whatsoever. The flyers have defended them easily. The flyers look quicker. Flyers are younger, of course, but they're right now the ultimate counter puncher. think the only thing I worry about if I'm Rick talk, it is with the energy that they are going to get from their home crowd and they are going to get a lot of energy. Are they going to be as disciplined feeding off that energy, trying to create offense? It's a lot easier to play defense on the road. You stay, you stay composed. Once you get that extra adrenaline, are you going to take chances that you haven't? In the first two games. I think that's the penguins hope right now, because if the flyers continue what they're doing, the penguins are going to need some bounces to go their way. And I think if, if the penguins get a couple of those bounces, if they get some dumb goals or something like that, I think they can kind of get in the flyers heads a little bit. Like I said, they're a very young team. They haven't been through, you know, a playoff run like this. Heck, you know, Matrone was playing college, what, three weeks ago. So it's. It's one of those things where an older team like Pittsburgh could find a way to start winning some ugly games. They do have to be better in front of the do have to start putting some pressure on Vlodar. But again, you know, you got a goalie in there who hasn't really been playoff tested that much. you know, get some shots on Vlodar, make him work a little bit. It's kind of the same thing with the Lightning and Dobish, you know, is make the guy work and make him prove that he can be a playoff goalie. So. Of those three, I think Colorado is going to probably win in four or five. I just, they're just a better team than, than, again, with Ottawa, it's just the injuries. mean, I think I saw like Zoob's hurt now. And, ⁓ I think one of their other defensemen was, was banged up as well. They don't know if they're going to, he's going to play Cleveland. I think Tyler Cleveland was the other one. So they just can't catch a break health wise, which it's unfortunately part of the game. You know, it's you fight so hard down the stretch. ⁓ a lot of these players are worn out and it's the injuries start creeping up. So, they just got Sanderson back and I Sanderson played, I think over half the minutes in game two, the double overtime loss that they had. Sanderson's one hell of a player. I mean, he is just a great skater fluid out there sees the ice extremely well of the three though, Justin, I still think Ottawa has the best chance. I'm waiting for Frederick Anderson to come back to earth. He hasn't played this well all year and in games one and two, he was the difference and why Carolina was able to get those two tight wins. I think he comes down to earth a little bit. I think they go back to Ottawa. If the senators can get game three, I think this series goes six or seven. still believe that it's just a bad matchup for Ottawa just because of the pressure Carolina brings though. ⁓ yeah, Anderson has been playing really well, but But when you have a defense that's already struggling with injuries and being able to play like how many times can Sanderson play 25 minutes, 30 minutes? How many times can Thomas Chabot who's like, I mean, he's got like Wolverine like hearing, ⁓ healing here. mean, broke his arm three weeks ago and he's back out there. You know, what's he, what's his status level? So it's Carolina just wears you down and maybe another team, maybe if Ottawa was playing Boston, I would like their chances a little bit better, even if they were playing Buffalo. ⁓ you know, you talk about that, you know, that hype of playing in front of the home crowd. I think Buffalo is kind of going through that right now as well. haven't, you know, the ad they pulled out game one, but they did not start very well. And you know, last night's game, they struggled a little bit too. It's a real thing, you know, trying to impress your, your home fans, feeding off that energy. I mean, it's going to be like that in Montreal for game three. I mean, that place is going to be, like you said, it's going be nuts. The good thing with Montreal is that they went through it last year, right? Um, these players have a little bit of playoff experience. You know, Jared was talking about it. There's six or seven players. who were part of that Stanley Cup team in, 2021, ⁓ that lost to the lightning. So, you know, these teams have gone through, yes, those players have gone through it. think they'll handle a little bit better, but, ⁓ yeah, it's always, it's always fun when the series switch, ⁓ locations to see what changes in the series, how the play styles, ⁓ change. So, yeah, I think there's still a lot of hockey in this first round for a lot of these series. Well, for the lightning, the next game is going to be on Friday night at the Bell Center in Montreal. It's going to be a seven o'clock face off. We are going to come back with our instant reaction of game three right after that. So expect that podcast to be out and available by mid morning on Saturday. You can read all of Justin's recaps and his previews for game three at www.rawcharge.com for Justin Godfrey. I'm Jason link is Thank you very much for joining us today. Please hit that like and subscribe button and go bolts. Go bolts. Thank you for listening to back checking the bolts. We are free and available on all platforms, including Apple, Spotify, I heart radio, Amazon, YouTube, and Deezer. If you enjoyed it, please be sure to subscribe and leave a review. You can follow Justin on blue sky at raw charge.com. 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