Finally getting around to the next couple; the start of the semester is always a bit crazy for me. We’ve had a string of close games, including a shootout victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, this OT victory over the Lightning, and a tight battle with the Florida Panthers. In all cases, I think we can see that our offence is still struggling, even with Dustin Byfuglien in the fold. Things could certainly stand to get better (our PDO is still balls-low), but I will forward the fact that we knew the offence would be problematic going into the season. Let’s have a look at the Lightning game…
Key
Vertical blue lines — Our goals
Vertical black lines — Their goals
Shaded green — Powerplays
Shaded red — Penalty kills
- After some back-and-forth in the first 30 minutes of the game, the Jets took a serious nosedive, only saved by the fact that we managed a goal near the end of the 2nd. While the goal seemed to spark a small uplift, we fell even further in the 3rd.
- Our saving grace was a bit of a rebound in the OT, finishing with a Kyle Wellwood game-winner. I love that guy.
- Andrew Ladd’s slashing penalty in the late 3rd was dumb dumb dumb. Thankfully, the kill bailed him out.
- One thing that gets lost in our offensive doldrums is that our goaltending has been fantastic. All the small mistakes have been offset by some big play in close games.
- Y’know how we were getting hosed on games we should’ve won? Well, we very likely should not have won this one…
