Boy this sure went to plan
Pretty much the perfect response to the Washington game. For all of Tampa's speed and precise passing they barely had any real chances. Kucherov hitting the post early on was about it. Once Duchene scored and embarrassed Stamkos in the process I didn't feel we were in any danger of going behind. Varlamov had some good saves where he was really aggressive at the top of his crease, he's looked good with those this year.
Extra delicious was watching the Jolly Blue Giant in their net get wrung up. His flailing leg on the first goal was like watching a beached whale flap about, the second shows the futility of size instead of ability and the third, well. His sense of resignation was palpable. My thanks go to the Zamboni crew at The Ice Palace who quite clearly hate their own team. I hope they assisted the rapid evacuation of the fans who vanished with Soderberg's laser went in. It looked like there was going to be more people on the benches than in the stands.
On an individual level there wasn't really a performance to fault last night. Duchene will obviously draw the bulk of the plaudits but as I said earlier in the game Zadorov looked like he could be the sort of player you expect a defenseman of his size to be. He needs sat down in a room with an endless highlight video of Chris Pronger and told to do that, only that and nothing else but that. Get him playing mean and physical and he's everything you'd ever want on the back end for the next fifteen years. My only complaint really is reserved again for Iginla who needs limited to eight minutes a night plus PP time as soon as possible. Aside from all of that, perfect game. More against the other Floridian beer league outfit at the weekend, please.
