Watching the highlights from Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning & the Dallas Stars made me wonder how tired these guys are because pretty much every goal included some bad defense to allow the goal-scorer to get open or, in the case of Tampa’s 4th goal, a terrible & lazy change from 2 Dallas Stars to allow a 3-on-1.
Those are mental mistakes so were they just not ready for tonight’s game?
The 1st goal was a terrible turnover as Dallas D Miro Heiskanen falls down near the bench and for some reason thinks it’s a good idea to try to make a blind pass through the middle while he’s falling down instead of just eating it or sending it up the boards. The pass was intercepted by Nikita Kucherow to put the Lightning up 1-0 just 5:33 into a very important Game 3.
The next goal was a great shot from Stamkos going upper left from a tough angle but to get open, Dallas D Esa Lindell tried to throw a hip check and misses but I think he should see that cross-ice pass coming to one of the best players in the NHL and break it up. Maybe he’s worried about Stamkos getting behind him but that would be a tough play to make with Stamkos trying to stay onside.
On Dallas’ 1st goal to make it a 1-goal game with 8+ minutes remaining, Tampa Bay has all 5 players in the corner and they’re all watching the puck. A puck battle is lost in the corner and the #PuckWatchers got to Watch the Puck go into their own net instead of trying to defend a player. It’s a great spot to watch Jason Dickinson shoot a puck into the net. If you want to watch, buy a ticket!
Under a minute into the 2nd, there are 6 players behind the net & beneath the goal line battling for a loose puck. Dallas F Joe Pavelski wanted to go back there and make it 4-on-3 but he thought better of it but, he didn’t cover anyone, either, so when the puck comes loose & TB F Anthony Cirelli gets to it first, it’s an easy pass to a wide-open Victor Hedman for a shot and a 3-1 lead. Oh yeah AND…Dallas was on the PK so they only had 4 players on the ice.
The 5th goal is the bad change and it looks like it’s Joe Pavelski & Joel Kiviranta but, hey, at least they avoided that minus-1, right?
Tampa Bay goes up 5-1 and it looks like the problem with Dallas was they were reacting to the play instead of reading the play & reacting to their reads.
Heiskanen scored in the 3rd to make it 5-2 but at that point, it didn’t appear to matter.
Game 4 is Friday at 7pm on NBC and Dallas better play better in that one or all this time in the bubble will be for nothing but that Western Conference Clarence S. Campbell Bowl that nobody cares about. Each player can get that trophy for a day and see if anyone cares to see that in person. Does anyone even take care of those Conference Champion Trophies?
