No, it’s nothing big, so don’t freak out. Actually I thought we played fairly well. The Lightning have an absolutely spectacular offensive game, and style, that is very hard to contain for 60 minutes. These arent the New Jersey Devils here folks, they have some spectacular offensive players. So what is it I don’t like? It was something I saw Marc Staal do in that period.
Now that the D are actively getting involved in the offense, scoring (assuming my memory is right here) 6 straight Rangers goals, they seem to be doing things that are very uncharacteristic. The thing that I don’t like that Staal did was what won us the game against the Pens the other day. Thats the defenseman getting involved in the offense when there are fewer than 5 forwards/defenseman on the ice for your team. It’s a big no-no in my book. I don’t mind the defenseman getting involved by taking point shots when it’s 4 on 4, or worse, but I just don’t like it when they take the puck deep, with so much more open ice in your zone, you leave yourself wide open for a counter attack, and counter attack the Lightning did by nearly getting a breakaway, and at least drawing a necessary penalty on Jagr.
You can blame Jagr on that play too, but if the defenseman is the one who actively made the decision to pinch, and Jagr is NOT the guy I want standing between the Lightning forward, and Henrik Lundqvist.
I have no problems at all with the Defenseman getting more involved when we are on the PP or at 5 on 5. But don’t do it with 4 men or less, despite what happened against the Pens.
