NHL Game Day 10/4: Rangers at Lightning

Sloppy.

NYR-2
TB-1

Mike Smith played pretty well stopping 39 of 41 shots faced in the game. He deserved better.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
18:08 NYR Markus Naslund, (Scott Gomez)

Third Period
03:57 TBL Martin St. Louis, (Vincent Lecavalier)
14:16 NYR Brandon Dubinsky, (Daniel Girardi, Paul Mara)(PP)

The Lightning appear to me to be a team that is still looking for its new identity. Whether you loved or hated John Tortorella and his system, you knew the Lightning were going to have structure moving out of their zone and you knew that they were going to be disciplined. Tonight the team had no structure moving out of their zone, and because they spent so much time in their own end they took a ton of penalties. The young Lightning defense clutched to chipping the puck up off the boards rather than looking for an outlet pass and getting some speed moving through the neutral zone. That's a problem. They need to show more poise and confidence quickly if the Lightning are going to be successful.

Janne Niskala had 1 shot and 2 blocked shots in 16:13. I'd rate his performance as fair.

Vladimir Mihalik had 1 shot and 3 hits in 11:54 in his NHL debut. He beat my expectations. Good job Vladdy.

Steven Stamkos was -1 with 2 shots and 2 hits in 8:25. He was also 50% on draws. He was stopped on a key breakaway in the Third Period that would've given the Lightning the lead. In my opinion, he needs to be up around at least 15 minutes a night and soon for the Lightning's offense to be as potent as it needs to be.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.