The dream of the Stanley Cup escapes when a game of Florida superiority gets stuck. Aleksander Barkov, among others, is responsible for correcting the problem, writes Tommi Seppälä, NH Sport’s journalist for Urheil.
‘s next TV matches will be shown on Sunday 22.5. The fight between Tampa Bay and Florida will be shown on TV2 at 8.15pm. As soon as the game is over, we will move on to the New York Rangers-Carolina match.
Alexander Barkovin On Friday morning, the Florida Panthers, skippered, received a painful lesson about the importance of moderation. NHL reigning champion Tampa Bay Lightning took his “little brother” a second win in the playoffs and pushed the Panthers into a difficult spot.
Tampa solved the game just four seconds before the end of the actual playing time. Ross Colton was able to score a 2-1 victory free kick in front of the goal.
Nikita Kutsherov got the puck behind Florida’s goal. Defenders of the Panthers Gustav Forsling and MacKenzie Weegar both hurriedly behind the goal, and Colton was left free. This is how patient Tampa got his reward.
Tampa was a strong taker in the match at times, but stubbornly defended the center and looked forward to his own opportunity. Florida controlled the puck, but rarely got to dangerous places.
Lightning has won the championship twice in a row. The situation in Florida is particularly precarious as it should now beat its local opponent four times in five matches.
The Panthers ’biggest concern is the inefficiency of force majeure. The fifth-best superiority game in the regular season (24.4%) has not yet scored a goal in the playoffs.
On Friday, it was allowed to try four times, but the itch remained in the barrel again, and the force majeure often did not even turn particularly dangerously. Meanwhile, Tampa has already made four superiority hits in the match series.
It is quite clear that Alexander Barkov is still far from at his best. Two vital home matches passed at zero power. In the regular season more than a hundred points forged Johathan Huberdeaun the balance was one entry point.
The fact that Tampa is still playing without its first center Brayden Pointia, does not directly flatter the stars of Florida. It should have been better now.
There are a lot of tired clichés in hockey, like “the best has to be the best,” but these truths are not repeated in the swamp. Kutsherov and Steven Stamkos were hitting the game package in both Florida home games. Huberdeau, for example, scored one shot on goal on Friday.
And it’s not enough to do it behind a Florida shift bench: well-functioning regular series chains have been broken a long time ago and there is chaos in the superiority composition.
There are already too many skills and options in the combination of the five attackers and no one seems to be leading the whole. Playing Barkov on the line is also a very special solution.
Simple is beautiful in the playoffs – Tampa once again made this art.