NHL Stadium Series 45: The Pageantry! The Fights! The Athleticism! The Fights! The Fights! The...Fights.
Raymond James Stadium played host to a cadre of hockey fans who were probably hoping for some poolside interludes between periods of on-ice action. What they got were freezing temps and hot tempers. Was the game good? Depends on who you ask. According to Statler and Waldorf (Strike that.) Cletus and Uncle Ruckus (Behave!) Tim McGraw and P.K. Subban, it wuz awll about th' fahghts, mayun!*
To be fair, following the lamp getting lit by Tampa Bay eleven seconds after the puck drop, the options for making this game meet expectations when the league's most penalized team visits the Sunshine State inevitably came down to a conga line of gold sweaters going to and from the penalty box. The Bolts had around twenty minutes of power play and they made good use of that time to come back from a four-goal deficit.
The outcome? I'll get to that in a minute. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the goalie fight. Like all goalie fights, it looked like two cartoon bears fighting over a Hostess Ding Dong. Seven of those minutes belonged to Boston's goalie, Jeremy Swayman. A little past halfway through second period, he came out swinging with all the swagger of an angry mite-league soccer dad. The target of his ire, Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy, had to do the multi-fling glove drop and then grinned and tossed his locks like a Breck Girl** on her way to detention. Vas held his own against Swayman. After that, it was all anyone seemed to be able to talk about.
Then Kucherov found the back of Boston's net during third period, the clock ran out, overtime went scoreless, with the Bolts and the Bruins frozen in an amber colored five to five. Tampa Bay's Jake Guentzel won the shoot-out moving the needle with a final score of TBL 6 - BOS 5.
The three stars of the game were Nikita Kucherov, (TBL,) Morgan Geekie (BOS)***, and Brandon Hagel (TBL.)
On paper and in the annals of the league, it could be said that Tampa Bay defeated Boston. Nah. This one needs an asterisk. Tampa had the advantage of all those power play minutes. Boston might as well have had me out there playing for all the presence they afforded the rink once they started racking up penalty minutes and stacking players in the naughty bin like cordwood. The zen of this game is that Boston defeated Boston. Entertaining? Somewhat. Good hockey? I'll hold out for Bruins to exercise company manners at The Garden and teach the guests some respect.
*And we are supposed to care what they think because...? Additional annoyance points go to Subban for singing the Predators goal song at home base. My cat hid my knitted hand grenade after that and tried to feed me a sugar free Werthers to calm me down.
**Ask your grandmother.
***This has to be the third best hockey name after Toe Blake and Ty Rattie
To be fair, following the lamp getting lit by Tampa Bay eleven seconds after the puck drop, the options for making this game meet expectations when the league's most penalized team visits the Sunshine State inevitably came down to a conga line of gold sweaters going to and from the penalty box. The Bolts had around twenty minutes of power play and they made good use of that time to come back from a four-goal deficit.
The outcome? I'll get to that in a minute. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the goalie fight. Like all goalie fights, it looked like two cartoon bears fighting over a Hostess Ding Dong. Seven of those minutes belonged to Boston's goalie, Jeremy Swayman. A little past halfway through second period, he came out swinging with all the swagger of an angry mite-league soccer dad. The target of his ire, Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy, had to do the multi-fling glove drop and then grinned and tossed his locks like a Breck Girl** on her way to detention. Vas held his own against Swayman. After that, it was all anyone seemed to be able to talk about.
Then Kucherov found the back of Boston's net during third period, the clock ran out, overtime went scoreless, with the Bolts and the Bruins frozen in an amber colored five to five. Tampa Bay's Jake Guentzel won the shoot-out moving the needle with a final score of TBL 6 - BOS 5.
The three stars of the game were Nikita Kucherov, (TBL,) Morgan Geekie (BOS)***, and Brandon Hagel (TBL.)
On paper and in the annals of the league, it could be said that Tampa Bay defeated Boston. Nah. This one needs an asterisk. Tampa had the advantage of all those power play minutes. Boston might as well have had me out there playing for all the presence they afforded the rink once they started racking up penalty minutes and stacking players in the naughty bin like cordwood. The zen of this game is that Boston defeated Boston. Entertaining? Somewhat. Good hockey? I'll hold out for Bruins to exercise company manners at The Garden and teach the guests some respect.
*And we are supposed to care what they think because...? Additional annoyance points go to Subban for singing the Predators goal song at home base. My cat hid my knitted hand grenade after that and tried to feed me a sugar free Werthers to calm me down.
**Ask your grandmother.
***This has to be the third best hockey name after Toe Blake and Ty Rattie