PATHETIC BEAT DOWN IN TBAY

The betrothed first round playoff opponents:  Tampa Bay VS Toronto was played out tonight, despite the Leafs coming in at 108 points and the Lightning at 100.  And, that’s not even counting the ever present Boston Bruins lurking at 99 points.

Toronto was without Muzzin and Mathews (again) and sat out the “Soup”.  Steven Stamkos moved up to Tampa’s first line in the absence of Brayden Point and despite 4 legitimate chances in the first period failed to tie Martin St. Louis’ franchise record for all time points by a Lightning player.  Erik Kallgren was solid in the Leaf goal as the first ended in bagels.  A fairly well played period by a couple of teams that didn’t want to get their hands too dirty.

Things changed in the second (understatement).  Tampa started out with an innocent enough looking goal by Chernak to open the scoring.  Nice looking prospect/rookie Brandon Colton got his 20^th off a missed Blackwell assignment and then all of a sudden Leafs Nation wondered – was this going to be a blowout or a punch up ?  Steven Stamkos answered that shortly thereafter with his 34^th on the PP which signified his coronation as the franchise leader in points (954), one more than legendary Martin St. Louis.  To rub it in, Stamkos went out for a celebratory skate to the crowd’s delight.  The Lightning didn’t stop there as Kucherov scored what was the third Tampa goal in 3:34 to make it 4 zip.  Wayne Simmonds did his job by challenging Pat Maroon to a draw.  More to come ?

After Ondrej Palat tipped in a pass from Stamkos to make it 5-0. I could have sworn I saw Kallgren look over to the bench as if to say, “PLEASE”.  No such luck, Kilhorn 6-0, 7-0 ,7-1 and then a shameful goal from Maroon to make it 8 to 1.  As expected there were plenty of dance partners to end off this rather shabby display.  To HOH, it only proved that you never bring a knife to a gun fight.

HOPPER NOTES:  Sometimes, I guess a good ass-kickin’ is what’s called for, after all it only starts to (really) count starting  May 2 – right ?…too many (Taveres, Nylander, Reilly etc, etc) floaters to count on this night…Tampa Bay was 2-9 in their last 11 and Andrie Vasalevski had lost his last 6 decisions…Kyle Clifford’s butt end to take out Corey Perry is unacceptable – 3 games…earlier in the second, Toronto’s Captain was mugged by Hagel and everyone paired off – that is accept for Nylander who chose to watch from the edge without even picking a partner…Boston lost 4-0 to Pittsburgh tonight BTW…so, given your choice, would you take Tampa Bay without Goodrow, Coleman, Gourde and Johnson or Boston without Rask, Krug and Chara ?  Guys I wish I had on my team Ryan McDonough.

Cheers – please comment – SPRING is coming – golf is near !!