from Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated,
Despite coach Alain Vigneault’s assertions that the Lightning “aren’t dictating” the pace of the series, it’s pretty clear that’s exactly what’s happened during the past two games. The Rangers may be fast, but Tampa Bay has been faster, more insistent on the attack and far more creative. The Lightning are seizing New York’s zone. They’re scoring off the rush. And the Rangers are all but waving hello as they breeze by.
The Lightning have put them on their heels with breakouts and speed through the neutral zone. It’s easy to blame the defense for not slowing the Bolts down, but much of the problem lies in the failings of the forwards to get back and take away Tampa Bay’s numeric advantage. So instead of mucking it up, as they did so effectively in their 2–1 Game 1 victory, the Rangers’ defensemen have too often been forced to fall back and allow the Bolts entry into their end. That lack of aggression is putting too much pressure on goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who looked shaky while facing 40 shots in that 6–5 Game 3 loss.
The All-Star keeper clearly has to find a way to get over the mental hump of his past two beatings. He’s has allowed 12 goals on just 66 shots in the two losses, including the very stoppable 30-foot wrister from Nikita Kucherov that ended Game 3 in overtime, after giving up just 21 goals on 379 shots in his previous 13 games.
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