Lightning Disintegrate in Game 6

Oh what a fickle game hockey can be.  The Lightning have played well in five of their last six periods.

But when it fell apart, it really fell apart.

Instead of celebrating an Eastern Conference championship they are now heading back to New York for an anything-can-happen Game 7.

Puck Daddy shares a few thoughts on the Lightning:

Here’s the case the Lightning are making for their own comfort, in light of this Game 6 disaster:

1. That disaster is too harsh, and that the team has played five good periods in their last six periods; it’s just that the six period was a giant pile of suck. “I think in a matter of seven or eight minutes there in that third period, we gave up more scoring chances and turned over more pucks, more than we did in all of Game 5 combined, the 60-minute game,” said Cooper.

2. That they’ve played quite well at Madison Square Garden. They didn’t lose to the Ranger there in the regular season. They’ve outscored them 9-4 in winning there twice in the series. “For whatever reason, we’re better on the road than we are at home the last couple of times,” said center Steven Stamkos

3. That despite the Rangers having thumped them in Game 6, and despite every single trend going in New York’s direction heading into a Game 7, that both teams are under the same Sword of Damocles heading into Friday night.

“There’s pressure on both teams,” said Stamkos. “I don’t care what kind of spin you put on it. You throw everything out the window.”

That might as well include the Game 6 third-period game tape.

“How do I think we’re going to respond?” said Cooper, pausing as if perturbed. “We’re going to respond the same way we have every time our backs are against the wall. You’ve watched it happen all year. You know how they’ll come out.”

We know how they went out in Game 6: With a whimper, with a trip to the Cup Final on the line.

And Friday night, it could be ‘class dismissed’ for this young Lightning team.

Image by Lisa Gansky.