One of the struggles has been the play of the team;s defense. The defense has allowed 30.2 shots against per game, one of the worst in the league. They have allowed 22 goals in seven games and that is the worst in the Eastern Conference. The Lightning defense has been tighter than this in the past and seems to be struggling by leaving opposing players open and leaving rebounds.
For a Capitals roster that struggled in the first forty minutes before an offensive deluge in the third period, Thompson's support stopped what could have been a one-sided game in the other direction. Despite the lopsided final score, Columbus looked like the better team for much of the first half of the game. The Blue Jackets outshot the Capitals 30-20, out-chanced them 30-25, and had nearly double as many high-danger chances as Washington (15-8) at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.
It didn't do much to help the Marlies in terms of their performance back at five-on-five as Utica continued to dominate possession, scoring chances, and the shot clock. After allowing two goals on as many shots, Akhtyamov looked a little shorn of confidence. He was unsteady to say the least, with some questionable decision-making around leaving his net. He did, however, find a way to stop 13 more shots to keep the deficit at one.
I mean, I am not happy. Guys are going to run me. I am going to try to stand up for myself. I heard the ref say we got a power play, and there really isn't much I can do to him on the ground. Kudos to the guys who were there and got down with him, but like I said, we have to start going to the cage a little harder and make it harder for their goalies.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have two significantly tough Atlantic Division opponents in the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers. However, there's a caveat with both Florida teams. The Lightning have a talented but aging core that may run out of steam at any point. Thus far, they look strong, but there's no telling how much they have left in the tank.
The Devils called up Nico Daws from their AHL affiliate on Wednesday with the expectation he'll work in tandem with veteran Jake Allen, who left their 3-2 win Monday over the Columbus Blue Jackets with cramping. Markstrom played for 20 minutes and stopped eight of the nine shots that he faced.
Florida followed up its nationally-televised opening night win against Chicago with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. The modus operandi was similar with Anton Lundell providing a first period power-play goal and Brad Marchand bagging the go-ahead goal early in the third. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 19 of 20 shots to make Marchand's goal stand as the winner and with assists, newcomers Jeff Petry and Luke Kunin picked up their first points as Panthers.
Igor Shesterkin is simply the best at what he does. Much to the chagrin of many crab people, he is compensated accordingly for that skillset. This obviously will not sustain, but a .985 save percentage in 2 games is a helluva way to start a season for the former Vezina winner. After a pretty down year statistically, it's clear Shesterkin wanted to get this year off on the right foot.
The handful of young players that were perceived to be fighting for the one or two open jobs did not do much to secure a position on the Bruins roster on Thursday in Washington. But one player who was almost an afterthought to this point showed up in a big way in the B's 3-1 win over the Capitals. And Joonas Korpisalo played like a goalie who wants more playing time than he got llast year.
As we said a couple of weeks ago when we started, we were hopeful about getting something done and getting that certainty going into the new season. He has been good for us. He obviously has a lot of good hockey ahead of him. We have that out of the way. It is like any deal. There is a give and a take on both sides. I think the number is a good number for us. It gives Anthony some security. We're happy to get it done.
The highlight of Reimer's career was definitely during Game 5 and Game 6 of the 2013 NHL Playoffs against the Boston Bruins. With the Leafs down 3-1 in the series, Reimer stopped 72 of 74 shots in Game 5 and 6, helping the team force a Game 7 on the road. I hate to talk about the down of his career, but it came one game later, when he was unfortunately in net for the worst collpase in Leafs history,
