Stars Make Losing Ugly Look Ok In A Close 5-4 Loss To Tampa

They were AWFUL…yet they only list by one goal.

sad nightt. 81-1 is still fine.. i geuss

Known as Kari Lehtonen

You can’t allow him to continually face 35-40 shots a game. The defense has to take pride in what tey do, and they just aren’t right now. This game probably depletes most of the confidence they have built over the past few weeks.

I’ll say this. The special teams were awful. Awful. Pitiful. Terrible. Atrocious. Just…bad.

That said, the team speed of TB forced the Stars into all those penalties, meaning the 5 on 5 was bad as well. The whole thing was just so hard to watch.

It’s the same old song. Teams that aggressively attack the Stars with speed will be rewarded. This is a slow team.

A lack of effort is due to a little bit of complacency because of stellar play by Kari, or maybe the success of the offense. I know thats probably a reach but I got nothing else? I hope Crawford uses a little bit of that fire he used to display in his coaching skate them hard reinforce there are no “easy” games in this league. And given the record the last 2 years there have no reason to be getting complacent.

was watching the Toronto Maple Leafs game simultaneously.

…but I still think Kari Lehtonen did a great job, considering that he got no support from anyone on defense.

4 of the 5 Lightning goals were on the power play — that’s an awful stat in itself, and even worse when you consider that the PK was 20% through the night. However, power play shots are usually higher-quality than the norm, especially against a team with miserable defense like the Stars, and Lehtonen was just as stellar against all the even-strength shots as he usually is — 33 saves on 34 shots, which would easily qualify as elite in any other situation.

And then, in the other games, Kari’s been very good at stopping power play shots — 90% in the game against the Blues, 85% against the Red Wings, and 81.25% against 16 power play shots against the Islanders. In all of these games he faced a ton of shots, and stopped most of the even strength attacks.

I don’t think it’s really fair to Lehtonen to say that he wasn’t great — he played just as well even-strength as he did in any of the other games, maybe even better, and it takes more than an elite goalie to have a great penalty kill. This team’s skaters have some real problems that extend beyond our goalie’s abilities.

Fun Stat Of The Night: Kari Lehtonen has the best even-strength save percentage of all goalies that’ve faced more than 100 shots this season, with a save percentage of .965! The three next-best goalies are Jonas Hiller, Chris Mason, and Craig Anderson (not necessarily in that order).

And a fun comparison: Lehtonen has faced more even-strength shots than Brodeur, and let in less goals, in one less game.

And now that we’ve lost one, I fully expect Raycroft to start on Thursday. I don’t know what the numbers are, but it really seems like we are DOMINATING at even strength. It’s the special teams that is causing us all this trouble.

If we go 5 for 5 tonight, you’re looking at a 4-1 win… that’s a horrifying thought.

Did you, in fact, finish the KFC Doubledown?

during the post game show he said that the main thing missing from this defense is the territorial aggressiveness that you have to have around your net.

5 on 5 they have not been bad. They have been playing pretty good team defense as well. I have been very encouraged how well they have been swarming the other team as they try to enter the star’s zone. Forwards coming back to support and very good poke checking to cause turn overs. This has been a strong positve in every game I have seen.

That said, the PK was attrocious. The one slapper from the point that went off of Downie’s ass and in, while flukie could have been prevented with strong boxing out. This defense is not strong enough in their defense around the crease. Teams are getting 2nd and 3rd opportunities right on Kari’s lap. If you have a “throw your weight around” kind of defenseman mentality around the crease then you could cut down on easily a third of those shots against last night. Furthermore, alot of those cross ice tap in’s don’t go in because you are positionally strong and boxing out.

But I am pleased that our offense continues to hit the 4 goal mark. Even with an extremely poor defensive showing we can put the puck in the net. I think the defense is correctable. Maybe through coaching and practice, maybe through trades (Sell Tom SELL!). But Razor’s 2 of 3 theory is in place in our offensive prowess and goaltending. We don’t need our defense to be stellar just solid and not allowing multiple chances 2 feet from the net.

I think a trade or two can be pulled off even without new ownership. Think Mattias Nordstrom type player. Move Nisky or maybe even Daley, package in a Brunnstrom if necessary. The Elite offensive defenseman piece can wait for new ownership in my opinion because this team has enough offensive firepower for the time being.

To even suggest that Kari wasn’t spectacular last night is borderline lunacy. One of the 5 goals was off the inside edge of an opponents skate, and the other was off the ass of another. How many shots on goal? Give me (him) a break. He was all over it.