that we overcome injury? Yes.

I don’t think anyone thought it was possible to continue on this path of success after losing the key players we have, but indeed, after Brindy went down with a torn ACL…if it is possible it seems this team just got better.

(Speaking of Brindy as an aside here, the day after getting surgery to repair his torn ACL his dad caught him lifting 55lb weights..the man is a machine.)

Anyway, last night’s game just went to show just how well this team can bounce back. We lost the last game 4-2 and instead of crumbling into a spiral of sinking in the standings we came back and beat the Lightning 5-1 in a game that could have easily been 9-0. A great effort from the goal forward and with only two penalties on our part it was a well disciplined game too. So first for what I noticed about those in the white sweaters.

Lecavalier and St. Louis: You knew when they were on the ice just because they are “big guys” for them, but they got shut down last night. A couple months ago it would seem our guys would be hesitant to hit them or take them off the puck but not tonight.

Mike Smith: Wow, I didn’t watch much of him while he was with the Stars but he looked like Turco…except for the part where Turks stops the puck. He played the puck more than his defensemen and there were at least 4 occasions where he was lucky we weren’t getting to the net with the puck faster because he took a really long time to get back to the net after playing it. I think they need to get him out of the West mindset that he can rely on his defense to bail him out because with a team like Tampa the goaltender is the one to bail the team out. (Hence the reason they go through goaltenders so much)

Boyle: I know everyone in Tampa loves you and you are their franchise defenseman or whatever but get over yourself.
He wrote some really nasty things about us in the paper saying how we were diving because the penalties were clearly uneven. Could it be that perhaps once your team got frustrated at 3-1 they started being careless? Nah. Not to mention the little fact that he grabbed Erik Cole around the head and yanked him back. You don’t do that to a guy who has broken his neck and it is even stupider to get mad because you get a penalty for it.

On to the Canes

Samsonov: What an absolute steal this guy was. I doubt Chicago would have waived him if they knew the team that picked him up would put him on a top line where he would belong and he would be a one man show. Another 3 point night last night for him…we couldn’t ask for more from #14

I could actually mention everyones name here because everyone just did their jobs last night but I won’t do that. Samsonov is just one guy I am completely impressed with.

We only have 14 games left (28 points) and it is so important for us to continue the way we were last night if we want to play any more games after April 4th.