New equipment changes for goalies don’t faze Markstrom
1 FRESH IS BEST
This is Game 4 on the season for the Canucks, but just No. 2 for the hometown Lightning. The Canucks may be on their third road city in less than a week, but you’d think after the short flight down from Raleigh, N.C., that they’ll be rested. Meanwhile, the Lighting haven’t played since their season-opener Saturday, a 2-1 shootout win at home against the Florida Panthers.
2 NO SCORING WOES HERE
The Canucks have scored 12 times in three games. In a league where the average win needs just three goals, you’d think they’d have more than one win.
3 BETTER DEFENCE NEEDED
While goalie Jacob Markstrom was mad at himself on at least two of the goals he let in against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, his teammates were quick to rise to his defence, insisting the bigger problem was that they need to be better as a defensive unit in front of him.
4 TAMPA’S ATTACK
The Lightning scored just once in its 2-1 win over the Panthers. Their previous goal was 33 seconds into the second period of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final in last spring’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
That was a series they lost in seven games, so, yes, they’ve struggled to score over their past four games, but this team is too good to stay quiet.
CREASE 5 COMPARISON
Canucks coach Travis Green said he was pretty happy with how Jakob Markstrom played in the first two games of the series against Calgary. His struggles on Tuesday were plain for everyone to see. In the Tampa goal is Andrei Vasilevskiy, the 24-year-old Russian who was a Vezina Trophy finalist last season.