That the 2004 Stanley Cup finals have lived up to expectations is beyond question. Every element that makes playoff hockey great has been on display through the first four games. There’s been hitting, scoring, fighting, great goaltending, energy and atmosphere. It only seems fitting that the series is tied heading into game 5.
Despite losing game 4, Calgary has carried the play throughout most of the series. The Flames’ effort has been unbelievable. There’s a real disparity in talent between these two teams. But Calgary is doing what it has done in every other series in these playoffs. The Flames have proven, time and again, that hard work can close the talent gap when the more talented team fails to work just as hard.
It seems like the altitude affected the Lightning players, particularly late in periods, up in Calgary. Near the end of the second period of game 3, and again near the end of the first period in game 4, Tampa Bay looked gassed. With Fedotenko out indefinitely, the Lightning will have to dress some fourth-line forwards for the time being. Martin Cibak was in for game 4 but didn’t play much. This put a tremendous playing-time burden on Tampa’s top four forwards. If Tampa is missing Fedotenko in game 6 they could be in trouble. The altitude will again wear down the likes of Richards, Modin, Lecavalier and St. Louis. Tampa Bay is functionally going with two lines at critical points. That’s tough at Calgary’s altitude.
Tortorella wanted his top forwards taking short shifts to compensate for the altitude burden. The problem is that all those short shifts added up to over 25 minutes of ice-time for his top players. That’s a heavy load to carry, particularly at a higher altitude. A few weeks back I mentioned that I thought the altitude affected San Jose in the Western finals. Now it seems like the altitude is becoming a factor for Tampa Bay. While the players deny it, there’s no question that it is playing some role in the series. I doubt many Lightning players suck down oxygen during the intermissions at the near sea level St. Pete Times Forum.
Five for Fighting
Calgary fans may love it when Iginla drops the gloves, but I can tell you that the Bolts like it more. Lecavalier engaged Iginla in the first half of the first period in game 3 and they both went off with fighting majors. While both Iginla and Lecavalier are big-time scoring threats, Tampa’s depth makes losing Lecavalier for five minutes less problematic. Just after Iginla went to the box for five, Calgary took another penalty. So the Flames were left trying to thwart the league’s best power play without their best penalty killer.
Then, after they killed the penalty Brad Lukowich went to the box. So the Flames’ power play went to work without their most dangerous scoring threat. In the end, no harm was done. But I’m here to tell you that Tampa will gladly encourage Iginla to drop the gloves because it keeps Calgary’s best player off the ice for a quarter of the period. When Iginla is contained the Bolts have a huge advantage. Nothing contains as well as the penalty box.
Special Teams
I have never seen a team as totally committed to aggressive penalty killing as the Calgary Flames in this series. Every time a Flames player gets the puck on his stick on the kill, all four guys breakout into an offensive mode. Talk about fighting fire with fire. Some would say it foolish to take risks on the PK when facing the best power play unit in the playoffs. Sutter and his staff must think just the opposite. The result speaks for itself. Even though Tampa has scored 3 power play goals in the series, they are under the gun every time they get the man-advantage. In game 4, Calgary’s best scoring chances came when they were shorthanded.
Calgary’s penalty killers are working harder than Tampa’s power play guys. Again, altitude could have been a factor in games 3 and 4 when the effort disparity was most pronounced. But Tampa Bay absolutely must ratchet up the effort on the man-advantage in the final three games of this series. Honestly they should approach it like they aren’t even on the power play. As it is, they appear to be expecting their talent and reputation to score goals for them.
The guys with the red sweaters and green hard hats aren’t intimidated by Tampa’s power play in the least.
Perhaps even more surprising has been the success of Calgary’s power play. The Flames are still prone to going on the man-advantage multiple times in a game without sustained success. But, heck, they’ve already scored three power play goals in the series, which is better than any other series they’ve had so far.
And they’ve done it against the top penalty killing unit coming in.
That’s Hockey
Dealing with injuries is part of the deal when it comes to a deep playoff run. But Tampa Bay had stayed surprisingly healthy up until game 3. Ruslan Fedotenko had his face rearranged by the boards on Saturday night and his return is questionable. Without Fedotenko the Lightning are missing a player that has contributed ten goals in the playoffs.
No explanation was given as to why Pavel Kubina was held out of the action in game 4. His scratch was officially listed as “undisclosed.” Methinks the real injury might be a case of the “minus virus.” Pavel is –3 in the series and has had his hands full playing against Iginla’s line.
Jason Cullimore has been Tampa’s best defenseman in the series and he pulled top-pair duty with Sydor in game 4. He performed vastly better against Iginla than Kubina did. Paired with Cullimore, Sydor played perhaps his best game of the playoffs.
When injuries happen, teams have to rely on their depth players. Those are the guys that travel with the team, watch the games from the press box and dream about getting a chance to suit up. Calgary has benefited from tremendous play by their depth players. With their injuries on defense, guys like Steve Montador and Mike Commodore have played very well.
Tampa’s injuries required Tortorella to fashion together a rotating combination of checking forwards for game 4. I’d say it worked out rather well.
Dimitry Afanasenkov has been a solid energy line player for Tampa Bay. It’s probably only a matter of time before he factors in on a big scoring play. In game 3 he looked like the only Lightning player with any energy. In game 4 he kept his effort level up and that afforded the top forwards some much needed rest. In fact, Tampa’s rotating bottom line of Afanasenkov, Roy, Cibak and Dingman were perhaps the best Lightning players in game 4. They can’t score but they work as hard as Calgary’s guys. Tampa’s top forwards could learn a thing or two from watching them.
When you need to insert depth players in the line up, you can only hope that they keep the energy level up and the mistakes to a minimum. So far, both teams have enjoyed success in that department. Game 4 just happened to be Tampa’s first test.
Turn it down
ESPN and ABC’s hockey coverage is a mess. Adding John Davidson to the broadcast crew has been particularly frustrating. Poor Bill Clement, the regular analyst on Disney’s top broadcast team, can barely get a word in. There isn’t a moment of dead air with the long-winded Davidson in the booth. Someone should mention to him that you shouldn’t be the only one laughing at your own jokes.
He’s even gone so far as to make things up out of thin air. During game 1 of the finals he asserted that Lightning coach John Tortorella’s first day on the job was September 11th, 2001. Anyone with half a brain would know that this is patently false. No team waits until September to get a new coaching staff in place. By the second week of September most training camps are finishing up and teams are getting ready for the opening of the exhibition schedule. But what’s worse is that the Lightning hired Tortorella midway through the previous season, in January of 2001, after the existing staff was terminated.
I think the only falsity I’ve heard on ESPN that’s worse than this was when Barry Melrose asserted that no one covers hockey better than ESPN. It’s well known that Disney has been trying to get out from under their deal with the NHL for a while now. NBC gladly stepped in to take over given their anemic sports lineup. Next season, ESPN isn’t going to broadcast any regular season games on their flagship network, opting instead to utilize the limited distribution of their spillover network, ESPN2. I’d hardly call putting the sport on a network not even covered by most basic cable packages nationwide, with that horrible score crawl that obscures your view, with fewer than three games a week, the best coverage you can get.
Conn-Smythe Watch
Tampa Bay
Brad Richards: Seven GWG in the playoffs, a new record. Richards has been Tampa Bay’s most consistent offensive threat throughout the playoffs. When St. Louis and Lecavalier haven’t scored, Richards has. And Richards anchors the best power play unit in the playoffs. He would have to completely fall apart not to win it if Tampa wins the series.
Nikolai Khabiboulin: His stock is falling because of two shaky performances in the finals already. Kiprusoff has been the better goaltender through four games. But to make a 1-0 lead stand up, for almost 57 minutes, on the road, in the finals, when your team needs a win just to keep hope alive…that’s big.
Martin St. Louis: He’s been accused of pressing too much in the finals. I don’t know if that’s true. St. Louis presses on the offensive end every game. But he leads still leads the league in playoff points and that should get him some votes.
Calgary
Jarome Iginla: Without question, the best offensive player in the playoffs. Without Iginla, not only do the Flames not escape the first round, they wouldn’t make the playoffs. He might win it even if Calgary loses the series. That’s how good he his.
Mikka Kiprusoff: This guy has been steadily improving throughout the playoffs. His finals GAA is 1.50, which is a heck of a lot better than Gigure’s last year.
Martin Gelinas: Still has a chance to bury a record 4th series-clinching goal.
Looking Ahead
Tampa Bay is very lucky to have escaped game 4 with the series tied. Now they have home-ice advantage back in the best of 3. But they’ll have to play better than they did up in Calgary. Despite earning the split, Tampa was outscored 4-2 on the road. Game 5 is usually a strong indicator in a tied series. The team that wins game 5, more often than not, goes on to win the series.
But winning in game 5 would require the Bolts to do something they haven’t done in a long time, win back-to-back games. After going on a nine game winning streak across three rounds of these playoffs, Tampa Bay has become woefully inconsistent. The struggles started in the series with Philly. Tampa Bay was able to get that series to a best of three with home-ice, and that made all the difference. A win in game 5 and Tampa will feel pretty good about their chances, even if the series goes seven. If Calgary steals another one on the road in game 5 they’re likely to skate the Cup in front of their home fans on Saturday night. That’s how big game 5 is.
Eric Slusher resides in Spokane, WA and covers the NHL for SportsFiends.com through his weekly Wednesday Morning Skate column and other hockey related articles. Readers can contribute to the Wednesday Morning Skate or send comments to Eric by emailing him at eslusher@sportsfiends.com.
