Thursday, April 08, 2004
How Habby got his groove back.
Nikolai Khabibulin and the Lightning took Game 1 of their opening round playoff series tonight, 3-0 over the Islanders. Khabibulin had been up and down throughout the year, but tonight he turned maybe his best performance in a Lightning uniform, rivaled only by his work in Game 6 of the Washington series last season, a triple-overtime affair that sent the Bolts into the second round. Habby was especially brilliant in the second period, when the Isles outshot the Bolts 15-5. He made several incredible saves, stoning Mark Parrish on two occasions in particular. And when Khabibulin was in trouble, his defense bailed him out, with Jason Cullimore (skate) and Dan Boyle (body) making saves in the crease as well.
The Lightning's offense was almost exclusively a product of Islander defenseman Eric Cairns. The first score came five minutes into the second period when Andre Roy, just off the bench, pressured Cairns at the Islander blue line, stole the puck, and came in alone and beat Rick DiPietro. Six minutes later, Cairns had the puck behind his goal to the left, and inexplicably decided to circle the goal and skate out in front, where Freddy Modin was waiting to relieve him of the puck and backhand it past DiPietro. Modin added a power play goal in the third, deftly tipping in a Darryl Sydor wrist shot.
So, all in all, a good result for the Lightning, who came out with energy and passion but were still outplayed by the Islanders for the first two periods. Game 2 is set for Saturday, and the Lightning will have to pick up the overall quality of play, as it will be too much to ask for Khabibulin to play this well again and for Cairns to literally give away two goals once again.
UPDATE: Unbelievably, the St. Pete Times this morning had a banner "Fredrik The Great" headline over the game story. Don't get me wrong - Modin did have a fine game. But there was one big story last night, and it was Khabibulin. At least he was worth a sidebar piece by Gary Shelton, but I have to wonder what beat writer Damian Cristodero has against Habby, as he doesn't even mention him until the ninth graph of the game story. The Trib was a bit more generous, with the story titled "Bolts Find Right Mix", and with Khabibulin the first player mentioned.
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The Lightning's offense was almost exclusively a product of Islander defenseman Eric Cairns. The first score came five minutes into the second period when Andre Roy, just off the bench, pressured Cairns at the Islander blue line, stole the puck, and came in alone and beat Rick DiPietro. Six minutes later, Cairns had the puck behind his goal to the left, and inexplicably decided to circle the goal and skate out in front, where Freddy Modin was waiting to relieve him of the puck and backhand it past DiPietro. Modin added a power play goal in the third, deftly tipping in a Darryl Sydor wrist shot.
So, all in all, a good result for the Lightning, who came out with energy and passion but were still outplayed by the Islanders for the first two periods. Game 2 is set for Saturday, and the Lightning will have to pick up the overall quality of play, as it will be too much to ask for Khabibulin to play this well again and for Cairns to literally give away two goals once again.
UPDATE: Unbelievably, the St. Pete Times this morning had a banner "Fredrik The Great" headline over the game story. Don't get me wrong - Modin did have a fine game. But there was one big story last night, and it was Khabibulin. At least he was worth a sidebar piece by Gary Shelton, but I have to wonder what beat writer Damian Cristodero has against Habby, as he doesn't even mention him until the ninth graph of the game story. The Trib was a bit more generous, with the story titled "Bolts Find Right Mix", and with Khabibulin the first player mentioned.
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