Thing is, the back breaking goal came from a PP. That PP came from a total accident by Gio. I mean, I hate tripping calls like that. Most other penalties, you know what you are doing when you take them and you could do something different to avoid them.
But a tripping call where Gio isn't even looking at their guy, the stick gets into his skates and he gets tripped? Why should the player doing the tripping get called on something like that?
We didn't play badly at all. We came into an arena where we usually get smoked and were the better team for easily 2/3rds of the game. Tampa had the extra quality that we just don't have. That was a good honest effort by the Flames and yes, it hurts to lose, but that wasn't us being awful and getting our comeuppance. It was us skating hard and deserving way more than what we got.
If I Tampa, I wouldn't be happy with that effort. They got the win thanks to a dodgy tripping call and were fortunate we couldn't grab that 2nd. If I was Hartley, I would be happier with my teams effort than Cooper.
But, there were some real issues. Sorry, Wideman has let you down far too often this season Bob to put him on the ice with less than 2 minutes to go. This isn't last season anymore. We have a top 4, you alternate between them before you go to Wideman. I mean, just floating in his own zone with the puck and he looks surprised when he gets his pocket picked? Awful.
But, we're gonna have to put up with him struggling. His contract and the fact he still has 18 months of term means he is untradeable in this form. Do you bench him and bring in Engelland for tomorrow? Very tempting.
But all in all, I am happy with the effort. Just lacking a little bit on application. Made some errors that got punished late on, we couldn't capitalise on the pressure we had. Hey ho.
Hopefully we can pinch the game tomorrow against the Caps.
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