The Tampa Bay Lightning are limping into Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday, fresh off a brutal 4-1 beatdown from the New York Rangers last night. This team just got humbled twice by the Rangers in a short span, and now our Kraken get to face them.
Lafreniere Went OFF, Lighting Up A Shaky Vasilevskiy
Alexis Lafreniere absolutely went off for the Rangers, scoring twice against none other than Andrei Vasilevskiy. He didn’t waste any time, beating the Lightning goalie from in close just 62 seconds into the game. He wasn’t done, snagging his second at 12:47 of the first period, which made it his team-leading seventh goal of the season already! Ty Kartye, who just put up two goals in New York’s previous 6-2 win over Vancouver, played a huge role, assisting on both of Lafreniere’s goals. Will Cuylle added another in the second, deflecting a shot from Sean Durzi from the point, and Mika Zibanejad sealed the deal with an empty-netter in the third. This wasn’t just a loss for Tampa Bay; it was a thumpin’ that snapped their four-game winning streak. And get this: the Rangers also smacked them 5-1 in New York’s home opener on October 1st. Talk about a bad matchup for the Bolts!
Garand’s Heroics Set The Stage For A Hungry Kraken
Lafreniere is straight-up on fire, man. He’s got goals in four straight games, and he even notched a hat trick in a 5-2 home win over the Islanders earlier this month. The guy’s only 25 and was the first pick in the 2020 draft, so he’s living up to the hype. But the real clutch performance in goal for the Rangers came from Dylan Garand. This 24-year-old stepped up huge, making 25 saves after starting netminder Igor Shesterkin was declared out for the season last Friday. Garand snagged his second straight win and even got serenaded with “Dylan, Dylan” chants from the crowd. Meanwhile, Vasilevskiy only managed 19 saves for the Lightning. The Rangers winning five straight home games to start a season? That’s only happened twice before, in 1983-84 and 1990-91. This team is clearly reeling from these back-to-back losses to New York, and now they’ve gotta fly across the country to face our Kraken.
So, what does this mean for our boys? The Lightning are hosting Seattle on Thursday, and after getting beaten down twice by the Rangers, they’re heading into Climate Pledge Arena on shaky ground. Our Kraken need to come out firing and capitalize on a team that just saw its star goalie look, well, not so star-like, and got absolutely dominated. Let’s show the Bolts what a real Emerald City welcome feels like, and let’s send them home with another L!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
Leave a Reply