Stanley Cup Finals – Game 2 Recap
A Storm of Goals Getting Passed Andre Vasilevsky
Hello and welcome everybody to another addition of the Hog Report as we complete Game 2 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals with Colorado Avalanche DOMINATING Tampa Bay Lightning for a 7-0 win. 11 goals against in two games for Andrei Vasilevsky who appears more than mortal as the Avalanche continually thrash him at home. To be fair, you cannot put even half of these goals on Vasilevsky, the whole team was just entirely outplayed and outperformed. The speed of this team as a whole and the ability to go from north to south and back again in a fluid motion, just cannot be matched by any team in this league. Unless the Lightning are able to clog the neutral zone and slow these guys down a gear, Viktor Hedman and the boys will get exposed over and over again. Cooper maybe switching into a Defensive switch approach as they approach the defensive zone should be considered. You can live and die by Vasilevsky taking shots from the high slot and point, but you cannot live by allowing so much traffic and action in front of the net.
Coming Out Early With A Barrage of Goals
The Avalanche drew first blood as they scored on the power play about 3 minutes into the game. They never took their foot off the pedal from there. Vasilevsky had an incredible save on a sweet move by Mikko Rantanen but shortly after Colorado found themselves on a 2-on-1 with a sweet breakout move by Josh Manson and he buried it to go ahead 2-0 with 13 minutes roughly left in the 1st. Avalanche forecheck created another opportunity later in the 1st and Andre Burakovsky capitalized quickly with a well-placed shot. Lightning did not do much at all and had 2 shots. Vasilevsky stopped a late breakaway on Burakovsky to prevent going down 4-0 after the 1st.
Lightning Need A Spark on Offense
Nothing changed as a costly turnover in the defensive zone by a stellar forecheck found its way to the front of the net as Valeri Nischukin buried a one-timer past Vasilevsky to go up 4-0. Lightning were left floundering around as they struggled to finish with 5 shots. You can tell Lightning coach John Cooper had no intention of pulling Vasi and it’s kind of a good thing because this could have easily hit double digits. This Colorado team that night was UNSTOPPABLE! As the second period came to a close, Darren Helm created a chance for himself on the transition and sniped one high glove on Vasi to go up 5-0. Once again, Vasilevsky kept this from becoming an absolute joke.
Conn Smythe for Cale?
Cale Makar’s 1st goal, 6th goal for the Avalanche, is truly remarkable. Avalanche are on the penalty kill and somehow the puck trickles to Makar’s stick and within two seconds he is out of the zone on a 2-on-1 and buries one past Vasilevsky with a sweet snapshot to make it 6-0. I would gladly argue that this kid is the best player on the ice every night and that’s even being teammates with Nathan Mackinnon. He scores later in the period on the power play with a sweet tic tac toe play to hammer another nail into the blue and white coffin at 7-0. Tune in tonight with game 3 at 8:00pm and thanks again you beautiful people for looking at this.
