GOALS: 2 | ASST: 4 | PTS: 6
SOG: 33 | +/-: 8 TAMPA -- For a period this postseason, Milan Lucic did not recognize the Boston Bruin wearing his No. 17 sweater during film conferences.
What he saw was a athlete that wasn't scoring, wasn't cycling, wasn't obtaining puck battles, and he was confused, to mention the least. How could that be the game of something that scored 30 goals in the normal season and was acquiring a reputation for 1 of the best youth power ahead in the game?
"I don't know what happened," Lucic said Thursday afterward the Bruins' 2-0 victory opposition Tampa Bay in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Finals array. "It was virtually like I went from one player to someone I didn't ambition to be."
Instead of being mighty and intimidating, Lucic was more timid and reserved. Instead of playing a north-south game, he was trying to be too fancy in the aggressive region. Instead of dominating puck battles according the walls, he was losing as many as he was winning, often surrendering the puck to players nowhere near as strong as he.
All of which was reflected in the mathematics. Heading into Thursday's game, Lucic had equitable 2 goals and 5 points in 13 games. He was being outscored by rookie Tyler Seguin, who made his playoff debut in Game 1 of this series and posted more goals (3-2) and more points (6-5) than Lucic in just 2 games.
It was ample to cause a distinct emergency of reassurance for Lucic, who tin be his own harshest critic. Plus,
cheap nba jerseys, a foot harm suffered while he was struck in the right foot along a Seguin slap shot during an off-day train had him hobbling noticeably.
Yet,
customized nfl jersey, he found a way to put all of that aside in what was the biggest game additionally of Boston's postseason flee. On the road, in a series knotted at one game each, Lucic understood that the victor of Game 3 would take control of the series -- at least for 36 hours.
He responded by setting up the game-opening goal on his first shift, passing to a wide-open David Krejci, who deked goalie Dwayne Roloson before shoveling the puck into the net for a 1-0 guide just 69 seconds into the game.
"It's apparently a great way to obtain the game started and that the outset goal in anybody game is mammoth,
new nhl jersey," Lucic said. "It's nice when you begin off the game like that."
It was nice for Lucic to start a game like that, too. He won a puck battle in the turn, drew two defenders to him and then bombarded a fragile pass to an unguarded Krejci. Afterward, Lucic said he identified Krejci's mallet by immediately accounting for the whereabouts of entire five Lightning defenders and then simply firing a pass in that instruction.
"I don't know how he made that pass," said Krejci, the megalopolis above that No. 1 line.
For Lucic, the outcome of the exertion was better than its artistic beg. It was a reward for playing the game the way he did during the regular season.
nhlWid=Math.random()*10000000000000000; file.write('"Today, the cardinal cause I had success was I was reserving my feet moving, straight lines and production easy melodramas,
nhl hockey jerseys," Lucic said. "No stuff who you are playing, you do that and you give yourself a contingency to have success."
Lucic helped even more in the third period, making another of the kind of simple plays that has to be the foundation of his game. His line had a good cycling shift, putting the Tampa Bay defense below duress. At the end of it Tampa Bay tried to clear the puck, but Lucic, on the way to the settle for a alteration, intercepted the puck along the boards and dumped it deep, granting Boston's third line to proceed the cycle. A few seconds afterward, defenseman Andrew Ference snuck a slapper among Roloson's pads for a two-goal lead.
Lucic did not get an help on the play, but there was no renouncing his duty for the goal.
"At his best, that namely what he does; he's physical," Krejci said. "The first goal happened because of him. He played dissimilar muscular game today and that is good apt see."
Boston adviser Claude Julien has tried to protect Lucic from some of the commentary coming his course because a subpar extravaganza this spring. His reward came last night. Lucic's game was no faultless -- he lost a few very winnable puck battles in the first time -- merely it was far closer to what the Bruins need from him whether they hope to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
"His forecheck was good, he chipped pucks in and he went after the puck aggressively," Julien said Friday. "When you see a fellow like Milan coming at you, it makes you nervous and can put you on your heels. So he established a lot of turnovers (Thursday).
"It was essential for him to be strong on it and not to lose it, which I thought he did in Game 2 a lot. He got stripped from the puck. Earlier in (Game 3), he lost a couple of battles along the boards, and I just kind of cautioned him that the biggest funds of his game is approximately winning battles. I thought he did a magnificent job of refocusing and bringing that part of his game behind to that game. I thought he was a really good player for us."
And even although there was not goal to see in the reiterate of Thursday's game membrane, Lucic was far happier with who he saw wearing the No. 17 sweater and bulling his way around the ice.
"All in all, scoring goals is great, but in the playoffs it is all about wins," Lucic said. "You have to do whatever you can to help your group get that win."Related topics articles:
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