I would be genuinely surprised if you as a sports fan were able to watch with full comprehension of the game that happened today. I know that I couldn’t and for good reason. Today we saw the return of football and this Sunday was packed with games throughout the day, with the addition of a basketball game and the baseball playoff push we have hit the sports equinox. The NHL was likely aware of this but unfortunately, instead of scheduling the game for 8:00 PM Eastern time or an, even more, strategic 9 or 10 PM schedule that would allow the NHL game to get more spotlight (only competing with Sunday Night Football and Sunday Night Baseball), the game started at 3 PM eastern time. I would like to remind you that the local fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning would likely have to make the difficult decision between their local hockey team and their local football team (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were debuting Tom Brady against the rival New Orleans Saints in a late afternoon game). I personally would have scheduled the game for 10:00 Eastern time which would have been 8:00 in Edmonton where the game was played. Regardless, Game Four was played and it again reiterated some of the points that were previously established by the common fan between these two teams.
After a scoreless first, we saw the Islanders take the first goal and it looked like they were ready to continue to chip away at the Lightning control of the series. This was far from the truth and instead only reminded us of Game Two when the Islanders scored first and then fell flat on offense for the rest of the game. This is not to take away from Brock Nelson’s heroics, as he darted past the defense to create a shooting lane by himself and then fire a shot past Vasilevskiy’s glove, a great goal to give the Islanders the early 1-0 lead. Rather this is more of a knack on the Islanders’ inability to create opportunities throughout the remainder of the game.
The response by Tampa was almost instant, as they scored two goals in less than a minute to take the lead. The first goal came from Blake Coleman making a great move on a breakaway to beat Semyon Varlamov but the goal is only a side note considering the full ice pass that Yanni Gourde gave to Coleman to set up the goal. The second goal was again a display of the Lightning passing and how it has been time and time again the best in the playoffs, with Ondrej Palat finding a fastbreak pass that had Varlamov on the ropes which made it easy to put the puck into the back of the net. The Period ended with the Lightning up 2-1 but it became clear that it was only a matter of time before they would break the game open.
Brayden Point was missing from Game Three and it became clear that the Lightning could use his playmaking ability. He again proved his scoring presence as part of the top line’s ability to once again display great passing an offense. Nikita Kucherov, who is proving to be the best player left in the playoff, brought the puck over the blue line and naturally brought multiple defenders towards him so he passed across the ice to Ondrej Palat who centered the puck to Brayden Point who didn’t need to do much other than hack at the puck to score the third goal of the Lightning.
Patrick Maroon’s empty-netter was only the icing on the cake in a rather one-sided game. The 4-1 victory wasn’t as much a shock as much as it was an unraveling of a team that has met their match. The Lightning clearly has the number of the Islanders in this series and looks ready to play in the Stanley Cup Final.
I understand that NBC hosts the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Sunday Night Football and would not want to two conflicting. At the same time, ESPN has little problem showing Monday Night Football and Monday Night Baseball at the same time, likewise, it would garner the publics attention if the game was at night when there is less to compete against. I know that there are passionate hockey fans that will watch the game anyway, but I speak for most sports fans when I say that it is hard to invest my interest in a game that is competing with a full slate of football games.
