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Lightning's Perseverance and Patience Rewarded |
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An impatient child eager to unwrap his presents at the holidays may be told, “Good things come to those who wait.” At least, that is what my mother told me when she wanted me to stop badgering her. And the same could be said for Carter Verhaeghe, who finally delivered a decisive impact in his 17th NHL game, scoring his first NHL goal and notching two crucial assists as well. The Lightning trounced the Sharks 7-1 in yesterday’s game, where perseverance and patience were rewarded.
Verhaeghe arrives
Tyler Johnson was the beneficiary of the Verhaeghe boomlet, as he registered two goals off Verhaeghe’s handiwork. The first goal of the game saw Steven Stamkos and Verhaeghe get in on the forecheck after Marc-Edouard Vlasic saw the puck slip past his stick. (Mario Ferraro had tried to tip the puck to Vlasic after he fended off Stamkos’s pressure.) Vlasic’s inability to control the puck allowed Verhaeghe to read the play and have the awareness to find Johnson, who was stationed as weak side forward around the hash marks.
Verhaeghe’s work as a forechecker was not done. With the score 4-0 in the third period, he clinched the game when he stripped the puck from goaltender Martin Jones, who left his net to retrieve a dump-in by Stamkos. Not only did Verhaeghe make a nice chop to snatch possession, but his patience in passing the puck to Stamkos and avoiding a pokecheck from Vlasic, enabled Johnson to score again, this time on an empty net.
When Verhaeghe buried the Lightning’s seventh goal of the night and the first of his career, it was a welcome exclamation point to a banner night for the Lightning forward. Big picture, if Verhaeghe is able to contribute to, and not detract from, the second line, this lets Jon Cooper play Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn together on the third line.
Adoration for Killorn and Cirelli
In Pulp Fiction, Harvey Keitel’s character is a fixer, and when an unforeseen accident occurs, Keitel helps clean up the mess. Killorn and Cirelli have a similar effect when the duo is really humming. On each of the goals they generated at 5v5, the sequence started with a defensive zone faceoff—and in each case, they proved to be relentless problem-solvers.
On the Killorn goal, which pushed the lead to 2-0, they staved off a San Jose salvo, and generated a rush of their own. The wheat separated from the chaff after a failed pass in transition from Mathieu Joseph to Cirelli. The puck tottered toward the corner and Cirelli retrieved it and slid it across the ice to the far-side defenseman, Jan Rutta.
But Cirelli didn’t stay idle after that, instead darting toward the slot, despite Killorn being there. Killorn tried to bang in the rebound off the Rutta shot, but when the puck went airborne, Killorn stuffed in the rebound.
Aside from the fourth line, the Lightning have struggled to score goals in the low slot, especially on rebounds. Both Cirelli and Killorn plant themselves there and are unwavering until the puck is in the back of the net. On the Bolts’ fourth goal, Killorn and Cirelli combined to create a dazzling scoring chance for Victor Hedman.
Killorn shows patience in the middle of the ice off the entry, halting his forward movement and looking for support. Cirelli reads the action, staggers his entry, receives the pass from Killorn and has just one man to beat. Cirelli motors around Timo Meier, and has the wherewithal to inch toward the crease, which permits him to slide a pass through it.
Once again, the sequence started off as a defensive zone faceoff. Quelling chances for the opposition on offensive draws, and then demonstrating ability to strike off the rush and forecheck, Cirelli and Killorn are a force to be reckoned with.
In a game where the Point line was -5 in Corsi Plus-Minus and the fourth line was a
-6, the Cirelli line finished with a +1. There were flashes of stupendous plays from the stars—Brayden Point’s rush where he cut back and tried to beat Jones near post, the Nikita Kucherov give-and-go with Ondrej Palat, Stamkos’s first goal—but the third line is the one playing postseason hockey.
Cirelli and Killorn are defensively responsible, they can attack with speed and retrieve, and they can get ugly goals around the crease. If the rush is taken away, they can force turnovers off the forecheck and be just as dangerous. The fourth line has had a white-hot stretch, starting with the Sweden trip and Yanni Gourde’s arrival. But Cirelli and Killorn are playing terrific hockey, and they are buoying the Lightning to victories.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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