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Lightning Overcome 2-0 Deficit to Vanquish Kings

January 15, 2020, 9:06 AM ET [5 Comments]
Sam Hitchcock
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Change is tricky to implement in real time. The Lightning came out in the first period looking complacent and the Kings jumped on that aloofness. Tampa Bay quickly trailed 2-0. But then the Lightning stabilized and quickly tied the game 2-2 as they began to use their speed to force turnovers and win races to the boards. To Los Angeles’s credit, they didn’t wilt, and both teams had their chances to win in regulation and overtime. The Lightning would claim victory in a shootout 4-3, but I was struck by a potential vulnerability in the Bolts’ defensemen’s mobility and a new look on the power play.

Lightning defensemen aren’t that mobile, so how do they succeed?
One area where opponents can potentially expose the Lightning defensive group is mobility. A fast squad that pressures the Bolts defensemen should be able to rush the outlet pass and force a turnover, especially if that team’s defensemen press the Lightning forwards along the boards. The concern is whether the Bolts defensemen have the foot speed to escape the pressuring opposing forechecker. Spoiler: Hedman and Sergachev can lead a zone exit, but the rest cannot.

On the Kyle Clifford goal, Mitchell Stephens won the faceoff and Cernak grabbed the puck and ducked behind the Lightning net. But Dustin Brown was pestering Cernak, forcing him to flick a pass up the boards to Alexander Volkov. Kings defenseman Alec Martinez stepped up and forced a turnover on the breakout. Suddenly, the Kings controlled the puck and sent it deep below the goal line. Seconds later, Clifford shot into Brown’s screen and the Kings took a 2-0 lead.



Shattenkirk, Cernak, Rutta, Coburn, and even McDonagh are not a collection of burners. So, considering their limitations in terms of carrying the puck out of the zone, how is the breakout so effective? One big reason is that the Lightning forwards do an excellent job supporting. They sink and give the defensemen a passing target, and if the puck is stripped from their defensemen, the forwards work assiduously to get it back.

The Stamkos goal was an interesting example of a successful breakout, and why lesser teams struggle to contain Tampa Bay. The Kings dumped the puck in, but not carefully enough so that a Lightning defenseman had to retrieve it. Andrei Vasilevskiy went behind his net to retrieve it instead. The puck was then flung up the boards to Tyler Johnson, with a Kings player clinging to him, stanching the easy transition. But the Lightning support was there. Rutta was underneath Johnson, and poked the puck forward, and Stamkos ambled toward the boards, digging the puck off the wall and stabbing it toward Johnson to initiate the rush that led to a goal.



With Los Angeles, unlike with a formidable team like the Capitals, the Lightning’s multi-player support just to exit their zone has a much greater chance to turn into a transition goal. The Stamkos goal was the result of poor execution by the Kings, as their positioning crumbled just as the puck reached the neutral zone. Against the Capitals, a labored breakout has a corrosive effect, sapping the forwards of their speed in the neutral zone.

This is also why the Lightning’s reorienting to play a territorial game makes a lot of sense. If the Lightning can hem opponents in their own end for long stretches of a time, their defensemen are less vulnerable to face crippling pressure in their own breakouts because the opponent is rushing to make a line change. The Lightning want to mask, or at least deflect attention away from, the fact that at least half of their defensemen can’t outskate initial F1 pressure.

On the power play, Brayden Point options as playmaker on the left circle with Stamkos as the bumper.
It was brief, but the Lightning started their first power play with Brayden Point in Stamkos’s usual spot in the left-hand circle and with Stamkos as the bumper. It’s an imaginative look that certainly changes the way a penalty kill would defend them. For starters, if Point is on the left-hand circle, his role is as the playmaker. Point’s shot would act as a skeleton key that opens up possibilities for his teammates. Point could shoot for a Killorn tip in front of the net, offer a shot-pass to Stamkos if he dives to the low-ish slot (Sedin style), or try to go for a shot far pad and let Kucherov crash the weak side. Of course, the Lightning could get nostalgic and attempt the seam pass through the middle—like in the glory days of 2014-15—if Point wants to set Kucherov up for a one-timer.

Even if Point as the playmaker on the left circle has hiccups in the near term, the Lightning should experiment with different sets. Move Kucherov off the right circle. Put Stamkos at the point. Let Killorn flash out. In the power play’s current iteration, the Lightning can be guilty of trying to force-feed Point in the slot, and a lot of bumpy power plays have to be salvaged by outstanding shots from Kucherov and Stamkos. Come playoff time, coaches will be scheming to blunt the Lightning’s shooters on the circles as much as possible, and it would be wise if the Lightning had a few different responses when that inevitably happens.
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