The Lightning enjoyed their California road trip, winning all three games including back-to-back contests against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday and San Jose Sharks on Saturday. I’ve scribbled down four important takeaways.

1. Anthony Cirelli was the best player on the ice against the Ducks
In a sloppy victory over Anaheim, Cirelli imposed his will at every possible opportunity. On the penalty kill he created a breakaway for himself by beating Cam Fowler one on one, but couldn’t slip a shot on his backhand through John Gibson’s five-hole. Cirelli ended another Ducks PP chance in less than 15 seconds by drawing a penalty.

Cirelli also had a large footprint at even strength. He pilfered the puck from Hampus Lindholm on an unimpeachable effort on the forecheck that saw him spin into possession of the puck before he quickly dished it to Ondrej Palat.



Cirelli also registered a goal because, as demonstrated in the Lindholm play, he thrives in areas of contact. Despite a lithe frame, Cirelli has a sophisticated understanding of leverage, and he has an extraordinary understanding of how to manipulate his opponent so that at the right moment he is in position to claim possession of the puck or make a play on the puck just as it arrives on net.

Since the Lightning’s first game against the Kings on January 14th, Cirelli has had four goals and six assists in seven games. He has been a force. His acceleration in the open ice opens up lanes for Tyler Johnson and Palat. Since that first Kings meeting, Cirelli has the fourth best expected goals per 60 minutes, trailing only Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and—surprise, surprise!—Mitchell Stephens. The way Cirelli pushes the pace on offense and gets his nose dirty in the crease makes him the posterchild for how the Lightning want their forwards to play in the postseason. That type of fearlessness in all areas of the ice will be crucial come April.

2. Box out or block the shot—make a decision
Considering the Lightning only surrendered three goals in their weekend games, it is hard to be critical. But the Ducks’ two goals from the first period both succeeded because Andrei Vasilevskiy was screened.

On the first goal, Victor Hedman struggled to defuse Rickard Rakell above the circle, leading to Rakell launching a long-distance shot on net. But Erik Cernak was the culpable party, as he allowed Jakob Silfverberg to get behind him, and then as Cernak was chasing the Ducks forward to the far post, Cernak screened Vasilevskiy right as the puck was arriving. I think Cernak wanted to box out Silfverberg all along; he just had bad timing. That is not the case on the second goal.

On the Michael Del Zotto goal, Yanni Gourde was simply careless. Carter Rowney parked his body in front of the net, and instead of trying to move him, Gourde just stood in front of him and provided a double-screen to make life difficult for Vasilevskiy.



In this instance, Gourde can’t vacillate between wanting to block the shot or box Rowney out. He stood in front of Rowney, indicating he may be thinking of stepping out and blocking the shot. But instead he was idle, as Rowney obstructed Vasilevskiy’s sightline.

3. Speed to the edges
The first time the Bolts played the Sharks, they won 7-1. Tampa Bay finished with a 2.71 expected goals for and they manufactured 33 scoring chances. So expectations for a lot of offense were high for the second meeting Saturday night. The game produced far fewer goals, but the Lightning finished with a 2.42 expected goals for and still managed to obtain 29 scoring chances. San Jose didn’t exactly slow them down; the Lightning just couldn’t squeeze those shots past Aaron Dell.

What stood out on the Steven Stamkos goal, and on the Lightning’s best shifts of the night, is their speed to the perimeter. One of the indelible memories from the Blue Jackets series is how the Lightning seemed to lose every race to the corners and boards and couldn’t win a board battle to save their life. Any zone time almost always led to a one-and-done. As the series unfolded in gruesome fashion it became painfully obvious that the Bolts’ speed went only one way and that was vertically, via the rush. This season, the Lightning have worked to demonstrate their speed on the cycle and forecheck, and they have been tremendous at creating multiple shot attempts and chances on zone opportunities.

4. Nikita Kucherov’s backhand
There’s a great line from the book 1Q84 when a pompous editor tells a writer he is working with his one guideline for writing strong fiction: “When you introduce things that most readers have never seen before into a piece of fiction, you have to describe them with as much precision and in as much detail as possible. What you can eliminate from fiction is the description of things that most readers have seen.”

It is interesting advice even if I don’t completely subscribe to it. The Kucherov backhand goals on consecutive nights shake my sense of reality and skew my perception of what is possible when a player is attacking the net on his backhand. Kucherov is the sui generis talent. Exhibiting that amount of strength and guile while moving full speed before weaponizing his backhand is remarkable stuff.



The speed of Kucherov’s release is stunning. This isn’t a work of fiction, and goals like these have been scored in the history of hockey. But artistry of this nature demands to be celebrated.

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