It was an ugly performance, but the outcome eclipses the process. The Lightning won 7-5 over the Buffalo Sabres, wresting back first place from the Boston Bruins, and allowing themselves a chance to avoid playing Toronto if they can win against Carolina tonight. But there is a discomforting quality about this Lightning team that doesn’t sit quite right. The Lightning’s universe is unrealistic, fantastical, like a trust fund kid who doesn’t understand the consequences of money. Against a weak opponent like Buffalo, Tampa Bay can vomit up the puck on breakouts, concede two power-play goals, lose a two-goal lead, fail to apply any pressure on transition defense, and still come away successful. Mistakes don’t seem to have lasting consequences. This will not be true in the unsparing playoffs. The playoffs are cruel when it comes to the careless and the whimsical.

Stepping down from the soapbox, there were positives to be drawn from Friday night. The Alex Killorn-Anthony Cirelli-Yanni Gourde line exploded for three even-strength goals. Killorn and Cirelli tied for the team lead in 5v5 Scoring Chances. With the Lightning mid-change, Gourde and Killorn were the primary and secondary assists on Brayden Point’s game-winning goal. The Lightning’s putative “third line” was hounding Buffalo’s puck-carriers and winning races to the puck. The simplicity of their approach was encouraging: harass, dispossess, attack.

For Cirelli’s first goal, less than a minute into the game, he chased down Sabres center Sam Reinhart as the puck was chipped out of the zone. Reinhart had Sabres defenseman Marco Scandella on his right, but it would require him passing through the middle if he wanted to make a direct pass, and with Cirelli nipping at his heels and goading him into using that lane, Reinhart decided to toss it up the boards. The correct play would be to move the puck indirectly off the boards behind the net, but hindsight is 20/20.

Gourde was there to seize on Reinhart’s folly, and as soon as the puck floated toward Gourde, Cirelli spun off Reinhart and toward the net. Gourde found the seam and Cirelli buried the feed. Nothing too complex here. This is a textbook forecheck. But the Lightning have fast, skilled players executing on a vulnerable enemy. With Steven Stamkos injured, the Lightning have wisely experimented with distributing the talent over three lines.

If hockey in its rawest form is simply winning races and puck battles, the six “Rattles” (Races and Puck Battles forming a catchy portmanteau?) the Lightning won on the Gourde goal pushed them ahead 3-2 in the first. Poor Reinhart was again the guilty party, as his errant pass was steered by Killorn to Gourde, who powered the puck past Sabres goaltender Chad Johnson in front of the net. It was a fun sequence as one of the Sabres’ scoring lines was thoroughly dominated in the corners and along the boards, and the puck was funneled to the middle.

Finally, with the Lightning surging in their faceoff winning percentage, the tantalizing possibilities generated from set plays became exciting viewing for the audience. On Cirelli’s second goal, his won draw was made viable due to
Gourde’s stewardship in guiding the puck to Mikhail Sergachev along the point. Faceoffs are a team stat, and the wingers need to be custodians of the puck when the draw is not won cleanly.

Once the puck was moved to Sergachev, the rookie defenseman pulled Reinhart (poor guy!) across the middle, opening up a slit along the half-wall for Killorn to drop into. Killorn walloped a slap shot toward the slot, and Cirelli – slight of build but playing big in traffic – tipped the puck in for the tying goal. Husky Sabres center Ryan O’Reilly was tasked with trampling Cirelli, but failed to box out the rookie, as Cirelli was able to absorb the pressure on his back but keep his balance and still connect on the deflection.

It was on this same shift that Point scored the deciding goal. And the goal was made possible for similar reasons. Killorn won a race after Gourde gained the zone and tried to shoot from 50+ feet out. The intention of his shot is irrelevant, though, because it served as an area pass, and Killorn won the sprint. Killorn’s work below the dots is commendable on this, because he cued up a one-timer for Gourde, and once the shot missed the net, he ran a give-and-go with Point, who was the retrieving F3. Once Point slapped the puck to Killorn below the goal line, Killorn crawled out of the corner, and let Point release off Brendan Guhle. As Killorn slid up the half-wall, Point set up in a quiet area for a one-timer at the top of the right dot. And that strike by Point won the game.

Still, what is good for a yeoman like Cirelli might not be good for the elite. I don’t know if I want Kucherov and Point playing the same way as the third line. Personally, I prefer a more balanced attack, one where Tampa Bay is a little less willing to surrender the puck on the entry and be more creative on entries. The Lightning’s second-wave attack was a form of offense for much of the season.

Last night was an example of how the Lightning forecheck can be a mirror of their opponent. Against the helpless, it is unyielding and races and battles are more easily won. Against a more proficient opponent, like Boston, it can be feckless. The Lightning finished last night’s game with the advantage in shot attempts, but could have blown the game in the waning minutes if they had not been salvaged by the post. Being too eager to initiate the forecheck seems like willfully shrinking the chessboard.

It is difficult to decide whether the Lightning’s distinct advantage in assembled talent has them relying too much on the dump-and-chase. My guess is it’s a desire to set the pace and avoid the back-breaking odd-man opportunities that were precipitated by a rush that was sometimes too ambitious. But if part of the rationale is that this keeps their forward and defensemen’s gaps tighter on transition defense, and makes them less fatigued in their own-zone coverage, last night would seem to be a case study for how that is not true.

It’s a wager by the Lightning that their collective talent matters more than variability and predictability. But I suppose the playoffs will prove to be the final judge.

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