Flexibility is an offshoot of speed. In the case of the Lightning and Bruins, the Bolts are the faster team, which gives coach Jon Cooper a level of flexibility in how they defend. This shackled the Bruins’ top offensive players in Game 3 of the series. The Bruins couldn’t even muster an even-strength goal.

It starts with the Lightning defensemen and their audacity in confronting the Bruins’ forwards. Tampa Bay’s defensemen were aggressive stepping up in the neutral zone, which allowed them to curb the Bruins’ neutral zone pyrotechnics. Against Toronto, the neutral zone was a springboard for Boston’s transition offense and counterattacks. Last night, the neutral zone was a nightmare for the Bruins.

Boldness by the Lightning defensemen only works if support is underneath, and sure enough, the Lightning forwards were leeching onto their enemy in transition defense. In the Lightning’s own zone, it was more of the same. The defensemen were given the freedom to chase up high, pulverize the puck-carrier along the boards, and the Lightning’s wingers and centers were highly capable of collapsing in the slot and blocking passing and shooting lanes.

Tampa Bay’s wingers are having their cake and eating it. They were able to sink greedily. They could bulldoze the opponent below the goal line and along the half-wall, and because of their speed in sprinting out to the point, they were not terrorized by the Bruins defensemen. It was switching at the highest level.

The Patrice Bergeron line can strike with even a sliver of space, but Tampa Bay’s skaters off the puck were faster to indirect passes – winning the small races that define a good cycle – and able to put their sticks in passing lanes and their bodies in shooting lanes. Sometimes the Bruins, unable to crack the waves of Lightning bodies jumping in front of their shots, used acute angles as a way of trying to get the puck to the net, which allowed them a few shot attempts from around the blue paint. But Andrei Vasilevskiy was excellent.

There were gorgeous breakout passes of ten feet or less, but the secret of Tampa Bay’s success is simpler than it looks. The Lightning were fast to retrieve and their players without the puck were faster to the spots where they could provide an available passing target. There was awareness by the puck-carrier of his outlets, and the puck could pinball out of the zone before the Bruins’ F3 had even gotten comfortable. That was especially true when the Lightning exited through the middle of the ice. Sometimes, when the puck went off the wall, brute strength and a cudgel were used.

It was masterful execution, and that does not just apply to the defensive end. There was a blueprint for how to attack the Bruins entering the series: the Lightning would need snappy decision-making on breakouts and in the neutral zone, quick puck movement to disrupt the Bruins’ defensive coverage, and execution in getting bodies in front of the net and shooting from all angles. The Lightning checked all three boxes in Game 3.

Ondrej Palat’s second goal was a triumph because the puck was hammered at the point by Dan Giardi and Victor Hedman without stopping it and dusting it off. Hedman’s shot was smacked into traffic, and there was Palat cutting right through the low slot. Tampa Bay had a forward on both the near post and far post who positioned themselves for the shot-pass. The Bruins are vulnerable when they don’t have time to revert to their defensive shell and rely on their structure. Tampa Bay has been quicker with decisions, and that was true on the Anthony Cirelli goal as well.

The goal that gave the Lightning a two-goal margin came off a David Backes’ faceoff. When defenseman Kevan Miller chucked the puck out of the zone, the Lightning seized on the opportunity to counterattack. Rapid puck movement created separation and a transition opportunity. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh briskly moved the puck diagonally to Yanni Gourde to re-enter the offensive zone. This caused a gulf between Bruins forwards and defensemen. A three-on-two was developing.

Gourde was attacking off the wing, and was being defended by Bruins defenseman Torey Krug. But Alex Killorn shrewdly pushed through the middle, opening up the passing lane for Cirelli. Credit to Cirelli for the follow-up whacks.

It a delicious irony that the Lightning are dominating the boards, an area where the Bruins have flourished. This is due in part to winning the races to retrieve the puck, and also to the Lightning’s propensity to finish their checks, making the Bruins less eager to collect the puck, and sloppy on their choices of where to move it.

The forechecking and cycle from the Point and Cirelli lines were indefatigable, and the Bruins looked exhausted by the end of the game. Boston’s defensemen may not be up for the task of defending a team this skilled, physical, and fast. The dramatic impact of the Point and Cirelli lines is fortunate, because it buries the narrative of the first line collecting zero points aside from Steven Stamkos’s empty-net goal.

In Game 4, the first line will need to be effective. The Lightning can’t have Nikita Kucherov, Stamkos, and J.T. Miller contributing nothing offensively and win this series. Tampa Bay has been the better team at even strength so far, but if the Kucherov line surfaces, the Lightning may have a chance to end this series earlier than anticipated.

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