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Sabres Stifle Lightning

November 14, 2018, 11:11 AM ET [5 Comments]
Sam Hitchcock
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Last night was likely Brayden Point’s worst game of the season. He was on the ice for both goals in Tampa Bay’s 2-1 loss, and accounted for zero points. After the first period, because Brayden Point, Tyler Johnson, and Yanni Gourde were playing flat, coach Jon Cooper broke up the Alex Killorn, Anthony Cirelli, and Mathieu Joseph line for the first time this year to integrate Joseph with Point and Johnson. While the Cirelli line has been scoring consistently of late, any production the Lightning get from their third and four lines is generally a bonus. Tampa Bay depends on their first and second lines to accumulate offense, and when one line falters that is problematic. Last night, Point’s line sputtered badly.

So why did Point’s line flop, and what is the remedy? The Sabres not only scouted the Lightning, but they schemed how to disrupt their fastest line perfectly. Buffalo denied the Point line its identifiable speed through the neutral zone, and the line seemed perplexed how to respond for the rest of the game. The Sabres had one or two skaters in skating lanes when Point tried to rev up off a curl and Buffalo’s defensemen were aggressive confronting the Lightning puck-handler on entries. The Sabres relied on the knowledge that the Point line is loathe to dump and chase, and that if Buffalo’s skaters were extremely aggressive challenging these players’ time and space, they would commit turnovers instead of chucking the puck deep and triggering the forecheck. Even in the offensive zone, the Sabres’ defender was skating stride for stride with Point and Johnson, ready to jump the U-turn when it inevitably came. The Sabres were not fooled by the Volte-face, and the puck would fail to get below the circles.

Once the rush was taken away, Point & Co. languished. Since they were only tacking toward transition offense and straight-line attacks, it is not entirely surprising that adding Joseph, whose best attributes are speed in transition and straight-line attacks, did not gin up more offense at first. Cooper likely thought that by doubling down on speed with the third forward (albeit Gourde is very fast), it would overwhelm Buffalo. By the third period Point and Johnson had figured out how to utilize Joseph. Point or Johnson could heave an area pass for Joseph to chase down if they ran into a dead end. It would be initiating the forecheck by another means. And to be fair, when they finally simplified, they started generating scoring chances. Point and Joseph both came very close to scoring.

Still, for more than half the game, there was an utter refusal by the Point line to get its hands dirty below the goal line. The culmination of pigheadedness came in the second period off Point’s turnover in the offensive zone. Point had a slipshod drop pass to Joseph, and then slipped and fell when the puck tottered toward him below the dot. This offensive-zone faceplant resulted in a Conor Sheary rush and Kyle Okposo goal, which was also assisted by Victor Hedman’s lazy gap. Fortunately, Steven Stamkos’s line provided a template for how Point’s line can offer a more complex attack.

Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and J.T. Miller were by far the more versatile line last night, and that is because of puck support. The Stamkos line relied on a few passes to each other and their defenseman to open the door for an entry. Even in the offensive zone, instead of bulldozing into traffic, as Point is wont to do, the puck-handler on the Stamkos line would delay and wait for help or area-pass it below the goal line to trigger the forecheck.

If this was Point’s worst game of the season, it may have been Stamkos’s best performance, at least at even strength. He was attacking off the puck and his teammates were finding him. He looked more comfortable transporting the puck than any time this season. And while he seems incapable of finishing off rebound opportunities in the paint, he demonstrated he has an aptitude for deflections. As Stamkos ossifies, it is important to figure out how the Lightning can extract the most value out of him. It is clear he needs playmakers like Kucherov and Miller to spring him in transition, but on the cycle, aside from fanning him out to the circles as a home-plate or off-slot shooting option, he can run crossing routes as Kucherov and Miller retreat toward higher ice and fling a shot toward the net hoping for a tip.

In a way, it is a miracle that opponents are just starting to realize that preventing Point and Johnson from propelling through the neutral zone with the puck, as well as cramping their U-turn in the offensive zone, are ways to stymie their offensive momentum. It is also a good thing, because adaptability is vital in the playoffs. If the Lightning’s transition is neutralized, the Point line needs to be able to attack with puck support on a more deliberate rush. The first and second line need to be comfortable with the forecheck and cycle. Even though Victor Hedman had two costly defensive foibles last night, the Point line has the luxury of playing a lot with Hedman, who can function as a fourth forward if called upon. Only through collective action, and less individual heroics, will the Point line find power.
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