The Lightning were badly outplayed by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first period, and played only marginally better in the second although they came away with a 3-0 lead. And before a full minute had passed in the third period, Tampa Bay was up 5-0. By now everyone in the league knows the Lightning are living a charmed life, and Nikita Kucherov and Andre Vasilevskiy were able to sprinkle so much magic dust, it almost seemed a bit unfair—as if a genie has granted the team 500 wishes instead of the proverbial three. Below are my three takeaways from the 5-1 victory.

The Blue Jackets created far too many turnovers, and were the faster team on retrievals.
The Lightning forfeited the puck far too much outside of the offensive zone. Weak passes in the neutral zone were gobbled up by Columbus. The Lightning breakout was plagued by too much space between the wingers and defensemen or the center possessing the puck. The Blue Jackets were very effective at taking away the stretch pass into the neutral zone, so when the Lightning wingers leaked out, there would be a chasm between the Lightning skaters trying to exit the puck from the zone and those ready to start the attack. In the distance between, the Blue Jackets were able to pressure the puck and disrupt or intercept the pass.

To be fair, it wasn’t only an issue of shrinking the space between the puck retrievers and the forwards flying the zone. There were also bad reads by the Tampa Bay defensemen, who too often blindly flung the puck up the boards only to have a Blue Jackets skater in position to pick off the pass. To the Blue Jackets credit, they did an excellent job pressuring the defenseman retrieving and trying to complete the outlet pass.

In the first period at 5v5, Columbus generated 23 Corsi for to the Lightning’s 9. The Blue Jackets doubled the Bolts in Scoring Chances. Of course the irony is that, if it were not for Andre Vasilevskiy’s superb goaltending and the Lightning converting on the Blue Jackets’ turnovers, the score would have been much different. Nikita Kucherov is the culprit for authoring a different fate for the Lightning.

Kucherov breathes life into hockey clichés.
Hockey clichés wear thin fast. So when a broadcaster spews something to the effect of, “Better watch out, give that guy an inch of space and it is in the back of your net,” it elicits an eye roll. But with Kucherov, there is truth in it. Columbus’s Pierre-Luc Dubois is a dazzling talent who should be given the creative autonomy to try to make a play on the entry. But on the first Kucherov goal, Ryan McDonagh disposed of Dubois, and with a swift indirect pass from Mikhail Sergachev, the puck was reversed the other way. The finish by Kucherov was spectacular, though he made it seem so easy.



Same goes for the second Kucherov goal, where Braydon Coburn forced a turnover and Kucherov demonstrated his acceleration, which is one of his strengths that often goes unheralded. Kucherov had a step on Zach Werenski when he took over possession of the puck, but the precision and timing as he knifed to the inside and deposited the puck on his backhand in the net was jaw dropping.



Musings on the Lightning power play
Watching the Point laser, we were reminded in this game that the Lightning are a threat to score off the rush on the power play, and that they are not eager to simply gain the zone and set up. For the Lightning, having that capacity to strike offers a cautionary note to opponents who want to step up at the blue line and challenge. If the puck-carrier breaks through, or the Lightning work a nice give-and-go like they did with Point and Kucherov, the opponent has no backstop aside from their goaltender.

In the previous Lightning game, Canadiens coach Claude Julien asked his penalty kill to take away the pass to Brayden Point in the slot and the seam pass to Steven Stamkos, and asked Carey Price to take the shooter (Kucherov). Kucherov would register a power-play goal in that game, but it came off of a one-timer from a broken rush chance. Last night, watching the pass to Stamkos that rang off the crossbar but had a fake shot by Point in-between, the passing options for Kucherov have to be denied. Julien is right: Opposing coaches will have their penalty kills defend the Bolts’ power play going forward is by taking away passes through the middle and asking Kucherov to whip it and beat the goaltender clean from the top of the circle. Kucherov shooting in space is a nightmare, but, in theory, it is the least bad option.

The one question that lingers, and feels unexplored by opponents’ penalty kills, is how much of a threat is having either Ondrej Palat or J.T. Miller as the forward in front of the net? We know they can act as a playmaker, and they are eager to feed Point or Stamkos, but it seems entirely unclear whether they can walk off the goal line or slip a shot through from under five feet. If the penalty-killing defensemen sag too far off Palat or Miller, they are baiting the Lightning to have the puck fed to their net-front presence and attempt a shot from the low slot. But against Tampa Bay’s power play, that might be the least costly option.

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