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Wild Silence Lightning

March 8, 2019, 9:00 AM ET [7 Comments]
Sam Hitchcock
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
With the NHL playoffs a month away, it is hard not to frame everything the Lightning do in terms of how, and if, it will matter in the playoffs. Which brings us to last night, when the Lightning were shut out 3-0 against the Minnesota Wild. In terms of the regular season, it means nothing. The Presidents’ Trophy is all but assured for Tampa Bay, and this game meant far more to the Wild, who are fighting desperately to make the postseason. Still, it was hard to watch and not think about the Lightning’s relationship to space. When Tampa Bay’s puck-carriers can create separation for themselves, they are almost unstoppable.

The Lightning bludgeoned the Senators and the Jets in consecutive games because every entry was easily accessed and their interchanges with their defensemen met weak resistance. Tampa Bay’s skaters were able to skate, pass, and shoot into the lanes of their choosing. The Wild eliminated that freedom of choice. In fact, Jason Zucker’s game-winning goal provided a perfect example of how Minnesota pressured the Lightning puck-carriers, making the neutral zone and high slots a thicket of sticks.

Off a laser of a stretch pass from Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos was able to cleanly carry the puck over the blue line and even transport it to the middle of the offensive zone. But that is where he ran into a small cabal of Wild skaters ready to dispossess him of the puck. Eric Staal wielded his stick like a scythe, disrupting Stamkos from behind, and Ryan Suter and Nick Seeler were both aggressively challenging him with several stabs of the stick, hoping to pokecheck the puck away and create a turnover. They would succeed as the Wild used the takeaway to create a rush chance of their own, and Zucker snuck behind Hedman to tip in a Ryan Donato shot.



In that moment, Stamkos clearly thought he could pull and drag the puck through the Wild’s defensive coverage, and with someone of Stamkos’s talent, you want him playing with that confidence. (Granted, Stamkos nearly cost the Lightning another goal in the second period when his turnover just inside the blue line led to a Jordan Greenway two-on-one, but it was foiled by Andre Vasilevskiy.) Nevertheless, that Wild goal was just one example of many where the Wild were able to cramp the Lightning’s space. The Stamkos turnover led to a goal, but there were numerous examples of a Tampa Bay skater being swarmed by multiple bodies as he carried the puck over the blue line, often leading to a Wild takeaway.

In the playoffs, the Lightning will play against the opposition’s best players for more minutes, and that skilled opposition will be giving maximum effort. This means the Lightning will be facing smothering transition defenses and stacked neutral zones, and if the room on the rush disappears, they will need their forecheck and cycle to win the game for them. The question remains unanswered whether the Lightning forecheck can succeed against an efficient breakout that makes the placement of the dump-in paramount. And even if they do obtain possession off the forecheck, will their cycle be kept to the perimeter, or can they create chances when the opponent is not fazed by the forward-defensemen interchange?

In previous contests earlier this season, Nashville exploited these Lightning weaknesses best. That was the funny thing about last night. There were many instances where the Lightning did achieve clean entries and were able to cycle and retrieve. What Minnesota accomplished was a diluted version of the antidote for beating the Lightning. The Wild kept it tight-checking once the puck crossed into their own zone, and they received strong goaltending, managing to hold the Lightning scoreless.

In low-scoring games, the Lightning tack toward a perfectionist mindset, which can be a shortcoming of this team. Instead of Brayden Point whipping a shot off the rush from the off-slot, or Nikita Kucherov testing Devan Dubnyk from distance, their players hold onto the puck, waiting for a superior passing or shooting lane to open up. But any competent opponent could use that extra second or two to annihilate the offensive opportunity instead.

Tampa Bay’s enemies know they can’t vanquish the Lightning in a high-scoring contest. But if the Lightning rush is kept bottled up and they are forced to dump-and-chase, and if their opponent can keep in lockstep with their interchange on the cycle and keep them to the outside, this opponent has a chance to win. It is hard to imagine the Lightning winning the Cup if they do not become a formidable team in congested spaces. It is dangerous, and possibly deadly, if they become too reliant on their power play and Vasilevskiy to save them.
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