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Lightning Disintegrate Due to Lack of Discipline

April 17, 2018, 9:26 AM ET [44 Comments]
Sam Hitchcock
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Lightning lost last night’s game due to lack of discipline. They had four offensive-zone penalties and one Too Many Men on the Ice penalty. It was fitting that a Cedric Paquette penalty on the forecheck and the Yanni Gourde Too Many Men penalty converged in the third period to give the Devils a 5-on-3 that led to Devils defenseman Will Butcher’s tying goal. The Lightning had been tempting fate all night and this collision of carelessness was the manifestation of mental errors sinking their chances.

Despite the Lightning’s unhealthy reliance on their power play, they were also controlling the play at even strength. In the first period, they generated 19 shot attempts to the Devils’ 12, and in the second, they manufactured 14 to the Devils’ 8. In terms of Scoring Chances, they accrued two more than the Devils through two periods. But Tampa Bay has been leaning heavily on the Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, and Anton Stralman trio. The Lightning quashed five Devils power plays, not including the two-man disadvantage they subjected themselves to. It was evident by the end of the game that all of the time spent defending in their own zone had taxed the Lightning’s top minute-loggers.

Additionally, excessive time on the penalty kill saps energy from many of the Lightning’s forwards. In the third period, passes stopped connecting, and sloppiness on the Lightning’s final power play with less than three minutes left highlighted the degeneration. The Devils were the much quicker team after the game tied at 2.

It is also concerning that the Lightning were unable to score once at even strength. The Nikita Kucherov-J.T. Miller-Steven Stamkos line was so ineffective that it forced Jon Cooper to break them up, slotting Kucherov with Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat. The third line of Alex Killorn-Anthony Cirelli-Yanni Gourde, which made a strong impression in Games 1 and 2, barely registered a pulse in last night’s contest.

The best forward for the Lightning was Point. He collected five shot attempts at 5v5, four Scoring Chances, and also made great plays outside of even strength, such as his crossing pass to Paquette. (Paquette proceeded to fumble the pass, but Point still almost scored on the rebound, which was only denied by Butcher’s skate save.) Point’s explosiveness enables him to obtain any spot on the ice he wants, and the Devils have been basically helpless in slowing him down. With that type of power to create, it is no wonder Cooper thought it wise to pair him with the Lightning’s best shooter, Kucherov.

And Point’s impact at even strength is important to focus on when thinking about Game 4. The Lightning have had success when they have carried the puck in, and Point is particularly adept at gaining the zone and feeding the trailing defenseman or cutting forward.

Defenseman Victor Hedman has been an offensive catalyst for the Lightning all season, but he has been subpar by his own lofty standards in this series, as his attempts as the recipient on offensive-zone passes have been mostly punchless. In fact, it was Ryan McDonagh, not Hedman, who inserted himself most into the offense in Game 3. And on the play that injured Cory Schneider in the third period, it was Steven Stamkos’s delay after gaining the zone that allowed McDonagh to sprint through the middle and get a wide-open look on Schneider.

The Lightning need their defensemen engaged in the offense. The gaps are loose enough that the Tampa Bay defensemen need to demonstrate their versatility to attack off the transition and the cycle. In the offensive zone, the Devils need to be held accountable when they pack the area below the dots, and it is incumbent on the Lightning defensemen to do that.

Cooper clearly doesn’t trust Mikhail Sergachev, which accounts for Sergachev’s meager ice time, but by practically sidelining him from the action and playing the woeful Dan Girardi and Braydon Coburn – in aggregate – several minutes more, Cooper is avoiding using his second-most-skilled defenseman. This hurts the offense that the defensive group can contribute. Heck, even in his limited ice time, Sergachev’s stutter-step at the blue line that led him to feed Paquette in front of the net was a peek at the potential that Sergachev possesses. Hopefully, Cooper ignores the very questionable, possibly phantom call on forward Blake Coleman and gives Sergachev time with one of the triumvirate so the Lightning have one more playmaker on the ice. Sergachev can play – and looked comfortable – on the off-side, so it is not a concern if he is out there with the left-handed Hedman or McDonagh.

With zero goals from the Lightning forwards at even strength, one would think that the effort by the forwards on transition defense would have had real gusto and focus. Not so. On the game-winner by Stefan Noesen, Steven Stamkos departed for the bench, leaving four Lightning skaters to defend against Taylor Hall and one lonely weak-side Devils winger. (The two-on-four seemed so harmless that Devils forward Travis Zajac went for a change while Hall was charging up the ice.)

Instead, Miller, who is scapegoat No. 1 for blowing this game, let Hall blow by him on the perimeter, and then the gap between the Lightning’s forwards and defensemen was exploited when Hall found a seam to thread and slid a pass cross-ice to Noesen.

Was Stralman a bit too deep? Maybe. But it was inexcusable that Kucherov let that pass go through. With how much the Lightning’s top defensemen are being taxed (Stralman and McDonagh are at just under 24 minutes a game), while the Lightning’s forwards are afforded the luxury of rolling fours lines, the transition defense needs to be suffocating. Miller’s olé and Kucherov’s insouciance toward clamping down on the only Devils forward who can hurt them was mindboggling.

It was an aggravating sequence especially because goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made multiple saves on quality scoring chances. After a distressing finish to the season, Vasilevskiy has been every bit as good as the Lightning could have hoped. He seems to be moving very well laterally, his rebound control has been strong, and he is seeing the puck well. This is fortunate because the Devils are firing the puck on net every chance they get.

After three games, teams have a feel for their enemy. The Lightning know they are the better team at even strength. They know their speed on the rush is an advantage. They also know that the Devils are a one-line team, and that every time Hall is on the ice the forwards need to be exerting maximum effort to deny him the puck and close his skating and passing lanes. They know the Devils want to press them on the forecheck and shatter their sometimes vulnerable breakout. But the efficacy of the rush, transition defense, and breakout depend on the Lightning staying out of the penalty box.
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